And Peter answering said to him, Expound to us this parable.
Jesus had just told the crowd that what defiles a person comes out of him, not into him. Peter now asks Him to explain it, as if a plain statement were a riddle. Why did the chief of the apostles need it explained? And what does his question show about the way religious training blocks plain truth?
The question was not Peter's alone. Mark's account shows the whole group behind it — and this same apostle would later stumble over the lesson.
Peter said to the Lord, "Explain the parable to us" (Matthew 15:15; compare Matthew 13:36). Later, at Joppa and at Antioch, this same apostle failed to put the Lord's teaching into practice (Acts 10:14; Galatians 2:12). He was now the spokesman for the rest, all the disciples making the inquiry through him, as Mark tells us (Mark 7:17). None of them had grasped what the Lord's saying meant. But they differed in spirit from the Pharisees: they did not know, yet they wanted to know.
To call this a parable was to file it away as something obscure. That says more about the hearer than about the saying.
It is strange that he should call plain truth a "parable," that is, "a dark saying." But he was still full of hope in the first man. So the Lord's teaching no doubt sounded strange to him, and was plainly unwelcome. The Lord's answer only showed him his own moral blindness. He says, "Are you also still without understanding?"
If the saying was simple, why the confusion? One writer traces it to the will, not the mind — and not only in Peter.
Peter answers and says to Him, "Explain the parable to us." What did he mean by calling it a parable? He did not understand it himself. Here was the very chief of the twelve apostles, and he cannot understand our Lord. The Lord tells them that man is altogether wrong — his heart most of all. What comes out of him is what is evil, not what goes in. And this is a parable! The difficulty of Scripture arises less from difficult language than from unwelcome truth. Truth is contrary to people's wishes; they cannot see it, because they do not like to receive it.
A second explanation sits beside the first: not dislike of the truth, but a mind trained for years by ceremony.
The disciples do not understand, and ask for an explanation. The tradition of the elders had blinded their natural intelligence. The way of reasoning they had taken from those elders' authority had spoiled their understanding. And do we not in fact find many who believe that what enters a man's mouth defiles him? And yet these are sincere souls.
Another writer traces the same failure to how they read the law.
None of them, not even the best, saw much beyond the letter of the law with its offerings and ceremonial rules. So they had very little sense of its convicting power. They cared about what went into their mouths, so that they might be ceremonially clean. The law, if understood spiritually, concerns itself with the state of the heart.
One writer looks at what is driving Peter's question, then says where understanding really sits.
We see here a craving to hear something new, instead of a conscience before God. It is a step lower down, so to speak, in Pharisaism… And notice where "understanding" is, in God's estimate — always in the conscience. He is not producing learned men, but He is bringing sinners to heaven. His dealings are with the heart and conscience. It may be a parable or anything else. I have no "understanding" of it until my conscience is at work, and before God by faith.
Commentators differ on how the Lord's reply sounds. Some hear a rebuke; one writer weighs how He met an honest question — and what the answer proves about man.
With our gracious Lord no honest inquiry was ever rebuked or refused. With great pains He always sought to lead hesitating ones into the full light of God, for their blessing… What stronger proof could we have that it is not reformation men need, but a new creation! And what proof, too, that outward observances can never be enough on their own, because they cannot reach what is within!
- Asked — Peter speaks for the whole group; Mark shows all the disciples asking through him. They did not know, yet they wanted to know — unlike the Pharisees.
- Mislabelled — He calls a plain statement a "parable," a dark saying. The label exposes the hearer, not the saying.
- Blocked — Two things got in their way: years of ceremonial training that spoiled their reasoning, and the plain dislike of truth that cuts against our wishes.
- Relocated — Understanding, in God's estimate, sits in the conscience, not the intellect. Until conscience is at work before God, nothing is understood.
- Answered — No honest question was ever refused. He led slow learners into the light. Man's problem is inside him, and only a new creation will meet it.
But he said, Are *ye* also still without intelligence?
Jesus had just said that what defiles a person comes out of him, not into him. Peter asked Him to explain it, as if it were a riddle, and the Lord's reply asks why those closest to Him still miss His plain words.
The Lord's words carry reproach. Those who had left everything to follow Him were no further along than the crowd on this point.
Verse 16 is a rebuke. "Are you also still without understanding?" There was nothing unclear in what the Lord had been saying. It shows here that man has a radically bad nature, and the evil is not from without, but from within — from the heart.
The reproach falls hardest on the men who had been with Him longest.
