Matthew 15:3 - Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

By your tradition. — Better, for the sake of your tradition. Our Lord’s answer, it will be noted, is an indirect one, an argumentum ad hominem. He shows that their traditional casuistry was in direct opposition to the “commandment” of God, and the natural inference from that antagonism was that in itself, apart from the commandment, it had no binding authority as a rule of life.