Matthew 19

⁴⁰Then Jesus went back across the Jordan to the place where John had first been baptizing, and He stayed there.

¹When Jesus had finished saying these things, He left Galilee and went into the region of Judea beyond the Jordan.

²Large crowds followed Him, and He healed them there.

¹Then Jesus left that place and went into the region of Judea, beyond the Jordan. Again the crowds came to Him and He taught them, as was His custom.

²Some Pharisees came to test Him. “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” they inquired.

²⁸When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were astonished at His teaching,

¹⁵Aware of this, Jesus withdrew from that place. Large crowds followed Him, and He healed them all,

³⁰Large crowds came to Him, bringing the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute, and many others, and laid them at His feet, and He healed them.

³¹The crowd was amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled restored, the lame walking, and the blind seeing. And they glorified the God of Israel.

³⁵Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness.

³⁶When He saw the crowds, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.

²³Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.

²⁴News about Him spread all over Syria, and people brought to Him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering acute pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed, and He healed them.

⁵⁵and ran through that whole region, carrying the sick on mats to wherever they heard He was.

⁵⁶And wherever He went—villages and towns and countrysides—they laid the sick in the marketplaces and begged Him just to let them touch the fringe of His cloak. And all who touched Him were healed.

³⁵And when the men of that place recognized Jesus, they sent word to all the surrounding region. People brought all the sick to Him

³⁶and begged Him just to let them touch the fringe of His cloak. And all who touched Him were healed.

²Some Pharisees came to test Him. “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” they inquired.

⁹where your fathers tested and tried Me, and for forty years saw My works.

⁵³As Jesus went on from there, the scribes and Pharisees began to oppose Him bitterly and to ply Him with questions about many things,

⁵⁴waiting to catch Him in something He might say.

¹⁵But Jesus saw through their hypocrisy and said, “Why are you testing Me? Bring Me a denarius to inspect.”

³¹It has also been said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’

³²But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, brings adultery upon her. And he who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

¹⁶They sent their disciples to Him along with the Herodians. “Teacher,” they said, “we know that You are honest and that You teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You seek favor from no one, because You pay no attention to external appearance.

¹⁷So tell us what You think: Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”

²³And the man said: “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for out of man she was taken.”

²⁷So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

²Male and female He created them, and He blessed them. And in the day they were created, He called them “man.”

²⁶“What is written in the Law?” Jesus replied. “How do you read it?”

¹⁵Has not the Lord made them one, having a portion of the Spirit? And why one? Because He seeks godly offspring. So guard yourselves in your spirit and do not break faith with the wife of your youth.

¹⁸The Lord God also said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make for him a suitable helper.”

²¹So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep, and while he slept, He took one of the man’s ribs and closed up the area with flesh.

²²And from the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man, He made a woman and brought her to him.

⁴The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife.

²But because there is so much sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife, and each woman her own husband.

³¹“For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”

⁵But Jesus told them, “Moses wrote this commandment for you because of your hardness of heart.

⁶However, from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’

¹⁶Or don’t you know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.”

⁹Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.”

⁴Marriage should be honored by all and the marriage bed kept undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterers.

²For instance, a married woman is bound by law to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is released from the law of marriage.

¹⁰To the married I give this command (not I, but the Lord): A wife must not separate from her husband.

¹¹But if she does, she must remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband. And a husband must not divorce his wife.

²⁸In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.

¹⁴Yet you ask, “Why?” It is because the Lord has been a witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have broken faith, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant.

¹If a man marries a woman, but she becomes displeasing to him because he finds some indecency in her, he may write her a certificate of divorce, hand it to her, and send her away from his house.

²If, after leaving his house, she goes and becomes another man’s wife,

³¹It has also been said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’

⁴They answered, “Moses permitted a man to write his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away.”

¹⁶“For I hate divorce,” says the Lord, the God of Israel. “He who divorces his wife covers his garment with violence,” says the Lord of Hosts. So guard yourselves in your spirit and do not break faith.

¹⁹Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and was unwilling to disgrace her publicly, he resolved to divorce her quietly.

