Question: Please explain Matthew 15:11.
Answer: This verse reads thus: Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man.
This response came at the end of Jesus’ answering of a challenging question which was put to Him by the Pharisees. The question was this: Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? for they wash not their hands when they eat bread. (Verse 2.)
I beg permission to transfer the discussion to the seventh chapter of Mark; the first 23 verses deal with the same thing but go into more detail. Verse 3 explains their custom of washing their hands, etc. It says, ….Except they wash their hands oft, eat not, holding the tradition of the elders. Then, verse 4 explains this a little farther by saying And when they come from the market, except they wash, they eat not…. And verse 4 continues on to say that many other things they have received to hold as washing of cups, pots, etc. In verse 5 they asked Him why His disciples didn’t observe these traditions of the elders but ate with unwashed hands.
The words when they come from the market in verse 4 throws considerable light on this point. Involved in this was the fact that God had drawn a sharp line of separation between the Jews and the Gentiles for His own particular purposes and set the seal of circumcision upon the Jews to identify them as His special people and forbade them to have any intercommunications with the Gentiles, unless the Gentile would be circumcised and become as one of them. God s principle purpose in doing this was to have a pure stock that He could set apart unto Himself and establish His covenant with, and through them bring Christ into the world. He gave them certain things to observe in order to establish in them and through them, to the world, the idea of clean and unclean, pure and impure, right and wrong principles, etc. The whole system was principally ceremonial and had nothing in it to purge the conscience and purify the heart and affections from the polluting effects of sin. It required the blood of Jesus to do this, and until His sacrifice of Himself on Calvary, the standard of holiness maintained throughout the Old Testament period was a ceremonial, external system which could not make the comers thereunto perfect. Hebrews 7:19 says, For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto God. God pronounced unto the Jews certain things which were unclean things which the Gentiles practiced and commanded them not to do those things. But the Jews had carried these things clear beyond the bounds of what God had said, through the traditions of their elders. The traditions of the elders were oral, or verbal, additions to what God had commanded, which were written commandments, and they had become as binding upon the Jews as the written commandments of God. But God never recognized them. But the Jews had carried the idea of clean and unclean to such an extent that they considered the Gentiles unclean (physically), and when they returned from the marketplace they washed their hands and arms to the elbow to cleanse them from any contamination they might have received because of brushing against a Gentile. Perhaps, physically, the Gentiles were as clean and well kept as the Jews, and such bigotry would be difficult for us to imagine, but that is the extent to which the traditions of the elders had carried it.
Mark 7:7-9 says, Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do. And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition. Then He proceeds to point out to them a particular commandment which Moses had commanded them from God which was a written commandment. Verse 10 points out a commandment Moses had given them which enjoined them to honor their parents. Honor in this text refers to assisting, maintaining, and supporting them. This meaning of the word honor here is confirmed by what He said in verse 11, that if the son should say to his parents that it was a gift that is a consecrated gift to the temple that he would be free from the obligation of helping his parents, and in verse 13 He said, Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.
Then, in verse 15 Jesus said that nothing entering into a man from without could defile him; but the things which come forth out of him are what defile him. This thought is again emphasized in verse 18. Verses 20-23 say, …That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.
The weight of Matthew 15:11 comes down on us when we look at the formal, external, outward, put-on type of religion that is prevalent in many lives in our day. It can be said in our day as Jesus said in His day, …In vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. (Matthew 15:9.) It is certainly true that God has a standard of dress and general behavior and moral conduct and uprightness for Christians to observe, and it is all found written in His Word. But let us realize that it is possible to be misled by putting all of our emphasis on externals behind which and underneath which may be bad attitudes, unkind feelings, unforgiveness, pride, bigotry, and many other things which will keep people out of heaven.
In Matthew 23:23 Jesus told the scribes and Pharisees that they paid tithes, etc., but had overlooked the weightier matters of the law: judgment, mercy, and faith. Then He concluded by saying, …These ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.” Oh, my brethren, let us govern all phases of our life by this maxim and have our lives properly balanced between the doing and the being, and have a good relationship between our inward condition of heart and our outward appearance and conduct. God have mercy on us and help us to be all He is calling us to be, inside and out.