There seems some reproach in this question. The Pharisees had not understood. The people did not understand. But how was it that the Lord's own company did not understand Him? He said to the people, Listen and understand. Yet the apostles also failed to understand. By His question the Lord implies that they were to blame for admitting such ignorance.
Peter called it a parable. Nothing in the saying was hard to follow. The trouble is that no one wants to hear it.
What did he mean by calling it a parable? He did not understand it himself. Here was one, the very chief of the twelve apostles. He cannot understand our Lord when He tells them that man is altogether wrong — his heart most of all. What comes out of a man makes him evil, not what goes in. And this is a parable! The difficulty of Scripture comes less from difficult language than from unwelcome truth. Truth is contrary to people's wishes; they cannot see it, because they do not like to receive it.
The cause went back further than Peter's question.
The tradition of the elders had blinded their natural intelligence. The way of reasoning they took from that authority had spoiled their understanding. And do we not find many who believe that what goes into a man's mouth defiles him? And yet they are sincere souls. They also believe that eating a certain food on one day defiles, while on another day it does not. This too comes from the tradition of the elders. Here we see the Lord's judgment against many things that keep many souls in bondage — sincere souls even, like the disciples.
Peter's question looks like eagerness to learn. One writer reads it as curiosity that leaves the conscience untouched.
We see here a hankering after hearing something new, instead of the conscience before God... They have something between the conscience and God. And notice where the "understanding," in God's estimate, is — always in the conscience. He is not making learned men, but He is bringing sinners to heaven. His dealings are with the heart and conscience. It may be a parable or anything else. I have no "understanding" of it until my conscience is at work, and before God by faith.
The teaching they found hard is the teaching that leaves nothing to repair. If the spring is bad, cleaner habits will not fix the stream.
What stronger proof could we have that it is not reformation men need, but a new creation! And what proof, too, that outward observances can never be enough on their own. They cannot reach what is inside. In answer to Peter's question the Lord Jesus sets out man's own inborn corruption. If men only realised it, surely they would stop trifling with priests and what they do. They would hurry at once to the Saviour's feet. There alone they find blessing for eternity.
The rebuke does not end the lesson. The Lord keeps teaching men who are slow to see.
Things stood in the way. Weakness of nature, fleshly assumptions and selfish interests clouded their spiritual sight. But the Patient Teacher was ready to repeat His words and to expand His teaching. Hearing them again, they might understand. Simplicity of heart was the character suited to the kingdom of God... All knowledge would stay partial until the Spirit came at Pentecost. Then the truth would no longer be told in parables.
- Rebuke. The word "also" carries the reproach: the Pharisees missed the truth, the crowd missed it, and now His own followers miss it too.
- Cause. They did not stumble over hard words. They stumbled over unwelcome truth — the verdict that man's heart is the source of evil.
- Conditioning. Years under the tradition of the elders had shaped how they thought. The same rule-keeping still holds sincere people in bondage.
- Test. Real understanding is not learning; it works in the conscience, before God, by faith.
- Remedy. The defilement is inside, so no outward practice reaches it. Man does not need reformation but new creation — and the Patient Teacher keeps explaining until it lands.
Do ye not yet apprehend, that everything that enters into the mouth finds its way into the belly, and is cast forth into the draught?
Peter asked the Lord to explain what he called a parable. The answer is plain: food takes a physical route through the body and leaves it again. So why did such an ordinary fact need saying? And what does it settle about clean and unclean food, about washed hands, and about where a person's real uncleanness starts?
The Lord's reply opens with a rebuke, because nothing He had said was obscure. One writer points out that the obstacle was never the vocabulary.
What did he mean by calling it a parable? He did not understand it himself. Here was the chief of the twelve apostles, and he cannot understand our Lord. The Lord tells them that man is altogether wrong — his heart most of all. What comes out of a man is what makes him evil, not what goes in. And this is a parable! The difficulty of Scripture comes less from hard language than from truth people do not want to hear. Truth goes against what people wish; they cannot see it, because they do not like to receive it.
One writer follows the route the Lord describes to see how far it can reach.
Whatever physical food one eats does not have any spiritual effect. It affects the stomach, and so the body's condition, but not the heart. Here the heart stands for the spiritual inner being of the person. God had made provision for physical purging (or cleansing) in the disposal of waste. But there was a far more serious issue involved in spiritual defilement.
If food never reaches the heart, a whole system of food rules loses its ground.
Leaving aside the man-made rules He had already condemned in their hearing, He wanted them to know that "whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him." Eating certain meats would not make a man morally unclean, as the Jews held. From the bondage of this tradition, the truth which came by Jesus Christ set them free.
