Matthew 15:6 – 20 (ESV)

6 he need not honor his father.’ So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God.

7 You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said:

8 “.‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me;

9 in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’”

10 And he called the people to him and said to them, “Hear and understand:

11 it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person.”

12 Then the disciples came and said to him, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?”

13 He answered, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up.

14 Let them alone; they are blind guides. And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.”

15 But Peter said to him, “Explain the parable to us.”

16 And he said, “Are you also still without understanding?

17 Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled?

18 But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person.

19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.

20 These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.”

God wants us to give Him our hearts, and not just our lip service:

• We believe in the heart (Rom. 10:9-10)
• love from the heart (Matt. 22:37)
• sing from the heart (Col. 3:16)
• obey from the heart (Rom. 6:17; Eph. 6:6)
• give from the heart (2 Cor. 9:7).

No wonder David prayed, “Create in me a clean heart, O God!” (Ps. 51:10)

Jesus declared boldly to the multitudes that sin comes from the heart, not from the diet. It is what comes out of the mouth that defiles us, not what goes in.

Monday Morning Moment: “God wants us to give Him our hearts, and not just our lip service”