17. After leaving the crowd, he entered a house where his disciples asked him about that riddle.
18. He said to them, "Don’t you understand either? Don’t you know that nothing from the outside that enters a person has the power to contaminate?
19. That’s because it doesn’t enter into the heart but into the stomach, and it goes out into the sewer." By saying this, Jesus declared that no food could contaminate a person in God’s sight.
20. "It’s what comes out of a person that contaminates someone in God’s sight," he said.
21. "It’s from the inside, from the human heart, that evil thoughts come: sexual sins, thefts, murders,
22. adultery, greed, evil actions, deceit, unrestrained immorality, envy, insults, arrogance, and foolishness.
23. All these evil things come from the inside and contaminate a person in God’s sight."
24. Jesus left that place and went into the region of Tyre. He didn’t want anyone to know that he had entered a house, but he couldn’t hide.