5 And the Pharisees and the scribes put the question to him, Why do your disciples not keep the rules of the fathers, but take their bread with unwashed hands? 6 And he said, Well did Isaiah say of you, you false ones: These people give me honour with their lips, but their heart is far from me. 7 But their worship is to no purpose, while they give as their teaching the rules of men. 8 For, turning away from the law of God, you keep the rules of men. 9 And he said to them, Truly you put on one side the law of God, so that you may keep the rules which have been handed down to you. 10 For Moses said, Give honour to your father and mother, and, He who says evil of father or mother, let him have the punishment of death: 11 But you say, If a man says to his father or his mother, That by which you might have had profit from me is Corban, that is to say, Given to God, 12 You no longer let him do anything for his father or his mother; 13 Making the word of God of no effect by your rule, which you have given: and a number of other such things you do. 14 And turning to the people again, he said to them, Give ear to me all of you, and let my words be clear to you: 15 There is nothing outside the man which, going into him, is able to make him unclean: but the things which come out of the man are those which make the man unclean. 16 [] 17 And when he had gone into the house away from all the people, his disciples put questions to him about the saying. 18 And he said to them, Have even you so little wisdom? Do you not see that whatever goes into a man from outside is not able to make him unclean, 19 Because it goes not into the heart but into the stomach, and goes out with the waste? He said this, making all food clean. 20 And he said, That which comes out of the man, that makes the man unclean. 21 Because from inside, from the heart of men, come evil thoughts and unclean pleasures, 22 The taking of goods and of life, broken faith between husband and wife, the desire of wealth, wrongdoing, deceit, sins of the flesh, an evil eye, angry words, pride, foolish acts: 23 All these evil things come from inside, and make the man unclean.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Mark 7:5-23
Commentary on Mark 7:1-13
(Read Mark 7:1-13)
One great design of Christ's coming was, to set aside the ceremonial law; and to make way for this, he rejects the ceremonies men added to the law of God's making. Those clean hands and that pure heart which Christ bestows on his disciples, and requires of them, are very different from the outward and superstitious forms of Pharisees of every age. Jesus reproves them for rejecting the commandment of God. It is clear that it is the duty of children, if their parents are poor, to relieve them as far as they are able; and if children deserve to die that curse their parents, much more those that starve them. But if a man conformed to the traditions of the Pharisees, they found a device to free him from the claim of this duty.
Commentary on Mark 7:14-23
(Read Mark 7:14-23)
Our wicked thoughts and affections, words and actions, defile us, and these only. As a corrupt fountain sends forth corrupt streams, so does a corrupt heart send forth corrupt reasonings, corrupt appetites and passions, and all the wicked words and actions that come from them. A spiritual understanding of the law of God, and a sense of the evil of sin, will cause a man to seek for the grace of the Holy Spirit, to keep down the evil thoughts and affections that work within.