Matthew 23:1-12

International Children’s Bible

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.