And he said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him,
One great design of Christ's coming, was, to set aside the ceremonial law which God made, and to put an end to it; to make way for which he begins with the ceremonial law which men had made, and added to the law of God's making, and discharges his disciples from the obligation of that; which here he doth fully, upon occasion of the offence...
Commenting on Mark 7:1-23
Because it entereth not into his heart,.... Which is the seat and fountain of all moral pollution; and if that is not defiled, no other part can be; and that that is not defiled by eating and drinking, unless in case of intemperance, is clear; because food and drink do not go into it: but into the belly; it is taken in at the mouth...
Verse 18. Cannot defile him. Cannot render his soul polluted; cannot make him a sinner, so as to need this purifying as a religious observance.