⁸She saw that because faithless Israel had committed adultery, I gave her a certificate of divorce and sent her away. Yet that unfaithful sister Judah had no fear and prostituted herself as well.

¹³And this is another thing you do: You cover the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping and groaning, because He no longer regards your offerings or receives them gladly from your hands.

¹⁴Yet you ask, “Why?” It is because the Lord has been a witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have broken faith, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant.

²⁴For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.

¹²They made their hearts like flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the Lord of Hosts had sent by His Spirit through the earlier prophets. Therefore great anger came from the Lord of Hosts.

¹⁶This is what the Lord says: “Stand at the crossroads and look. Ask for the ancient paths: ‘Where is the good way?’ Then walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it!’

⁵But Jesus told them, “Moses wrote this commandment for you because of your hardness of heart.

¹⁵“Let it be so now,” Jesus replied. “It is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness in this way.” Then John permitted Him.

³²But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, brings adultery upon her. And he who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

¹⁸Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery, and he who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

³⁹A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is free to marry anyone she wishes, as long as he belongs to the Lord.

¹⁰To the married I give this command (not I, but the Lord): A wife must not separate from her husband.

¹¹But if she does, she must remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband. And a husband must not divorce his wife.

¹¹So He told them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her.

¹²And if a woman divorces her husband and marries another man, she commits adultery.”

²For instance, a married woman is bound by law to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is released from the law of marriage.

³So then, if she is joined to another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law and is not an adulteress if she marries another man.

³²I want you to be free from concern. The unmarried man is concerned about the work of the Lord, how he can please the Lord.

³³But the married man is concerned about the affairs of this world, how he can please his wife,

⁸Now to the unmarried and widows I say this: It is good for them to remain unmarried, as I am.

¹³A foolish son is his father’s ruin, and a quarrelsome wife is like a constant dripping.

¹⁴Houses and wealth are inherited from fathers, but a prudent wife is from the Lord.

¹Now for the matters you wrote about: It is good to abstain from sexual relations.

²But because there is so much sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife, and each woman her own husband.

⁹Better to live on a corner of the roof than to share a house with a quarrelsome wife.

³⁹A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is free to marry anyone she wishes, as long as he belongs to the Lord.

⁴⁰In my judgment, however, she is happier if she remains as she is. And I think that I too have the Spirit of God.

¹⁷Regardless, each one should lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him and to which God has called him. This is what I prescribe in all the churches.

¹¹He replied, “The knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them.

²But because there is so much sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife, and each woman her own husband.

³⁵I am saying this for your own good, not to restrict you, but in order to promote proper decorum and undivided devotion to the Lord.

⁷I wish that all men were as I am. But each man has his own gift from God; one has this gift, another has that.

⁸Now to the unmarried and widows I say this: It is good for them to remain unmarried, as I am.

³²I want you to be free from concern. The unmarried man is concerned about the work of the Lord, how he can please the Lord.

³³But the married man is concerned about the affairs of this world, how he can please his wife,

⁵Have we no right to take along a believing wife, as do the other apostles and the Lord’s brothers and Cephas?

³Let no foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord say, “The Lord will utterly exclude me from His people.” And let the eunuch not say, “I am but a dry tree.”

⁴For this is what the Lord says: “To the eunuchs who keep My Sabbaths, who choose what pleases Me and hold fast to My covenant—

⁷And some of your descendants, your own flesh and blood, will be taken away to be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.”

¹⁵But I have not used any of these rights. And I am not writing this to suggest that something be done for me. Indeed, I would rather die than let anyone nullify my boast.

¹³Now people were bringing the little children to Jesus for Him to place His hands on them, and the disciples rebuked those who brought them.

¹⁴But when Jesus saw this, He was indignant and told them, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not hinder them! For the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.

¹⁵Now people were even bringing their babies to Jesus for Him to place His hands on them. And when the disciples saw this, they rebuked those who brought them.

¹⁶But Jesus called the children to Him and said, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not hinder them! For the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.

²Jesus invited a little child to stand among them.

³“Truly I tell you,” He said, “unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

³⁹This promise belongs to you and your children and to all who are far off—to all whom the Lord our God will call to Himself.”

