Matthew 23:13-22

Living Bible

^13-14 “Woe to you, Pharisees, and you other religious leaders. Hypocrites! For you won’t let others enter the Kingdom of Heaven and won’t go in yourselves. And you pretend to be holy, with all your long, public prayers in the streets, while you are evicting widows from their homes. Hypocrites! ¹⁵ Yes, woe upon you hypocrites. For you go to all lengths to make one convert, and then turn him into twice the son of hell you are yourselves. ¹⁶ Blind guides! Woe upon you! For your rule is that to swear ‘By God’s Temple’ means nothing—you can break that oath, but to swear ‘By the gold in the Temple’ is binding! ¹⁷ Blind fools! Which is greater, the gold, or the Temple that sanctifies the gold? ¹⁸ And you say that to take an oath ‘By the altar’ can be broken, but to swear ‘By the gifts on the altar’ is binding! ¹⁹ Blind! For which is greater, the gift on the altar, or the altar itself that sanctifies the gift? ²⁰ When you swear ‘By the altar,’ you are swearing by it and everything on it, ²¹ and when you swear ‘By the Temple,’ you are swearing by it and by God who lives in it. ²² And when you swear ‘By heavens,’ you are swearing by the Throne of God and by God himself.