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18 He said to them, “Are even you likewise without understanding? Do you not realize that everything that goes into a person from outside cannot defile, 19 [a](A)since it enters not the heart but the stomach and passes out into the latrine?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) 20 “But what comes out of a person, that is what defiles. 21 (B)From within people, from their hearts, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, 22 adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. 23 All these evils come from within and they defile.”

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Footnotes

  1. 7:19 (Thus he declared all foods clean): if this bold declaration goes back to Jesus, its force was not realized among Jewish Christians in the early church; cf. Acts 10:1–11:18.

15 The voice spoke to him again, a second time, “What God has made clean, you are not to call profane.”(A)

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14 I know and am convinced in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself; still, it is unclean for someone who thinks it unclean.(A) 15 If your brother is being hurt by what you eat, your conduct is no longer in accord with love. Do not because of your food destroy him for whom Christ died.(B) 16 So do not let your good be reviled.(C) 17 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of food and drink, but of righteousness, peace, and joy in the holy Spirit;(D) 18 whoever serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by others. 19 Let us[a] then pursue what leads to peace and to building up one another.(E) 20 For the sake of food, do not destroy the work of God.(F) Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for anyone to become a stumbling block by eating; 21 it is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble. 22 Keep the faith [that] you have to yourself in the presence of God; blessed is the one who does not condemn himself for what he approves. 23 (G)But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because this is not from faith; for whatever is not from faith is sin.[b]

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Footnotes

  1. 14:19 Some manuscripts, versions, and church Fathers read, “We then pursue…”; cf. Rom 5:1.
  2. 14:23 Whatever is not from faith is sin: Paul does not mean that all the actions of unbelievers are sinful. He addresses himself to the question of intracommunity living. Sin in the singular is the dreadful power described in Rom 5:12–14.