¹⁴For the unbelieving husband is sanctified through his believing wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified through her believing husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but now they are holy.

²⁴Once she had weaned him, Hannah took the boy with her, along with a three-year-old bull, an ephah of flour, and a skin of wine. Though the boy was still young, she brought him to the house of the Lord at Shiloh.

³“Truly I tell you,” He said, “unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

¹⁶But Jesus called the children to Him and said, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not hinder them! For the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.

¹⁷Truly I tell you, anyone who does not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”

²⁰Brothers, stop thinking like children. In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be mature.

¹⁴But when Jesus saw this, He was indignant and told them, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not hinder them! For the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.

²⁵At that time Jesus declared, “I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because You have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.

¹Rid yourselves, therefore, of all malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander.

²Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation,

¹⁶And He took the children in His arms, placed His hands on them, and blessed them.

¹⁴For the unbelieving husband is sanctified through his believing wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified through her believing husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but now they are holy.

¹¹He tends His flock like a shepherd; He gathers the lambs in His arms and carries them close to His heart. He gently leads the nursing ewes.

¹⁵From infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

¹⁷As Jesus started on His way, a man ran up and knelt before Him. “Good Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

¹⁸“Why do you call Me good?” Jesus replied. “No one is good except God alone.

¹⁵that everyone who believes in Him may have eternal life.

¹⁸Then a certain ruler asked Him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

¹⁹“Why do you call Me good?” Jesus replied. “No one is good except God alone.

²¹keep yourselves in the love of God as you await the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you eternal life.

⁴⁶And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

²And this is the life that was revealed; we have seen it and testified to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us.

⁵Keep My statutes and My judgments, for the man who does these things will live by them. I am the Lord.

¹¹Now it is clear that no one is justified before God by the law, because, “The righteous will live by faith.”

¹²The law, however, is not based on faith; on the contrary, “The man who does these things will live by them.”

²⁶“What is written in the Law?” Jesus replied. “How do you read it?”

²⁷He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’ and ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

⁵For concerning the righteousness that is by the law, Moses writes: “The man who does these things will live by them.”

²There is no one holy like the Lord. Indeed, there is no one besides You! And there is no Rock like our God.

¹⁶And we have come to know and believe the love that God has for us. God is love; whoever abides in love abides in God, and God in him.

¹⁶Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God has commanded you, so that your days may be long and that it may go well with you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

¹⁷You shall not murder.

¹²Honor your father and mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

¹³You shall not murder.

¹⁹You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not cheat others, honor your father and mother.’”

²⁰You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not bear false witness, honor your father and mother.’”

¹⁰Whoever keeps the whole law but stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.

¹¹For He who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” If you do not commit adultery, but do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker.

²¹You have heard that it was said to the ancients, ‘Do not murder’ and ‘Anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’

²²But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, ‘Raca,’ will be subject to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be subject to the fire of hell.

¹⁸Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against any of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.

¹²Honor your father and mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

³⁹And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’

¹⁶Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God has commanded you, so that your days may be long and that it may go well with you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

¹Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.

²“Honor your father and mother” (which is the first commandment with a promise),

⁴For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother’ and ‘Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.’

⁵But you say that if anyone says to his father or mother, ‘Whatever you would have received from me is a gift devoted to God,’

²⁴So the law became our guardian to lead us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.

²⁰“Teacher,” he replied, “all these I have kept from my youth.”

²¹Jesus looked at him, loved him, and said to him, “There is one thing you lack: Go, sell everything you own and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me.”

⁶as to zeal, persecuting the church; as to righteousness in the law, faultless.

¹¹The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men—swindlers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector.

¹²I fast twice a week and pay tithes of all that I acquire.’

²¹“All these I have kept from my youth,” he said.

²²On hearing this, Jesus told him, “You still lack one thing: Sell everything you own and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me.”

⁷I tell you that in the same way there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous ones who do not need to repent.

²¹Jesus looked at him, loved him, and said to him, “There is one thing you lack: Go, sell everything you own and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me.”

²²On hearing this, Jesus told him, “You still lack one thing: Sell everything you own and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me.”

