Mark 7:1-23

Living Bible

7 One day some Jewish religious leaders arrived from Jerusalem to investigate him, ² and noticed that some of his disciples failed to follow the usual Jewish rituals before eating. ³ (For the Jews, especially the Pharisees, will never eat until they have sprinkled their arms to the elbows,^[a] as required by their ancient traditions. ⁴ So when they come home from the market, they must always sprinkle themselves in this way before touching any food. This is but one of many examples of laws and regulations they have clung to for centuries, and still follow, such as their ceremony of cleansing for pots, pans, and dishes.)

⁵ So the religious leaders asked him, “Why don’t your disciples follow our age-old customs? For they eat without first performing the washing ceremony.”

^6-7 Jesus replied, “You bunch of hypocrites! Isaiah the prophet described you very well when he said, ‘These people speak very prettily about the Lord but they have no love for him at all. Their worship is a farce, for they claim that God commands the people to obey their petty rules.’ How right Isaiah was! ⁸ For you ignore God’s specific orders and substitute your own traditions. ⁹ You are simply rejecting God’s laws and trampling them under your feet for the sake of tradition.

¹⁰ “For instance, Moses gave you this law from God: ‘Honor your father and mother.’ And he said that anyone who speaks against his father or mother must die. ¹¹ But you say it is perfectly all right for a man to disregard his needy parents, telling them, ‘Sorry, I can’t help you! For I have given to God what I could have given to you.’ ^12-13 And so you break the law of God in order to protect your man-made tradition. And this is only one example. There are many, many others.”

¹⁴ Then Jesus called to the crowd to come and hear. “All of you listen,” he said, “and try to understand. ^15-16 [b]Your souls aren’t harmed by what you eat, but by what you think and say!”

¹⁷ Then he went into a house to get away from the crowds, and his disciples asked him what he meant by the statement he had just made.

¹⁸ “Don’t you understand either?” he asked. “Can’t you see that what you eat won’t harm your soul? ¹⁹ For food doesn’t come in contact with your heart, but only passes through the digestive system.” (By saying this he showed that every kind of food is kosher.)

²⁰ And then he added, “It is the thought-life that pollutes. ²¹ For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts of lust, theft, murder, adultery, ²² wanting what belongs to others, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, pride, and all other folly. ²³ All these vile things come from within; they are what pollute you and make you unfit for God.”