Book of Common Prayer

²³ Before one came for us to believe in, the law held us in prison like slaves. We were kept there until the one to believe in should come.

²⁴ The law watched over us, as if we were children, until Christ came. Then God would put us right with himself through faith in Christ.

²⁵ But now that one has come for us to believe in, the law does not watch over us any longer.

²⁶ You are all God's children because you have believed in Christ Jesus.

²⁷ All of you who have been baptised into Christ have taken Christ as your own.

²⁸ There is no longer any difference between a Jew and one who is not a Jew; between a slave and a free man; between a man and a woman. When you are in the body of Christ Jesus, you are all alike.

²⁹ If you belong to Christ, you are Abraham's children. And if you are Abraham's children, you will receive the blessing that God has promised.

7 Then some Pharisees and scribes from Jerusalem came to Jesus.

² They saw some of the disciples eating food. They had not washed their hands before they ate. The Pharisees said that was wrong.

³ They and all the Jews keep the laws made by men. God did not give them those laws. They do not eat until they wash their hands very well.

⁴ When they come from the market, they do not eat until they have washed themselves. They also keep many other laws such as washing cups, pots, brass pans, and beds.

⁵ The Pharisees and the scribes asked Jesus, `Why do your disciples not keep the law our fathers made? Why do they eat with hands that are not clean?'

^6-7 esus said to them, `Isaiah spoke the truth about you people! You are not true to yourselves! He wrote about you this way: "These people respect me with their mouths. But their hearts are far from me. They do not mean it in their hearts when they worship me. Their teachings are only words of men."

⁸ `You do not keep the law of God, but you keep the laws made by people. Those laws are about washing pots and cups. You do many other things like that also.

⁹ `You break God's law so that you can keep your own law.

¹⁰ Moses said, "Respect your father and your mother. Anyone who says wrong things to his father or his mother will die."

¹¹ You say, "Tell your father or your mother that what you were going to give to them is Corban." (That means a gift to God.)

¹² So you stop him from doing anything for his father and mother.

¹³ You make God's law to mean nothing so that you can keep your own laws. You do many other things like that also.'

¹⁴ Then Jesus called the people to him again. He said, `Listen to me, all of you, and understand what I say.

¹⁵ What goes into a person's mouth does not make him dirty. But what comes out of a person's mouth makes him dirty.

¹⁶ Everyone who has ears to hear, listen!'

¹⁷ Jesus left the people and went into a house. His disciples asked him the meaning of the story.

¹⁸ He said, `Do you still not understand? Do you not know this? What goes into a person from the outside cannot make a person dirty.

¹⁹ It does not go into his heart, but into his stomach, and then it goes out of the body.' By saying this, Jesus meant that food does not make a person dirty.

²⁰ But he said, `What comes out of a person makes him dirty. 21,

²¹ Here is what comes from the heart: wrong thoughts, all kinds of adultery, stealing, killing, wanting things that other people have, doing very wrong things, fooling people, breaking the law, jealousy, saying wrong things about people, being proud, being foolish.

²² All these wrong things come from a person's heart and make him dirty.'

²³ Then Jesus went away to the country of Tyre and Sidon. He went into a house and did not want anyone to know he was there. But he could not hide from the people.