Evil begins in the heart and eventually leads to action

¹⁴Then he called the crowd again and said to them, “Listen to me, everyone, and understand. ¹⁵There is nothing outside of a person that can defile him by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles him.”

¹⁷Now when Jesus had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about the parable. ¹⁸He said to them, “Are you so foolish? Don’t you understand that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him? ¹⁹For it does not enter his heart but his stomach, and then goes out into the sewer.” (This means all foods are clean.) ²⁰He said, “What comes out of a person defiles him. ²¹For from within, out of the human heart, come evil ideas, sexual immorality, theft, murder, ²²adultery, greed, evil, deceit, debauchery, envy, slander, pride, and folly. ²³All these evils come from within and defile a person.”