New Testament in a Year
Jesus talks about dangerous teachers
23 After that, Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples. 2 He said, ‘The teachers of God's Law and the Pharisees have authority to explain the Law of Moses. 3 So you must obey everything that they teach you. But you should not do the same things that they do. They tell you what the Law of Moses teaches. But then they themselves do not obey it. 4 The rules that they give you are difficult to obey. Their rules are like heavy luggage, which they make you carry. But they themselves will not help you to carry that luggage. They will not agree to use even one finger to help you.[a]
5 The Pharisees do things only so that people will see them. They wear little boxes with words from the Bible in them, but they make them really big. They also make the tassels on their clothes very long.[b] 6 They like to sit in the important places at special meals. They also choose to sit in the best seats in the meeting places. 7 They like people to praise them in the market place. They want people to call them “Teacher.”
8 You all belong to God's family. You have only one Teacher. So nobody should call another person, “Teacher”.[c] 9 Also, do not call any other person in the world, “Father”. You have only one Father, and he is in heaven.[d] 10 And do not call each other “Leader”. You have only one Leader. He is the Messiah that God has chosen. 11 The person among you who is most important will be your servant. 12 Some people lift themselves up to be important. But God will bring them down low. Other people are humble. God will lift up those people to a good place.’
Jesus speaks against the teachers of God's Law and the Pharisees
13 Jesus spoke to the teachers of God's Law and the Pharisees. ‘It will be very bad for you,’ he said. ‘You are hypocrites! You have stopped people who wanted to go into the kingdom of heaven. It is like you have shut the door so that they cannot go in. Then you yourselves do not even go in.
14 [It will be very bad for you, teachers of God's Law and Pharisees. You are hypocrites! You take things away from women after their husbands have died. You pray for a long time so that other people will praise you. God will punish you much more than other people.][e]
15 It will be very bad for you, teachers of God's Law and Pharisees. You are hypocrites! You travel far across land and sea. You do this to make one person believe what you believe. Then, when he does believe your ideas, he becomes worse than you are. He shows that he belongs to hell even more than you do.
16 It will be very bad for you, teachers. You cannot see what is true, but you show people which way to go.[f] You say to people, “You may make a promise by the name of the temple. Then it is not a serious promise. You do not have to do it. But you may also make a promise by the gold things in the temple. Then it is a serious promise, and you must do it.” 17 This shows that you are fools. You do not understand what is true. Think about which of these is more important. Is it the gold things in the temple? Or is it the temple itself? It is the temple that makes the gold things special. 18 You also say to people, “You may make a promise by the altar in the temple. Then it is not a serious promise. You do not have to do it. But you may also make a promise by the gifts on that altar. Then it is a serious promise and you must do it.” 19 You are people who cannot understand what is true. Think about which of these things is more important. Is it the gifts on the altar? Or is it the altar itself? It is the altar that makes the gifts special. 20 Remember this: Somebody may make a promise by the name of the altar. Then he is making a promise by God's name. The altar as well as all the gifts on it are special to God. 21 Also, somebody may make a promise by the name of the temple. Then he is making a promise in the name of God, who lives there. 22 Or somebody may make a promise by heaven. Then he is making a promise by the place where God sits and rules. So he is making a promise by the name of God himself.[g]
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