¹³ “No servant can serve two masters. He will hate one master and love the other. Or he will follow one master and refuse to follow the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”

God’s Law Cannot Be Changed

¹⁴ The Pharisees were listening to all these things. They made fun of Jesus because they all loved money. ¹⁵ Jesus said to them, “You make yourselves look good in front of people. But God knows what is really in your hearts. The things that are important to people are worth nothing to God.

The Leaders Plan to Kill Jesus

⁴⁵ There were many Jews who had come to visit Mary. They saw what Jesus did. And many of them believed in him. ⁴⁶ But some of them went to the Pharisees. They told the Pharisees what Jesus had done. ⁴⁷ Then the leading priests and Pharisees called a meeting of the Jewish council. They asked, “What should we do? This man is doing many miracles. ⁴⁸ If we let him continue doing these things, everyone will believe in him. Then the Romans will come and take away our Temple and our nation.”

Jesus Accuses the Leaders

23 Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his followers. Jesus said, ² “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees have the authority to tell you what the law of Moses says. ³ So you should obey and follow whatever they tell you. But their lives are not good examples for you to follow. They tell you to do things, but they don’t do the things themselves. ⁴ They make strict rules and try to force people to obey them. But they themselves will not try to follow any of those rules.

⁵ “The reason they do good things is so other people will see them. They make the boxes^[a] of Scriptures that they wear bigger and bigger. And they make their special prayer clothes very long so that people will notice them. ⁶ Those Pharisees and teachers of the law love to have the most important seats at the feasts. And they love to have the most important seats in the synagogues. ⁷ They love people to show respect to them in the marketplaces. And they love to have people call them ‘Teacher.’

⁸ “But you must not be called ‘Teacher.’ You are all brothers and sisters together. You have only one Teacher. ⁹ And don’t call any person on earth ‘Father.’ You have one Father. He is in heaven. ¹⁰ And you should not be called ‘Master.’ You have only one Master, the Christ. ¹¹ He who serves you as a servant is the greatest among you. ¹² Whoever makes himself great will be made humble. Whoever makes himself humble will be made great.