Matthew 15:10 - Meaning and Application

After showing that the disciples were not wrong for eating with unwashed hands, Christ went on to show that they had done nothing evil in itself. In the first part of his teaching, he set aside the authority of the elders’ traditions. In the second part, he showed the reason those traditions could not stand.

He then gave this teaching a solemn beginning. He called the crowd to him, because they had been kept away while he spoke with the scribes and Pharisees. Those proud men may have pushed the crowd aside, not wanting to speak with Christ in front of them. But Christ cared for the people, and once he finished with the leaders, he invited the crowd to hear him.

In this way, the poor received the gospel. Christ chose the weak things of the world, and the things people despised. Humble Jesus welcomed those whom the proud Pharisees treated with contempt. He turned away from the Pharisees, who were willful and hard to teach, and turned to the crowd, who were weak but humble and ready to learn.

To them he said, “Hear and understand.” What we hear from Christ, we must work hard to understand. Not only educated people, but ordinary people too, must apply their minds to his words. He called them to understand because this teaching went against the ideas they had learned from childhood and against customs they strongly valued. It takes serious attention to free people from wrong beliefs and habits they have long followed, because prejudice often shapes their judgment.

Christ then stated the truth in two parts, and both ran against the common teaching of that time. First, he said that what goes into the mouth does not defile a person. The kind of food we eat, or the condition of our hands, does not bring moral dirt to the soul. The kingdom of God is not about food and drink (Romans 14:17). What defiles a person is what makes him guilty before God, displeasing to him, and unfit for fellowship with him. Food does none of that, unless it is taken foolishly or in excess, for “to the pure, all things are pure” (Titus 1:15).

The Pharisees had taken ceremonial uncleanness, such as eating certain foods, far beyond what the law intended. They added their own rules and burdened God’s law with them. Christ spoke against those additions, and in doing so he prepared the way for the later end of the ceremonial law in that area. He was beginning to teach his followers to call nothing common or unclean, and if Peter had remembered this teaching when told to kill and eat, he would not have answered, “No, Lord” (Acts 10:13-15, Acts 10:28).

Second, Christ said that what comes out of the mouth defiles a person. We are made unclean, not by eating with unwashed hands, but by the words that come from an unsanctified heart, a heart not set apart for God. In this way, the mouth leads the body into sin (Ecclesiastes 5:6). In a former message, Christ had put strong weight on our words (Matthew 12:36-37), and there he warned those who challenged him. Here he warns those who criticized the disciples. It was not the disciples who defiled themselves by what they ate, but the Pharisees who defiled themselves by speaking harshly and unfairly against them.

Those who accuse others of breaking human rules often bring greater guilt on themselves by breaking God’s law against rash judgment. The people who are quickest to point out the supposed pollution of others are often the ones who pollute themselves most.

The disciples then told Jesus that the Pharisees had been offended by this teaching. They seemed to ask, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended by what you said? Did you not see that they would take it badly and turn against your teaching?” It was no surprise that the Pharisees were offended, since they were full of error and hostility, misunderstanding and malice. Sick eyes cannot endure bright light, and proud teachers hate it when people are freed from the lies that first blinded them and then controlled them.

The Pharisees, who were strict about traditions, may have been more offended than the scribes, who taught them. They may also have been troubled by Christ’s teaching about the tongue, just as they were by his teaching about washing hands. People who fight hardest for the outward forms of religion are often the ones who care least about its deeper truths.

The disciples wondered why their Master would say something he knew would cause so much offense. They were not used to hearing him speak that way. They seemed to think that if he had considered how upsetting it would be, he would not have said it. But Christ knew what he said, whom he said it to, and what effect it would have. He teaches us that, though we should be careful not to needlessly offend people in lesser matters, we must never avoid truth or duty out of fear of offense. Truth must be spoken, and duty must be done. If people take offense, that is their own fault. Scandal is often not given, but taken.

The disciples may also have stumbled over Christ’s words themselves, thinking they sounded bold and hard to match with God’s law about clean and unclean foods. So they raised the issue to understand him better. They also seemed to care about the Pharisees, even though they had argued with them. This teaches us to forgive our enemies, persecutors, and slanderers, and to seek their good, especially their spiritual good. They did not want the Pharisees to leave angry at anything Jesus had said. They were not asking him to take his words back, but hoping he might explain them more fully or put them in clearer form. Weak hearers are sometimes too anxious not to offend wicked hearers. But if we win men’s approval by hiding truth or allowing their errors and sins to go unchallenged, we are not serving Christ.

Christ then pronounced judgment on the Pharisees and their corrupt traditions. This judgment helps explain why he did not mind offending them, and why the disciples should not mind either. They were a people who hated correction and were marked out for destruction. Christ foretold two things about them.