³³Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide yourselves with purses that will not wear out, an inexhaustible treasure in heaven, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys.

⁴⁵Selling their possessions and goods, they shared with anyone who was in need.

³³In the same way, any one of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be My disciple.

⁴⁸Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

³¹So My people come to you as usual, sit before you, and hear your words; but they do not put them into practice. Although they express love with their mouths, their hearts pursue dishonest gain.

²⁴No one can serve two masters: Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.

²²The seed sown among the thorns is the one who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.

⁵For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure, or greedy person (that is, an idolater) has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.

²²But the man was saddened by these words and went away in sorrow, because he had great wealth.

⁵Put to death, therefore, the components of your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed, which is idolatry.

⁹Those who want to be rich, however, fall into temptation and become ensnared by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction.

¹⁰For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. By craving it, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.

²²The seed sown among the thorns is the one who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.

²³Then Jesus looked around and said to His disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!”

²⁴Seeing the man’s sadness, Jesus said, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!

¹Come now, you who are rich, weep and wail over the misery to come upon you.

²Your riches have rotted and moths have eaten your clothes.

²⁸He who trusts in his riches will fall, but the righteous will thrive like foliage.

⁴⁴How can you believe if you accept glory from one another, yet do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?

²⁵Indeed, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”

²⁴And the disciples were amazed at His words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God!

²⁵It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”

²³Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Neither are you able to do good—you who are accustomed to doing evil.

²⁶Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

²⁴You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.

¹³for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

²²If those days had not been cut short, nobody would be saved. But for the sake of the elect, those days will be cut short.

²⁰If the Lord had not cut short those days, nobody would be saved. But for the sake of the elect, whom He has chosen, He has cut them short.

²³“Lord,” someone asked Him, “will only a few people be saved?” Jesus answered,

²⁴“Make every effort to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able.

⁵In the same way, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace.

⁶And if it is by grace, then it is no longer by works. Otherwise, grace would no longer be grace.

²⁷“Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is anything too difficult for Me?

³⁷For no word from God will ever fail.”

²“I know that You can do all things and that no plan of Yours can be thwarted.

²⁷Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.”

²⁷But Jesus said, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.”

¹⁷“Oh, Lord God! You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too difficult for You!

⁸More than that, I count all things as loss compared to the surpassing excellence of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ

²⁸“Look,” said Peter, “we have left all we had to follow You.”

¹¹And when they had brought their boats ashore, they left everything and followed Him.

¹⁷“Come, follow Me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.”

¹⁸And at once they left their nets and followed Him.

²⁹But he answered his father, ‘Look, all these years I have served you and never disobeyed a commandment of yours. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends.

²⁰And at once they left their nets and followed Him.

²¹Going on from there, He saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets. Jesus called them,

²⁸You are the ones who have stood by Me in My trials.

²⁹And I bestow on you a kingdom, just as My Father has bestowed one on Me,

²Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases?

³Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life!

³¹When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, He will sit on His glorious throne.

⁴Then I saw the thrones, and those seated on them had been given authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or hands. And they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.

¹⁷For behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind.

⁴Surrounding the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and on these thrones sat twenty-four elders dressed in white, with golden crowns on their heads.

²⁹“Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God

³⁰will fail to receive many times more in this age—and in the age to come, eternal life.”

²⁹“Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for My sake and for the gospel

³⁰will fail to receive a hundredfold in the present age—houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and fields, along with persecutions—and in the age to come, eternal life.

⁸More than that, I count all things as loss compared to the surpassing excellence of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ

²⁶“If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be My disciple.

²⁵For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.

³⁷Anyone who loves his father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me;

³⁸and anyone who does not take up his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me.

¹⁶So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”

³⁰And indeed, some who are last will be first, and some who are first will be last.”

³¹But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.”

³¹Which of the two did the will of his father?” “The first,” they answered. Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God before you.

³²For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him.

¹³But the tax collector stood at a distance, unwilling even to lift up his eyes to heaven. Instead, he beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner!’

¹⁴I tell you, this man, rather than the Pharisee, went home justified. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

²⁰The law came in so that the trespass would increase; but where sin increased, grace increased all the more,

²¹so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.