¹⁷ After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him^(A) about this parable. 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^(B) clean.)^(C)

²⁰ He went on: “What comes out of a person is what defiles them.

² One person’s faith allows them to eat anything, but another, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables.^{(A) 3} The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt^(B) the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge^(C) the one who does, for God has accepted them. ⁴ Who are you to judge someone else’s servant?^(D) To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand.

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)