¹⁷ “Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? ¹⁸ But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart,^(A) and these defile them. ¹⁹ For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.^{(B) 20} These are what defile a person;^(C) but eating with unwashed hands does not defile them.”

²² “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy,^[a] your whole body will be full of light. ²³ But if your eyes are unhealthy,^[b] your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

³⁴ You brood of vipers,^(A) how can you who are evil say anything good? For the mouth speaks^(B) what the heart is full of.

²⁵ “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish,^(A) but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.^{(B) 26} Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.

²⁷ “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs,^(C) which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. ²⁸ In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.

¹⁵ Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them.”

¹⁸ “Are you so dull?” he asked. “Don’t you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them? ¹⁹ For it doesn’t go into their heart but into their stomach, and then out of the body.” (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods^(A) clean.)^(B)

²⁰ He went on: “What comes out of a person is what defiles them. ²¹ For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, ²² adultery, greed,^(C) malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. ²³ All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”

³⁴ Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are healthy,^[a] your whole body also is full of light. But when they are unhealthy,^[b] your body also is full of darkness. ³⁵ See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness. ³⁶ Therefore, if your whole body is full of light, and no part of it dark, it will be just as full of light as when a lamp shines its light on you.”

The Coming of the Kingdom of God^(A)

²⁰ Once, on being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come,^(B) Jesus replied, “The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed, ²¹ nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’^(C) because the kingdom of God is in your midst.”^[a]

⁶ The mind governed by the flesh is death,^(A) but the mind governed by the Spirit is life^(B) and peace. ⁷ The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God;^(C) it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. ⁸ Those who are in the realm of the flesh^(D) cannot please God.