What Defiles a Person

Matthew 15:18-20 (cf. vv. 10-20)

“But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.”

Tom Wright, Matthew for Everyone (Vol. 1)

The actions which make someone unclean, unfit for God’s holy presence, are thing like murder, adultery, fornication and the rest. The motivations which point towards such actions give themselves away in thoughts and words which come bubbling up from the depth of the personality, showing that, whatever outward purity codes the person may keep, the innermost self of that person needs to be changed if they are to be what God intended and wanted. . . . The discussion is about what God really wants his people to be like, and how this desire can be fulfilled. Here and elsewhere Jesus is addressing the deep question . . . how can the human heart be made pure? (197).

A. Orendorff

What we do is the direct result of who we are. What this means, practically speaking, is that in order to change what we do—whether that be our thoughts, intentions, words or actions—we must first change who we are—what Jesus and the rest of Scripture calls the “heart.” Matthew 15:18-20 is in many ways a reiteration of Matthew 12:33-37:

“Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit. You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil.”

The point in both passages is that evil arises not from outside the human heart but from within it. Our greatest trouble, therefore, comes not from what is external to us—things like our circumstances, relationships, and even physical suffering—but from what is internal. Dealing purely with externals, while pressing and often necessary, is not how gospel-change works. Gospel-change begins, to use Wright’s phrase, with the “innermost self.” It focuses on the “deep question” of how the human heart can be made pure. Where such a purity can be found is the focus of Matthew’s unfolding story.