The Meaning of Matthew 15:19 Explained

Matthew 15:19

KJV: For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies:

YLT: for out of the heart come forth evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, whoredoms, thefts, false witnessings, evil speakings:

Darby: For out of the heart come forth evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witnessings, blasphemies;

ASV: For out of the heart come forth evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, railings:

KJV Reverse Interlinear

For  out of  the heart  proceed  evil  thoughts,  murders,  adulteries,  fornications,  thefts,  false witness,  blasphemies: 

What does Matthew 15:19 Mean?

Context Summary

Matthew 15:10-20 - What Really Defiles
It is good to study our Lord's list of the sources of soul-pollution. Evil thoughts come first. We cannot prevent an evil suggestion being presented to our minds, but we can refuse to dwell on it. To resist the inclination to dwell on it strengthens us in the opposite direction; to yield to it is to commit the sin in our heart, which, in God's sight, is equivalent to the outward act. Notice that railing, that is, unkind and uncharitable speech, is in this black-list.
The heart, rather than the body, is the source of sin. Out of the heart! The body is the dial-plate on which the soul registers its improvement or deterioration. Do not find fault with your members: look to your heart and keep it beyond keeping, for out of it are the issues of life. Ask God to create in you a clean heart. See that you distinguish between the first Adam and the second. Deny what you inherit of human weakness and sin, and affirm all that is of Christ's imparting. The cross of Calvary and the uprising of the living Christ are facts of perpetual experience. [source]

Chapter Summary: Matthew 15

1  Jesus reproves the Scribes and Pharisees
7  for transgressing God's commandments through their own traditions;
10  teaches how that which goes into the mouth does not defile a man
21  He heals the daughter of the woman of Canaan,
29  and other great multitudes;
32  and with seven loaves and a few small fish feeds four thousand men

Greek Commentary for Matthew 15:19

Out of the heart []
Compare Plato. “For all good and evil, whether in the body or in human nature, originates, as he declared, in the soul, and overflows from thence, as from the head into the eyes; and therefore, if the head and body are to be well, you must begin by curing the soul. That is the first thing” (“Charmides,” 157). [source]
Thoughts [διαλογισμοὶ]
Lit., reasonings (compare Mark 9:33, Rev.), or disputings (Philemon 2:14), like the captious questioning of the Pharisees about washing hands. [source]

