Matthew 15:11 Meaning and Explanation
“Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man.”
King James Version (KJV)
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Read Full Chapter →Purity is a subject people care about deeply, and the question of where contamination actually comes from shapes whole ways of life. Jesus addresses that question in one sentence spoken to a crowd, after a dispute with visitors from Jerusalem about handwashing before meals. His answer redirects attention from the surface of a life to its source, and the disciples needed it explained twice.
Defilement runs outward from the heart. Jesus teaches the crowd that what emerges from a person's mouth carries the power to make him unclean, while unwashed hands at a meal do no such thing.
The Context of Matthew 15:11
Scribes and Pharisees from Jerusalem open the chapter by asking why Jesus' disciples transgress the tradition of the elders, since they eat without washing their hands. Jesus answers with a counter-question about a tradition that let a man withhold support from his parents by declaring it a gift, and quotes Isaiah on lips that honor God while the heart stays far away. He then calls the multitude and speaks verse 11 as a public saying. His disciples report that the Pharisees were offended, Peter asks for an explanation, and verses 17 through 20 unpack the meaning.
What Does Matthew 15:11 Mean?
Two directions of travel organize the sentence. Food travels inward through the mouth; speech travels outward through the same opening. Jesus assigns defiling power to the outward motion, and the demonstrative 'this' lands with emphasis on the thing coming out. The word 'defileth' belongs to the vocabulary of ritual purity, so he is answering his questioners in their own terms. When Peter presses him in verse 15, Jesus explains that food passes through the body, while what proceeds from the mouth comes forth from the heart. Verse 19 then lists what the heart produces: evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.
Verse 20 supplies the precise target of the saying, closing with the plain statement that eating with unwashen hands does not defile a man. The tradition of the elders had built a fence of practices around God's law, and the chapter shows that fence being used to set aside a commandment God actually gave about honoring father and mother. Jesus therefore weighs traditions by whether they serve the commandment or crowd it out. The law given at Sinai had always aimed at hearts, since Moses called Israel to circumcise the foreskin of their heart, and the prophets pressed the same point for centuries.
The Lord who diagnoses the heart is the one who came to renew it. Jeremiah promised a covenant with the law written on the inward parts, and Ezekiel promised a new heart and a new spirit given by God. Matthew 15 exposes exactly the need those promises address, since a source that produces murders and false witness needs more than a stricter routine. Later in this same chapter Jesus praises the faith of a Canaanite woman who had never kept the tradition of the elders, which shows where he actually looks. Cleansing that reaches the heart is his own gift.
Matthew 15:11 in the Original Language
koinoo (κοινόω), 'defileth' -- to make common or ordinary, and so to render a person unfit to approach holy things. The verb comes from the word for common, which explains why the dispute concerned access to God rather than hygiene.
Bible Verses Related to Matthew 15:11
“For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies:”
- Matthew 15:19
“There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him: but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man.”
- Mark 7:15
“Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men:”
- Isaiah 29:13
“And the voice spake unto him again the second time, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.”
- Acts 10:15
Where Matthew 15:11 Echoes in Scripture
Peter, who asked Jesus to explain this saying, later heard a voice on a rooftop in Joppa telling him to call nothing common that God has cleansed (Acts 10:15). The same verb stands behind 'defileth' here and 'common' there. Peter understood the vision as an instruction about people, and he went to the house of Cornelius saying God had shown him to call no man common or unclean. The lesson begun beside a Galilean crowd came to rest in an act of welcome that reshaped the early church.
How to Apply Matthew 15:11 Today
An honest use of this verse starts with self-examination instead of criticism of other people's practices. We can notice which parts of our religious life we perform well while the heart underneath goes untended, and give that heart some attention: unhurried prayer, confession, forgiveness offered to somebody we have resented for years. We can also watch the outflow, since a week of our own conversation gives a fair reading of what lives inside. Care about outward things keeps its value when it flows from a heart that God is cleansing, and it grows hollow when it stands alone.
Reflection & Prayer
Which habit of mine looks devout from outside while leaving something inside untouched, and what would it take to bring the two together? A short prayer: Lord Jesus, you see the spring my words come from. Create in me a clean heart, so that what comes out of my mouth blesses the people who hear it and honors you.