The Lord clears away the wrong answer and names the right one. One writer sharpens the point by contrasting two visitors to the same wicked city.
This cuts at the root of all worldly religion of the flesh, which deals only with outward things and leaves the heart untouched. God works from within and deals with the conscience and heart. The real source of defilement is not a man's environment but himself. It is true that man is a fallen creature. If he goes into scenes of evil and temptation, his surroundings will stir up the lusts within him. But even so the source of the evil is from within. An angel can pass through Sodom and not be defiled, but not so Lot. There was no evil heart in the angel to answer to sin; there was in Lot.
If the evil sits inside a man, outward washing cannot reach it. One writer names what he really needs instead.
This is what both your heart and mine contains, dear reader. If the worst of these evils have not broken out, it is because of the mercy of God in the surroundings He has been pleased to set us in. But the evils are certainly within us. They are only waiting for the chance to show themselves in all their ugliness. What stronger proof could we have that it is not reformation men need, but a new creation! And what proof that outward practices can never be enough on their own, because they cannot reach what is within!
The Lord's verdict on man's nature is severe, but it is not the end of the matter.
It shows here that man has a nature that is bad at its root, and the evil is not from outside, but from within — from the heart. But the heart can be purified... It is not cleansing by blood that the Lord spoke of in John 13, when He said "You are completely clean," but cleansing by water — the new birth. "Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you."
- Plain, not puzzling. Peter called it a parable, but nothing was unclear. Scripture's hardest sayings are the ones we least want to be true.
- Follow the food. What enters the mouth goes to the stomach and out again, by God's own provision. It never reaches the heart, so it cannot stain the person.
- So the rules fall. No food makes a man morally unclean. The Lord's word freed people from a tradition that had bound them.
- So the blame moves inward. A man's surroundings do not defile him; he defiles himself. An angel could walk through the wicked city of Sodom unstained. Lot could not.
- So washing cannot help. Outward practice never reaches inside. Man does not need reform but a new creation — a heart cleansed by the word of Christ.
but the things which go forth out of the mouth come out of the heart, and those defile man.
The argument began over unwashed hands, but Jesus takes it far past table manners. He traces every defiling word back to its source — not the food a man eats, but his heart.
The mouth works in two directions. Only one of them tells you anything about the man.
The mouth both takes in and gives out. It is the avenue to the stomach and the outlet for the heart. The wise man has said: "All the toil of man is for his mouth" (Ecclesiastes 6:7). In this he spoke truly. The Pharisees of our Lord's time were more fussy about what goes into the mouth than about what comes out of it.
A change of setting cannot cure a defilement that starts inside. But a setting can draw out what is already there.
The washing of hands and cups and pots deals only with defilement from the outside. But moral defilement springs from the evil inside the heart. This cuts at the root of all worldly religion of the flesh, which deals only with outward things and leaves the heart untouched. God works from within and deals with the conscience and heart. The real source of defilement is not a man's environment but himself. It is true that man is a fallen creature. If he goes into scenes of evil and temptation, his surroundings will stir up the lusts inside him. But even then the evil comes from within. An angel can pass through Sodom and stay undefiled; Lot could not. There was no evil heart in the angel to answer to sin; there was in Lot.
The trouble is in the spring, not the stream. So a cleaner outward record puts no one in a better position.
Here we are all in the same case, whatever the apparent differences in outward life. "Every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually" describes more than the world before the flood. It is the truth about the heart of man everywhere and at all times. It is the defiled spring of everything that defiles.
A popular idea says people only need better surroundings and better training.
It is mainly the religious leaders who busy themselves with tradition. The great general snare is denying the evil of men. The deception Satan uses now is the idea that man is not so bad that moral training cannot improve him. The progress of the world is astonishing, they say. There are societies for every charitable cause and for the improvement of man. People look for the fault in a person's circumstances and surroundings instead of in the man himself... The real secret of man's deplorable condition is his heart. This affects all that comes out.
The list Jesus gives next — evil thoughts, murder, adultery, theft, false witness, slander — is not a description of criminals only.
This is what both your heart and mine contains, dear reader. If the worst of these evils have not broken out in us, we owe it to the mercy of God in the setting where He has chosen to place us. But the evils are certainly within us. They are only waiting for an opportunity to show themselves in all their ugliness. What stronger proof could we have that what men need is not reformation but a new creation!
When the disciples report that the Pharisees were offended, the answer is sharper still — and it points to the only cure.