Christ’s warning about the Pharisees and their traditions is clear: “Every plant my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up” (Matthew 15:13). This did not only include their false ideas and superstitious practices, but also their whole system, way of life, and religious setup. Their rules did not come from God’s commands. They came from pride and empty religion.

The Jewish people had once been planted like a noble vine, but they had become a degenerate plant from a strange vine. So God no longer owned them as his planting. In the visible church, it is no surprise to find plants that the Father has not planted. Whatever is truly good in the church comes from God’s own hand (Isaiah 41:19). Yet even in the best field, weeds grow, and an enemy keeps sowing tares, or false believers. What is corrupt may be allowed by God, but it is never planted by him. So we should not assume everything in the church is right just because it is there. We must test every spirit (Jeremiah 19:5; Jeremiah 23:31-32).

This also warns us about people who share the Pharisee spirit, proud, formal, and forceful. Whatever label they wear, God will not call them his planting. You can know them by their fruit. And what God has not planted, he will not protect. It will surely be rooted up. Anything that is not from God will not stand (Acts 5:38). Unsound ideas and practices will wither, be rejected by the church, and in the end be gathered for judgment. The Pharisees and their traditions are long gone, but the gospel of truth remains, and it cannot be uprooted.

Christ then speaks of the ruin of the Pharisees and of those who admired and followed them (Matthew 15:14). He tells his disciples to let them alone. That is, they should not seek their approval or fear their anger. These men were fixed in their own ideas and wanted everything their own way. So the disciples should not try to please people who do not please God (1 Thessalonians 2:15). The Pharisees were joined to their idols, the idols of their own minds, and they wanted to stay that way (Hosea 4:17; Revelation 22:11). It is a sad case when Christ tells his ministers to leave sinners to themselves.

Christ gives two reasons. First, the Pharisees were proud and ignorant, a harmful mix that often cannot be corrected (Proverbs 26:12). They were blind leaders of the blind. They knew little of God and did not understand the spiritual meaning of his law. Yet they were so proud that they thought they saw better than everyone else. They claimed the right to guide others to heaven, while they did not know the way themselves. They told everyone what to do and pushed aside anyone who would not obey them. If they had admitted their blindness and come to Christ for help, they might have received sight (John 9:40). But they would not even ask. They were sure they were guides of the blind and teachers of the foolish (Romans 2:19-20), so Christ says to let them alone. Their case was dangerous, and argument would only stir them up, not convince them.

Second, they were moving fast toward destruction, and would soon fall into it. If both the blind guide and the blind follower keep walking forward, both will fall into the ditch. This was true in the coming ruin of the Jewish nation, and it is true in eternal judgment too. The blind leaders and blind followers will perish together. Hell is the share of those who tell lies and those who love lies (Revelation 22:15). Those who deceive others will not escape God’s judgment (Job 12:16). Those who draw others into sin with cleverness and skill will not escape ruin themselves. If both fall into the ditch, the blind leaders fall first and hardest. The ruin of deceivers will not protect the deceived. Even if leaders cause people to go astray, those who follow them are still destroyed if they close their eyes to the light that could have corrected them (Isaiah 9:16). When false leaders and willing followers go down together, their shared sin makes their shared ruin worse.

After this, Christ teaches his disciples more about the truth he has already given (Matthew 15:10). He rejects people who refuse to learn, but he has compassion on those who are willing to be taught (Hebrews 5:2). If the Pharisees are offended, let them be offended. Those who love God’s law have this comfort: nothing will finally trip them up, and any offense will be removed (Psalm 119:165). The disciples wanted to understand this better (Matthew 15:15). Peter, as he often did, spoke for them. They asked, “Explain this parable to us.” What Jesus had said was plain enough, but it did not fit what they had learned before. So, though they did not argue with him, they still could not make sense of it.

Note, weak minds often turn plain truth into a puzzle and look for a knot in a bulrush. The disciples often did that, as in (John 16:17). Even a grasshopper feels like a burden to a weak stomach, and young believers cannot carry or digest strong teaching.

Where a weak mind doubts some word of Christ, an honest heart and a willing mind will look for help. The Pharisees were offended, but kept it to themselves. They hated to be corrected, so they also hated being informed. The disciples, though offended, wanted an answer, and blamed not the teaching, but their own slowness to understand.

Christ’s rebuke for their dullness and ignorance was, “Are you also still without understanding?” (Matthew 15:16). As many as Christ loves and teaches, he also corrects. People are very ignorant when they do not see that moral sins are far worse and more dangerous than ceremonial uncleanness.

Two things made their slowness worse. First, they were Christ’s own disciples. “Are you also without understanding?” You who have been brought into such close fellowship with me, are you so poor in the word of righteousness? The Lord Jesus is rightly troubled by the ignorance and mistakes of those who profess religion and enjoy church privileges.

