¹⁸ “Are you so dull?” he asked. “Don’t you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them? ¹⁹ For it doesn’t go into their heart but into their stomach, and then out of the body.” (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods^(A) clean.)^(B)

²⁰ He went on: “What comes out of a person is what defiles them. ²¹ For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, ²² adultery, greed,^(C) malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. ²³ All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”

¹⁵ The voice spoke to him a second time, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.”^(A)

¹⁴ I am convinced, being fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean in itself.^(A) But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for that person it is unclean.^{(B) 15} If your brother or sister is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love.^(C) Do not by your eating destroy someone for whom Christ died.^{(D) 16} Therefore do not let what you know is good be spoken of as evil.^{(E) 17} For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking,^(F) but of righteousness, peace^(G) and joy in the Holy Spirit,^{(H) 18} because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and receives human approval.^(I)

¹⁹ Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace^(J) and to mutual edification.^{(K) 20} Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food.^(L) All food is clean,^(M) but it is wrong for a person to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble.^{(N) 21} It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother or sister to fall.^(O)

²² So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who does not condemn^(P) himself by what he approves. ²³ But whoever has doubts^(Q) is condemned if they eat, because their eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin.^[a]