Matthew 15:12

Then came the disciples, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended, when they heard this saying? But he answered and said, Every, plant which my heavenly Father planted not, shall be rooted up.

There is a suspicion that the disciples themselves may have had some sympathy for the Jewish teaching on meats. Long afterward, Peter was able to say, "I have never eaten anything common or unclean" (Acts 10:14). They had not learned the lesson in this place yet, but they would learn eventually. They seem to be taking the Pharisees' part, ever so mildly, in this gentle remonstrance. Christ's magnificent reply showed that the Pharisees were not merely wrong, but totally so, that they would be plucked up, and that they were blind leaders of the blind, destined for the ditch.

Jesus' reply concerning the plant which the heavenly Father had not planted has an immense amount of application. It is true of all evil, of every rebellious thought, and of every institution that rises in time and by time is destroyed. In its context, the "rooting up" applies to: (1) evil men, the Pharisees in this case. Cyprian spoke of excommunicating "the crafty impostor" that he may seek again the church, "from which by divine authority he deserved to be expelled,"[6] attributing the basis of excommunication upon the words of Christ in this Matthew 15:13. (2) It applies to doctrines, teachings, and practices founded in human precepts, rather than in the word of God.