101st Post Jesus on The Importance of Guarding One's Speech Con't - Matthew 15: 17 - 20.

Matthew 15: 17 - 20; Mark 7: 18 - 23. Do you not yet understand that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and is eliminated? But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man.
The last line of this passage gives a clue to whom Jesus was talking to. The group most vocal about washing and being clean were the pharisees, they tried to keep every letter of the law, and make everyone else keep it also. Jesus went to great lengths here to explain how the heart and not the food defiles a man. In the middle of this passage Jesus provides a list of sins. We will look at them here: evil thoughts, they start in the heart, because it is there where our feelings reside. When we are hurt or feel misjudged, we tend to want to strike out at whoever hurt us. Evil thoughts are the first stage of our decent into sin. Since we feel no one knows our thoughts, we are very comfortable in our planning and feel safe from reprisal. The rest of the list Jesus gave are all actions based on putting the evil, we thought into action. Murders, is pretty self explanitory so I won't go into detail. Adulteries, and fornications, on the other hand may require some explaination. Both of these deal with sexual sin, adulteries deal with sins between married folk; fornications deal with single folk. Thefts and false witness are self explanitory, but blasphemies may not be as well known. Blasphemy is false witness directed at God. You commit it by taking credit away from God, the sun comes up by itself no one put it there. That is an example of taking credit away from God. We can also commit this sin by trying to take credit for something only God can do. Such as healing, or raising people from the dead.