It is no surprise that the Pharisees did not understand this teaching, since they knew nothing of the Messiah’s kingdom. But the disciples had heard of it, received it for themselves, and even preached it to others. Were they still strangers to its spirit and meaning?

Second, they had been Christ’s students for a long time. “Are you still so after being under my teaching for so long?” If they had only just begun to learn, it would have been less serious. But they had been Christ’s steady hearers for many months, and still lacked understanding. Christ expects our knowledge, grace, and wisdom to grow in proportion to the time and help we have received (John 14:9; Hebrews 5:12; Titus 3:7-8).

Christ then explained this teaching about defilement. Though he rebuked their slowness, he did not cast them off. He pitied them and taught them, as he did with the disciples after the resurrection (Luke 24:25-27). He showed, first, that we are in very little danger of being polluted by what goes into the mouth (Matthew 15:17). Gluttony, self-indulgence, and excess in eating come from the heart and do defile us, but food itself does not, as the Pharisees thought.

Whatever waste or impurity is in food, God has made a way to remove it from us. It goes into the stomach and is cast out, leaving only nourishment behind. In this way we are fearfully and wonderfully made and preserved, and our lives are held safe. The body’s ability to expel what is useless or harmful is necessary, and that is how nature helps itself.

So nothing is defiled by this process. If someone eats with unwashed hands and something unclean mixes with the food, the body separates it and casts it out. That may be a matter of cleanliness, but it is not a matter of conscience. We make a serious mistake if we treat this as religion. Christ is not condemning the act itself so much as the idea behind it, as if food made us acceptable to God (1 Corinthians 8:8). Christianity does not stand on such practices.

Second, he showed how great the danger is from what comes out of the mouth (Matthew 15:18), out of the overflow of the heart. Compare (Matthew 12:34). There is no defilement in God’s good gifts. The defilement comes from what is corrupt in us. The source of what comes out of the mouth is the heart, which is the spring of all sin (Jeremiah 8:7). The heart is desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9), because no sin in word or deed was not first in the heart.

There is the root of bitterness, which bears gall and wormwood. The sinner’s inward life is itself full of evil (Psalm 5:9). All evil speech comes from the heart and makes a person unclean. A corrupt heart produces corrupt speech.

Christ then named some of these corrupt streams. Even if not all of them come out of the mouth, they all come out of the person and show the evil working in the heart (Psalm 58:2). First are evil thoughts, sins against all the commandments. That is why David sets vain thoughts against the whole law (Psalm 119:113). These are the first children of our fallen nature, the first sign of its strength, and they most clearly show what it is.

Many sins begin and end in the heart and go no farther. Sinful imaginations and plans are evil thoughts, wicked schemes, plans, and plots against others (Micah 2:1). Second are murders, sins against the sixth commandment. These come from hatred in the heart against a brother’s life, or contempt for it. So the one who hates his brother is called a murderer at God’s bar (1 John 3:15). War begins in the heart (Psalm 55:21; James 4:1).

Third are adulteries and sexual sins, against the seventh commandment. These come from a lustful, unclean, fleshly heart. Lust is conceived there first, then it gives birth to these sins (James 1:15). Adultery begins in the heart before it appears in action (Matthew 5:28). Fourth are thefts, sins against the eighth commandment, including cheating, wrongs, robberies, and unfair dealings. The source of all these is in the heart, which is at work in greedy practices (2 Peter 2:14) and set on riches (Psalm 62:10). Achan first wanted what was forbidden, then he took it (Joshua 7:20-21).

Fifth are false witness, against the ninth commandment. This comes from a mix of lying and greed, or lying and malice, in the heart. If truth, holiness, and love ruled the inward life as God requires, there would be no false witness (Psalm 64:6; Jeremiah 9:8). Sixth are blasphemies, speaking evil of God against the third commandment, and speaking evil of our neighbor against the ninth. These come from contempt for both God and man in the heart. From there also comes the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit (Matthew 12:31-32). These are the overflow of the poison within.

These are the things that defile a person (Matthew 15:20). Sin makes the soul unclean, ugly, and hateful in the sight of a pure and holy God. It makes us unfit for fellowship with him and for the joy of the New Jerusalem, where nothing that defiles or does evil will enter. Sin stains the mind and conscience, and that makes everything else unclean too (Titus 1:15).

This defilement caused by sin was pictured by the ceremonial uncleanness that the Jewish teachers added to God’s law, though they did not understand its true meaning. See (Hebrews 9:13-14; 1 John 1:7). Because of that, these are the things we must carefully avoid, along with every approach toward them. We should not put our trust in washing hands.

Christ was not yet setting aside the law that distinguished clean and unclean foods. That change did not come until (Acts 10). He was rejecting the tradition of the elders, which had been added to that law. So he ends with this point: eating with unwashed hands, which was the issue here, does not make a person unclean. If he washes, he is no better before God. If he does not wash, he is no worse.