But our Lord answers still more sternly: "Every plant that My heavenly Father has not planted shall be rooted up." There needs to be a new life from God, not an improving of the old one. A plant of heavenly origin must be planted, and the heavenly Father must do it. Every other plant shall be rooted up.
- Speech. The mouth takes in and gives out. Only what comes out reveals the man, because it comes from the heart.
- Spring. Defilement rises from inside a person, not from his surroundings. An angel walks through Sodom untouched; Lot does not.
- Sameness. Every heart in every age has the same polluted spring, whatever the outward differences.
- Snare. Satan's standing deception says man is not so bad that moral training cannot improve him. So people blame the circumstances, never the man.
- Solution. Man needs a new creation, not reformation. Only what the heavenly Father plants Himself will stand.
For out of the heart come forth evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witnessings, blasphemies;
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
these are the things which defile man; but the eating with unwashen hands does not defile man.
The Pharisees came asking about hand-washing; the Lord ends the discussion by naming what actually makes a person unclean. One writer notes that the question on the table has quietly shifted:
The Lord's subject in this saying is not the means of cleansing, but the cause of defilement. He is not speaking here about how useless ceremonial washing is, or about using water to remove moral stains; He had already told the Pharisees that. Now He teaches those with no training in the law where defilement really comes from. Cleansing assumes defilement is already there. So how does a person become unclean? Is it because polluting things from outside enter his body? The Lord declared that the inner motives behind a person's words and actions are the cause of his uncleanness.
The list of evils just before this verse is what the heart produces. Notice what the Lord does not add:
That was the public verdict. Israel and their hypocritical, self-righteous leaders could not pass it... But with His disciples He goes further. He does not only condemn outward hypocrisy; He shows what does come out of the human heart, and it was evil of every kind. Does He, who is full of love and goodness, have nothing to say about good coming from it? Not a word. These are what defile a person.
Peter asked the Lord to explain the saying, as if it were a riddle. One writer shows why plain words sounded like a puzzle:
What did he mean by calling it a parable? He did not understand it himself. Here was the chief of the twelve apostles, and he cannot understand our Lord. The Lord tells them that man is wrong through and through — his heart most of all. What comes out of a person makes him evil, not what goes in. And this is a parable! The difficulty of Scripture comes less from hard language than from truth we do not want to hear. Truth goes against what people wish; they cannot see it, because they do not like to receive it.
If defilement starts inside, rules that manage behaviour aim at the wrong target:
Man is now a corrupt creature, and his corruption passes into whatever he takes in. So holding the flesh in check is useless in God's sight, and false at its root... Man is lost. But no one fully believes this about himself until he has found Christ. He may believe he is a sinner, but does he believe he is so bad that no good toward God can be got out of him? ... Man is no longer on trial. The testing is over. God has declared that the flesh is worthless; and yet man keeps re-opening the question, instead of believing God.
Rules that manage what goes into a person did not stop with the Pharisees:
Pharisee religion washed the hands; the movement against alcohol washes the lips. But the same word of the Lord shows that both fall short... The heart, the whole spring of moral action, is corrupt before God. What a man is taints what he does. So while man's method is to cut off this and that, God's method is first of all to make the tree good.
This list is not about criminals. It describes the heart every reader carries:
This is what your heart and mine both hold, dear reader. If the worst of these evils have not broken out, that is thanks to God's mercy in the setting where He has chosen to place us. But the evils are certainly inside us, only waiting for a chance to show themselves in all their ugliness. What stronger proof could we have that men do not need reform, but a new creation!
The chapter does not stop with exposure. Straight after these words the Lord moves outside Israel:
My reader, this is your heart! Have you admitted it, bowed to it, accepted the judgment of God on it? Has it become a comfort beyond words to turn away from yourself to Him — that blessed One, whose heart is full of goodness towards you, and whose word to you is, "I cannot trust you; you may trust Me"?... It is striking that as soon as He had exposed the heart of man, the Lord left the place of boasted privilege for the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, which lay outside the region of earthly blessing.
- Source. The Lord is not asking how to get clean. He names where uncleanness starts: in the inner motives behind our words and acts.
- Verdict. What comes out of the human heart is evil of every kind, and He says not one word about good coming from it.
- Resistance. Plain words sounded like a "parable" to the disciples. Scripture is hard less because of its language than because we dislike its truth.
- Futility. Washing hands, washing lips, holding the flesh in check: outward rules cut off single acts and never reach the spring. God's way is to make the tree good.
- Remedy. This exposure proves that man needs not reform but a new creation. The One who exposes the heart then steps straight outside the place of privilege.