Reverse Greek Commentary Search for Matthew 15:19

Mark 7:22 Wickedness [πονμρίαι]
Plural. Rev., wickedness. From πονεῖν , to toil. The adjective πονμρός means, first, oppressed by toils; then in bad case or plight, from which it runs into the sense of morally bad. This conception seems to have been associated by the high-born with the life of the lower, laboring, slavish class; just as our word knave (like the German knabe from which it is derived) originally meant simply a boy or a servant-lad. As πόνος means hard, vigorous labor, battle for instance, so the adjective πονμρός , in a moral sense, indicates active wickedness. So Jeremy Taylor: “Aptness to do shrewd turns, to delight in mischiefs and tragedies; a loving to trouble one's neighbor and do him ill offices.” Πονμρός , therefore, is dangerous, destructive. Satan is called ὁ πονηρός , the wicked one. Κακός , evil (see evil thoughts, Mark 7:21), characterizes evil rather as defect: “That which is not such as, according to its nature, destination, and idea it might be or ought to be” (Cremer). Hence of incapacity in war; of cowardice ( κακία ) κακὸς δοῦλος , the evil servant, in Matthew 24:48, is a servant wanting in proper fidelity and diligence. Thus the thoughts are styled evil, as being that which, in their nature and purpose, they ought not to be. Matthew, however (Matthew 15:19), calls these thoughts πονηροί , the thoughts in action, taking shape in purpose. Both adjectives occur in Revelation 16:2. [source]
Luke 6:8 Thoughts [διαλογισμοὺς]
See on James 2:4; and Matthew 15:19. [source]
Romans 6:6 The body of sin [τὸ σῶμα τῆς ἁμαρτίας]
Σῶμα in earlier classical usage signifies a corpse. So always in Homer and often in later Greek. So in the New Testament, Matthew 6:25; Mark 5:29; Mark 14:8; Mark 15:43. It is used of men as slaves, Revelation 18:13. Also in classical Greek of the sum-total. So Plato: τὸ τοῦ κόσμου σῶμα thesum-total of the world (“Timaeus,” 31). The meaning is tinged in some cases by the fact of the vital union of the body with the immaterial nature, as being animated by the ψυξή soulthe principle of individual life. Thus Matthew 6:25, where the two are conceived as forming one organism, so that the material ministries which are predicated of the one are predicated of the other, and the meanings of the two merge into one another. -DIVIDER-
-DIVIDER-
In Paul it can scarcely be said to be used of a dead body, except in a figurative sense, as Romans 8:10, or by inference, 2 Corinthians 5:8. Commonly of a living body. It occurs with ψυχή soulonly 1 Thessalonians 5:23, and there its distinction from ψυχή rather than its union with it is implied. So in Matthew 10:28, though even there the distinction includes the two as one personality. It is used by Paul:-DIVIDER-
1. Of the living human body, Romans 4:19; 1 Corinthians 6:13; 1 Corinthians 9:27; 1 Corinthians 12:12-26. -DIVIDER-
-DIVIDER-
2. Of the Church as the body of Christ, Romans 12:5; 1 Corinthians 12:27; Ephesians 1:23; Colossians 1:18, etc. Σάρξ fleshnever in this sense. -DIVIDER-
-DIVIDER-
3. Of plants and heavenly bodies, 1 Corinthians 15:37, 1 Corinthians 15:40. -DIVIDER-
-DIVIDER-
4. Of the glorified body of Christ, Philemon 3:21. -DIVIDER-
-DIVIDER-
5. Of the spiritual body of risen believers, 1 Corinthians 15:44. -DIVIDER-
-DIVIDER-
It is distinguished from σάρξ fleshas not being limited to the organism of an earthly, living body, 1 Corinthians 15:37, 1 Corinthians 15:38. It is the material organism apart from any definite matter. It is however sometimes used as practically synonymous with σάρξ , 1 Corinthians 7:16, 1 Corinthians 7:17; Ephesians 5:28, Ephesians 5:31; 2 Corinthians 4:10, 2 Corinthians 4:11. Compare 1 Corinthians 5:3with Colossians 2:5. An ethical conception attaches to it. It is alternated with μέλη membersand the two are associated with sin (Romans 1:24; Romans 6:6; Romans 7:5, Romans 7:24; Romans 8:13; Colossians 3:5), and with sanctification (Romans 12:1; 1 Corinthians 6:19sq.; compare 1 Thessalonians 4:4; 1 Thessalonians 5:23). It is represented as mortal, Romans 8:11; 2 Corinthians 10:10; and as capable of life, 1 Corinthians 13:3; 2 Corinthians 4:10. -DIVIDER-
-DIVIDER-
In common with μέλη membersit is the instrument of feeling and willing rather than σάρξ , because the object in such cases is to designate the body not definitely as earthly, but generally as organic, Romans 6:12, Romans 6:13, Romans 6:19; 2 Corinthians 5:10. Hence, wherever it is viewed with reference to sin or sanctification, it is the outward organ for the execution of the good or bad resolves of the will. -DIVIDER-
-DIVIDER-
The phrase body of sin denotes the body belonging to, or ruled by, the power of sin, in which the members are instruments of unrighteousness (Romans 6:13). Not the body as containing the principle of evil in our humanity, since Paul does not regard sin as inherent in, and inseparable from, the body (see Romans 6:13; 2 Corinthians 4:10-12; 2 Corinthians 7:1. Compare Matthew 15:19), nor as precisely identical with the old man, an organism or system of evil dispositions, which does not harmonize with Romans 6:12, Romans 6:13, where Paul uses body in the strict sense. “Sin is conceived as the master, to whom the body as slave belongs and is obedient to execute its will. As the slave must perform his definite functions, not because he in himself can perform no others, but because of His actually subsistent relationship of service he may perform no others, while of himself he might belong as well to another master and render other services; so the earthly σῶμα bodybelongs not of itself to the ἁμαρτία sinbut may just as well belong to the Lord (1 Corinthians 6:13), and doubtless it is de facto enslaved to sin, so long as a redemption from this state has not set in by virtue of the divine Spirit” (Romans 7:24: Dickson).DestroyedSee on Romans 3:3.He that is dead ( ὁ ἀποθανὼν )Rev., literally, he that hath died. In a physical sense. Death and its consequences are used as the general illustration of the spiritual truth. It is a habit of Paul to throw in such general illustrations. See Romans 7:2. [source]

