Clean vs. Unclean: A Matter of the Heart (Matthew 15:10-20)

water pouring over hands in ritual hand washing with title "Clean vs. Unclean: A Matter of the Heart (Matthew 15:10-20)

This Sunday Chapel Time study is based on a passage from the Gospel of Matthew. A fellow missionary of mine led another study about how our words—good or bad—come from the heart. This study is going to expand on that idea.

Let’s first think about the context of this passage in Matthew 15. The Pharisees and other Jewish religious teachers were upset with Jesus and his disciples because they did not follow Jewish tradition and wash their hands before eating. The Pharisees and teachers considered hand-washing essential in keeping oneself “pure” and “clean” before God. If you ate without washing your hands, you were considered “unclean.”

But Jesus instead questions the Pharisees, asking them why their tradition is more important than God’s law. He gives examples of how the Pharisees break God’s commands so they can continue with their own man-made traditions. Jesus calls them hypocrites, saying that they don’t truly worship God with their hearts. They honor God with their words and behaviors, but only because it is tradition—not because they truly love God.

Now that we have that context, let’s go ahead and read the passage.

Observation

This is another inductive Bible study, so observation comes first. Read Matthew 15:10-20 and think about question one.

  1. Observation: Repeated words often help us understand the topic of a passage. What meaningful words do you see repeated in this passage? Who are the people mentioned here?

In this passage, Jesus is talking not only to the Pharisees, but also to a crowd of people and the disciples. He addresses everyone briefly, and then he talks to the disciples again in more detail. But what is Jesus talking about here?

The word “defile,” or “unclean” in some translations, is repeated five times. Jesus is teaching about what actually makes us unclean. Remember, this all started because the Pharisees thought that washing your hands (among other traditions) makes you clean before God. Jesus is correcting them.

We also see the word “mouth” four times and the word “blind” three times. “Mouth” is connected to how we are defiled. And “blind” is used to describe the Pharisees. 

Interpretation

Let’s think more about these aspects of the passage in question two.

2. Interpretation: Jesus and the Pharisees have different ideas about what makes someone “unclean.” How does Jesus’ idea differ from the Pharisees’? Why is this distinction significant?

So let’s actually look at verses 8-9 really quick.

“These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.”

Matthew 15:8-9 (NIV)

Jesus is quoting Isaiah 29:13 to talk about the Pharisees. They cared more about the laws and traditions that have been passed down by humans than what is actually in their hearts. They think they are worshiping God correctly and will be “clean” if they follow all their traditions and rituals. But they are neglecting their own hearts. They don’t worship with their hearts, which shows that their hearts don’t belong to God. And since their hearts don’t belong to God, they don’t care about (or understand) the teachings of Jesus, the living Son of God. They are blinded to the truth of Jesus. And what’s worse: they teach others to follow the same traditions, even though they themselves don’t understand how to truly honor God.

What Actually Defiles Us

While the Pharisees think that external things are what defiles a person, Jesus says that the things that come from the heart are what truly make you “unclean.” Evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander…all of these things come from our own hearts, not outside of us. Even the words we speak come from our hearts. These things are what defile us.

We’ve all had terrible thoughts, words, or actions that come from our hearts. When you say something cold or harsh to someone who’s frustrating you, or when you talk negatively about other people behind their back. Or even when you intentionally try to hurt someone. We all have this sin. We are not unclean because of what we touch or what we take in; we are unclean because of what we ourselves create and put out into the world.

Blind to the Truth

Jesus informs the Pharisees, the crowd, and the disciples about what actually defiles us, and even spells it out for the disciples a second time. Jesus makes it very clear here. But the Pharisees don’t listen. They can’t, and they won’t. As Jesus says in verses 13-14: “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots. Leave them; they are blind guides. If a blind man leads another blind man, both will fall into a pit.”

Now we are being told the same thing as the crowd and the disciples. We live in a different time with a different context, but we are hearing the same message. Are we going to be blind like the Pharisees? Or are we going to face what is actually defiling us—our own hearts?

Application

Take a look at question three.

3. Application: In your daily life, do you place more importance on matters of your heart? Or do you focus more on external traditions and attitudes? What practical things can you do to focus more on the things that come from your heart and less on the external things coming into your life?

We cannot change our hearts on our own. Only Jesus can do that. The best place for us to start is to pray. 

Whenever evil things show up in your words/actions/thoughts, stop and think about it. Recognize that it comes from your own heart, and that it shows how your relationship with God is right now. If your relationship is healthy, Jesus will continually make your heart clean and new. Less and less evil will come from your heart. If your relationship isn’t healthy, you will continue to be defiled by your sin.

Pray for Jesus to change your heart—to make it clean like Him. If you don’t know how to recognize these behaviors, find an accountability partner. Ask them to lovingly point out when your actions or words are displaying a sinful heart. We can’t change on our own. But through Christ and the support of His church, we can grow in our relationship with God, and live a life that is pleasing to Him.