Mattityahu (Mat) 18
18
1At that moment the talmidim came to Yeshua and asked, “Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?” 2He called a child to him, stood him among them, 3and said, “Yes! I tell you that unless you change and become like little children, you won’t even enter the Kingdom of Heaven! 4So the greatest in the Kingdom is whoever makes himself as humble as this child. 5Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me; 6and whoever ensnares one of these little ones who trust me, it would be better for him to have a millstone hung around his neck and be drowned in the open sea! 7Woe to the world because of snares! For there must be snares, but woe to the person who sets the snare!
8“So if your hand or foot becomes a snare for you, cut it off and throw it away! Better that you should be maimed or crippled and obtain eternal life than keep both hands or both feet and be thrown into everlasting fire! 9And if your eye is a snare for you, gouge it out and fling it away! Better that you should be one-eyed and obtain eternal life than keep both eyes and be thrown into the fire of Gei-Hinnom. 10See that you never despise one of these little ones, for I tell you that their angels in heaven are continually seeing the face of my Father in heaven. 11
12“What’s your opinion? What will somebody do who has a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine on the hillsides and go off to find the stray? 13And if he happens to find it? Yes! I tell you he is happier over it than over the ninety-nine that never strayed! 14Thus your Father in heaven does not want even one of these little ones to be lost.
15“Moreover, if your brother commits a sin against you, go and show him his fault — but privately, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won back your brother. 16If he doesn’t listen, take one or two others with you so that every accusation can be supported by the testimony of two or three witnesses. 17If he refuses to hear them, tell the congregation; and if he refuses to listen even to the congregation, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax-collector. 18Yes! I tell you people that whatever you prohibit on earth will be prohibited in heaven, and whatever you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven. 19To repeat, I tell you that if two of you here on earth agree about anything people ask, it will be for them from my Father in heaven. 20For wherever two or three are assembled in my name, I am there with them.”
21Then Kefa came up and said to him, “Rabbi, how often can my brother sin against me and I have to forgive him? As many as seven times?” 22“No, not seven times,” answered Yeshua, “but seventy times seven! 23Because of this, the Kingdom of Heaven may be compared with a king who decided to settle accounts with his deputies. 24Right away they brought forward a man who owed him many millions; 25and since he couldn’t pay, his master ordered that he, his wife, his children and all his possessions be sold to pay the debt. 26But the servant fell down before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ 27So out of pity for him, the master let him go and forgave the debt.
28“But as that servant was leaving, he came upon one of his fellow servants who owed him some tiny sum. He grabbed him and began to choke him, crying, ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ 29His fellow servant fell before him and begged, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.’ 30But he refused; instead, he had him thrown in jail until he should repay the debt. 31When the other servants saw what had happened, they were extremely distressed; and they went and told their master everything that had taken place. 32Then the master summoned his servant and said, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt just because you begged me to do it. 33Shouldn’t you have had pity on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?’ 34And in anger his master turned him over to the jailers for punishment until he paid back everything he owed. 35This is how my heavenly Father will treat you, unless you each forgive your brother from your hearts.”
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Mattityahu (Mat) 18: CJB
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Learn More About Complete Jewish BibleMatthew 18
18
(We have not yet translated 18:1-14. You can read those stories and messages in Mark 9:34-47; Luke 15:3-7; 17:1-2.)
What if a Christian does something wrong to you?
15Jesus told his followers, “If another one of my followers does something wrong to you, then you have to go to them and talk about it. Just the 2 of you can talk about it together, while you are alone. If they listen to you, and if they agree with you, then you can call them your friend again.#Luke 17:3
16But if they don’t want to listen to you, then take one or 2 other people with you, and go to that person. These other people will hear you talk about the wrong things that person did, and they will hear what that person says, and they will find out what is true.#Deuteronomy 19:15 17If that person will not listen to all of you, then go to the church, and tell the people in the church what happened. Let them sort it out and talk to that person. If that person doesn’t want to listen to them, then you can treat them like somebody that doesn’t follow me. They are like somebody that doesn’t know God, or like somebody that doesn’t do what God says.”
18Then Jesus told his followers, “Listen. You are the people that will know what God wants. If you all agree that something here on this earth is wrong, it will be something that God in heaven already said is wrong. And if you all agree that something here on this earth is all right, it will be something that God in heaven already said is all right.#Matthew 16:19; John 20:23
19I’m telling you this again. If you agree together about something, even if it is only 2 of you, and then you ask my father in heaven to do that thing, then he will do it for you. 20You see, if you get together to respect me, I will be right there with you, even if it is only 2 or 3 of you at that time.”
The story about the work-man that was hard on another man
21Then Peter went up to Jesus and said, “Teacher, if somebody is always doing wrong things to me, how many times do I have to forget it and not do payback to that person? If I forget it 7 times, is that enough? Then if they do another wrong thing, I can do payback, right?”
22Jesus said, “No, not 7 times, but I say lots of times, like 77 times.”#Luke 17:3-4; Genesis 4:24
23-24Then Jesus told them a story. He said, “I will tell you a picture story to show you what it’s like in God’s family. There was a big boss that loaned some money to his workers. After a while he wanted them to give it back. So he started to check up on them, and he got his soldiers to bring those workers to him. They brought a work-man that borrowed a real lot of money, like millions of dollars, and the boss said, ‘Give me that money now.’
25The work-man said, ‘No, not yet. I haven’t got any money right now.’ The big boss was angry. He wanted to get some money back, so he told his soldiers, ‘Grab this man, and his wife, and his kids, and all his things, and sell them to another man. He will make them work for no pay.’
26Then the work-man got down on his knees in front of the big boss and said to him, ‘Please, please give me more time, then I will give you back all your money.’
27Then the big boss felt sorry for his work-man, and he changed his mind, and he said, ‘All right, you don’t have to give that money back to me. I’ll forget it. You can go free now.’
28But after that, his work-man went away, and he met another man. Before this time, that other man borrowed a little bit of money from the work-man, just 100 dollars. So the work-man grabbed that other man’s neck and said, ‘Give me back that money right now. It’s my money.’
29That other man went down on his knees and said, ‘Please, please give me more time. Then I will give you back your money.’
30But the work-man said, ‘No way. I will not forget what you owe me.’ And he put that man in jail, and he told the boss over the jail to keep him there until he gives back all of that money.
31Some of the other workers saw what happened, and they were not happy about it. So they went to the big boss and told him all about it. 32Then the big boss got the work-man to come in, and said to him, ‘You are really bad. You asked me to forget about all my money that you borrowed. It was millions of dollars. And I was good to you. I said that you didn’t have to give it back to me. 33So now you have to feel sorry for that other man and be good to him, just like I felt sorry for you.’ 34The big boss was really angry, and he told the soldiers to grab that work-man, to beat him up, and to put him in jail. He will stay there until he can give all that money back to the big boss.”
35Then Jesus said, “It’s like that with you too. You have to be good to all my other followers. If they do something bad to you, don’t do payback to them. Just forget it. Then, in the same way, my father in heaven will not do payback to you.”
(We have not yet translated chapter 19. You can read those stories and messages in Mark 10:1-31.)
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