Romans 1:21 Imaginations [διαλογισμοῖς]
Rev., better, reasonings. See on Matthew 15:19; see on Mark 7:21; see on James 2:4. [source]
Philippians 2:14 Disputings [διαλογισμῶν]
See on Mark 7:21. It is doubtful whether disputings is a legitimate meaning. The kindred verb διαλογίζομαι is invariably used in the sense of to reason or discuss, either with another or in one's own mind, Matthew 16:7; Matthew 21:25; Mark 2:6; Luke 12:17. The noun is sometimes rendered thoughts, as Matthew 15:19; Mark 7:21; but with the same idea underlying it, of a suspicion or doubt, causing inward discussion. See 1 Timothy 2:8. Better here questionings or doubtings. See on Romans 14:1. The murmuring is the moral, the doubting the intellectual rebellion against God. [source]
James 2:4 Judges with evil thoughts [κριται διαλογισμων πονηρων]
Descriptive genitive as in James 1:25. Διαλογισμος — Dialogismos is an old word for reasoning (Romans 1:21). Reasoning is not necessarily evil, but see Matthew 15:19 (πονηροι — ponēroi) and Mark 7:21 (κακοι — kakoi) for evil reasonings, and 1 Timothy 2:8 without an adjective. See James 1:8; James 4:8 for διπσυχος — dipsuchos They are guilty of partiality (a divided mind) as between the two strangers. [source]

What do the individual words in Matthew 15:19 mean?

Out of for the heart come forth thoughts evil murders adulteries sexual immorality thefts false testimonies slanders
ἐκ γὰρ τῆς καρδίας ἐξέρχονται διαλογισμοὶ πονηροί φόνοι μοιχεῖαι πορνεῖαι κλοπαί ψευδομαρτυρίαι βλασφημίαι

ἐκ  Out  of 
Parse: Preposition
Root: ἐκ 
Sense: out of, from, by, away from.
καρδίας  heart 
Parse: Noun, Genitive Feminine Singular
Root: καρδία  
Sense: the heart.
ἐξέρχονται  come  forth 
Parse: Verb, Present Indicative Middle or Passive, 3rd Person Plural
Root: ἐξέρχομαι 
Sense: to go or come forth of.
διαλογισμοὶ  thoughts 
Parse: Noun, Nominative Masculine Plural
Root: διαλογισμός  
Sense: the thinking of a man deliberating with himself.
πονηροί  evil 
Parse: Adjective, Nominative Masculine Plural
Root: πονηρός  
Sense: full of labours, annoyances, hardships.
φόνοι  murders 
Parse: Noun, Nominative Masculine Plural
Root: φόνος  
Sense: murder, slaughter.
μοιχεῖαι  adulteries 
Parse: Noun, Nominative Feminine Plural
Root: μοιχεία  
Sense: adultery.
πορνεῖαι  sexual  immorality 
Parse: Noun, Nominative Feminine Plural
Root: πορνεία  
Sense: illicit sexual intercourse.
κλοπαί  thefts 
Parse: Noun, Nominative Feminine Plural
Root: κλοπή  
Sense: theft.
ψευδομαρτυρίαι  false  testimonies 
Parse: Noun, Nominative Feminine Plural
Root: ψευδομαρτυρία  
Sense: false witness, false testimony.
βλασφημίαι  slanders 
Parse: Noun, Nominative Feminine Plural
Root: βλασφημία  
Sense: slander, detraction, speech injurious, to another’s good name.