A man is not defiled by what enters his mouth, but by what comes out of it.”
Christ having proved that the disciples, in eating with unwashen hands, were not to be blamed, as transgressing the traditions and injunctions of the elders, comes here to show that they were not to be blamed, as having done any thing that was in itself evil. In the former part of his discourse he overturned the authority of the law, and in this the reason of it. Observe, I.
Commenting on Matthew 15:10-20
Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth the man,.... No sorts of meats, or drinks, or whatever is proper food for men, or manner of eating and drinking them, when moderately used, defile a man, or render him loathsome and odious in the sight God.
Verse 11. Not that which goeth into the mouth, The disciples were charged with being sinners for transgressing the tradition of the elders, in eating with unwashed hands. Christ replies, that what they should eat could not render them sinners. The man, the moral agent, the soul, could not be polluted by anything that was eaten. What proceeds from the man himself, from his heart, would defile him. Defileth.