¹⁰ Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen and understand.

¹¹ What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them,^(A) but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them.”^(B)

¹⁴ Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. ¹⁵ Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them.” ^[16] [a]

¹⁷ After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him^(A) about this parable. 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^(B) clean.)^(C)

Peter’s Vision^(A)

⁹ About noon the following day as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof^(B) to pray. ¹⁰ He became hungry and wanted something to eat, and while the meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance.^{(C) 11} He saw heaven opened^(D) and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners. ¹² It contained all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles and birds. ¹³ Then a voice told him, “Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.”

¹⁴ “Surely not, Lord!”^(E) Peter replied. “I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.”^(F)

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

¹⁶ This happened three times, and immediately the sheet was taken back to heaven.

²⁸ He said to them: “You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with or visit a Gentile.^(A) But God has shown me that I should not call anyone impure or unclean.^(B)

²⁰ Since you died with Christ^(A) to the elemental spiritual forces of this world,^(B) why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its rules:^{(C) 21} “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”? ²² These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish^(D) with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings.^(E)