Fbc Eugene

This parable is not often categorized as such, it appears more like a common riddle, see if you can catch and discern it when you read Matthew 15:1-20. Jesus, in this quick sentence about the mouth, upends the Pharisees purity traditions built around the Old Testament Law. Two ideas are intertwined in this passage—external religious traditions and internal purity. The first idea plays out in vv. 1–9, what goes into the mouth, the second central to vv. 10–20, what comes out of the mouth. Both combine into a theme crucial for the life of a Jesus follower, one must be controlled not so much by external codes of conduct forced from without but by the heart that proceeds from within. Therefore, you will need more than mouthwash!