Matthew 23:25 - 26

25 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence.

26 Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also.

This verse is used to provide the same message as the preceding one.

Jesus uses the eating and drinking utensils in this illustration.

The inside of the cup is the place where the potion being drank is placed, not the outside. Washing the outside of the cup shows their pretended care in cleanliness is for appearance only. If they were serious about having utensils which would not taint the food and drink with contaminants they would wash the inside of the cup and dish.

But the scribes and Pharisees inwardly were full of evil, such as extortion and self-indulgence, while they made much fuss about their outward appearance being pious and sanctimonious.

Jesus touched on this same subject when he taught about our spiritual contaminants being things which came from within our hearts and minds and not the things which entered our mouth.

Read Matthew 15:1 – 20. Jesus explains the encounter with the Pharisees to His disciples in verses 17 – 20.

(Matthew 15:17 - 20[17 Do you not yet understand that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and is eliminated? 18 But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man. 19 For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. 20 These are the things which defile a man, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man.”])

A proper cleaning of the utensils take care of both the inner and the outer if the washing is done diligently.