One Year Bible New Testament Sampler, Floral Paradise - Flipbook - Page 14
FEBRUARY
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MATTHEW 23:13-39
“What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you shut
the door of the Kingdom of Heaven in people’s faces. You won’t go in yourselves, and you don’t
let others enter either.*
15
“What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you
cross land and sea to make one convert, and then you turn that person into twice the child of
hell you yourselves are!
16
“Blind guides! What sorrow awaits you! For you say that it means nothing to swear ‘by God’s
Temple,’ but that it is binding to swear ‘by the gold in the Temple.’ 17Blind fools! Which is more
important—the gold or the Temple that makes the gold sacred? 18And you say that to swear ‘by
the altar’ is not binding, but to swear ‘by the gifts on the altar’ is binding. 19How blind! For which
is more important—the gift on the altar or the altar that makes the gift sacred? 20When you
swear ‘by the altar,’ you are swearing by it and by everything on it. 21And when you swear ‘by the
Temple,’ you are swearing by it and by God, who lives in it. 22And when you swear ‘by heaven,’
you are swearing by the throne of God and by God, who sits on the throne.
23
“What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you
are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens, but you ignore the more
important aspects of the law—justice, mercy, and faith. You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect
the more important things. 24Blind guides! You strain your water so you won’t accidentally swallow a gnat, but you swallow a camel!
25
“What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you
are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy—full of greed
and self-indulgence! 26You blind Pharisee! First wash the inside of the cup and the dish, and then
the outside will become clean, too.
27
“What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For
you are like whitewashed tombs—beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with dead
people’s bones and all sorts of impurity. 28Outwardly you look like righteous people, but inwardly your hearts are filled with hypocrisy and lawlessness.
29
“What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you
build tombs for the prophets your ancestors killed, and you decorate the monuments of the
godly people your ancestors destroyed. 30Then you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would never have joined them in killing the prophets.’
31
“But in saying that, you testify against yourselves that you are indeed the descendants of
those who murdered the prophets. 32Go ahead and finish what your ancestors started. 33Snakes!
Sons of vipers! How will you escape the judgment of hell?
34
“Therefore, I am sending you prophets and wise men and teachers of religious law. But you
will kill some by crucifixion, and you will flog others with whips in your synagogues, chasing
them from city to city. 35As a result, you will be held responsible for the murder of all godly
people of all time—from the murder of righteous Abel to the murder of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you killed in the Temple between the sanctuary and the altar. 36I tell you the truth,
this judgment will fall on this very generation.
23:13 Some manuscripts add verse 14, What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! You shamelessly
cheat widows out of their property and then pretend to be pious by making long prayers in public. Because of this, you will be severely
punished. Compare Mark 12:40 and Luke 20:47.
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