We Are Clean Or Unclean By What We Say Not What We Eat

"Jesus called the crowd to him and said, 'Listen and understand. What goes into a man's mouth does not make him 'unclean,' but what comes out of his mouth, that is what makes him 'unclean.' " Matthew 15:10-11 (NIV)

After He had walked on the water and after He had fed the five thousand men plus women and children, Jesus, The Christ, taught His disciples and the crowd. In response to a question regarding why His disciples broke with tradition and did not wash their hands before the ate, Jesus said, it is not that which goes into the mouth that makes one unclean, but that which comes out of the mouth that makes one unclean.

In those days when they washed their hands before eating it was just a ceremonial dipping of their hands into water. There was no soap used and no serious attempt to clean their hands. The point that Jesus made was it is not what we eat that defiles us, but it is the words that we speak that defile us. We will be judged for every idle word that we speak and by our words we will be justified or condemned. (Matthew 12:36-37) We need to make sure that the words we speak give God glory and reflect positively on us.