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

¹⁵ To the pure, all things are pure,^(A) but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure.^(B) In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted.^(C)

⁴² You are not to eat any creature that moves along the ground, whether it moves on its belly or walks on all fours or on many feet; it is unclean. ⁴³ Do not defile yourselves by any of these creatures.^(A) Do not make yourselves unclean by means of them or be made unclean by them. ⁴⁴ I am the Lord your God;^(B) consecrate yourselves^(C) and be holy,^(D) because I am holy.^(E) Do not make yourselves unclean by any creature that moves along the ground.^{(F) 45} I am the Lord, who brought you up out of Egypt^(G) to be your God;^(H) therefore be holy, because I am holy.^(I)

⁴⁶ “‘These are the regulations concerning animals, birds, every living thing that moves about in the water and every creature that moves along the ground. ⁴⁷ You must distinguish between the unclean and the clean, between living creatures that may be eaten and those that may not be eaten.^(J)’”

⁹ Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings.^(A) It is good for our hearts to be strengthened^(B) by grace, not by eating ceremonial foods,^(C) which is of no benefit to those who do so.^(D)

¹⁰ They are only a matter of food^(A) and drink^(B) and various ceremonial washings^(C)—external regulations^(D) applying until the time of the new order.

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.

¹⁷ For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking,^(A) but of righteousness, peace^(B) and joy in the Holy Spirit,^(C)

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.”