Moses Commands Obedience

4 “So now, Israel, give heed to the statutes and ordinances that I am teaching you to observe, so that you may live to enter and occupy the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, is giving you.^{(A) 2} You must neither add anything to what I command you nor take away anything from it, but keep the commandments of the Lord your God with which I am charging you.^{(B) 3} You have seen for yourselves what the Lord did with regard to the Baal of Peor, how the Lord your God destroyed from among you everyone who followed the Baal of Peor,^{(C) 4} while those of you who held fast to the Lord your God are all alive today.

⁵ “See, just as the Lord my God has charged me, I now teach you statutes and ordinances for you to observe in the land that you are about to enter and occupy. ⁶ You must observe them and perform them, for this will show your wisdom and discernment to the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and discerning people!’^{(D) 7} For what other great nation has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is whenever we call to him?^{(E) 8} And what other great nation has statutes and ordinances as just as this entire law that I am setting before you today?

⁹ “But take care and watch yourselves closely, so as neither to forget the things that your eyes have seen nor to let them slip from your mind all the days of your life; make them known to your children and your children’s children^(F)—

Psalm 15

Who Shall Abide in God’s Sanctuary?

A Psalm of David.

The Whole Armor of God

¹⁰ Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power; ¹¹ put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil, ¹² for our^[a] struggle is not against blood and flesh but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present^[b] darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.^{[c](A) 13} Therefore take up the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to withstand on the evil day and, having prevailed against everything, to stand firm.^{(B) 14} Stand, therefore, and belt your waist with truth and put on the breastplate of righteousness^{(C) 15} and lace up your sandals in preparation for the gospel of peace. ¹⁶ With all of these,^[d] take the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one.^{(D) 17} Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.^{(E) 18} Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert and always persevere in supplication for all the saints.^{(F) 19} Pray also for me, so that when I speak a message may be given to me to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel,^{[e](G) 20} for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it boldly, as I must speak.^(H)

The Tradition of the Elders

7 Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him, ² they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them. ³ (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they wash their hands,^[a] thus observing the tradition of the elders,^{(A) 4} and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash,^[b] and there are also many other traditions that they observe: the washing of cups and pots and bronze kettles and beds.^[c])^{(B) 5} So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders but eat with defiled hands?”^{(C) 6} He said to them, “Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written,

⁸ “You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.”^(E)

⁹ Then he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition!^{(F) 10} For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must surely die.’^{(G) 11} But you say that if anyone tells father or mother, ‘Whatever support you might have had from me is Corban’ (that is, an offering to God^[d]),^{(H) 12} then you no longer permit doing anything for a father or mother, ¹³ thus nullifying the word of God through your tradition that you have handed on. And you do many things like this.”

¹⁴ Then he called the crowd again and said to them, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand: ¹⁵ there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.”^[e]

¹⁷ When he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about the parable. ¹⁸ He said to them, “So, are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile, ¹⁹ since it enters not the heart but the stomach and goes out into the sewer?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) ²⁰ And he said, “It is what comes out of a person that defiles. ²¹ For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: sexual immorality, theft, murder, ²² adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, debauchery, envy, slander, pride, folly. ²³ All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”