Matthew 18
18
Who Is the Greatest?
1At that time#18:1 Lit hour#Mk 9:33–37; Lk 9:46–48 the disciples#Mt 9:10; Mk 10:10; Lk 6:1; Jn 6:3; Ac 6:1 came to Jesus and asked, “So who is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” #Mt 22:24; Jn 3:35; 13:20 2He called a small child and had him stand among them. 3“Truly I tell you,” he said, “unless you turn and become like little children,#Mt 19:14; Mk 10:15; Lk 18:17; 1Co 14:20; 1Pt 2:2 you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.#Mt 5:20; 7:21; 19:23–24; Mk 9:47; Jn 3:5 4Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child — this one is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5And whoever welcomes#18:5 Or receives one child like this in my name welcomes me.
6 “But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to fall away — it would be better for him if a heavy millstone were hung around his neck and he were drowned in the depths of the sea. #
Mk 9:42; Lk 17:2; 1Co 8:12 7Woe to the world because of offenses. For offenses will inevitably come, but woe to that person by whom the offense comes.#Mt 26:24; Lk 17:1; 1Co 11:19 8If your hand or your foot causes you to fall away, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or lame than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into the eternal fire.#Mt 5:30; 25:41; Mk 9:43 9And if your eye causes you to fall away, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hellfire.#18:9 Lit gehenna of fire#Mt 5:22,29; Mk 9:47
The Parable of the Lost Sheep
10 “See to it that you don’t despise one of these little ones, #
Est 1:14; Lk 1:19; Rv 8:2 because I tell you that in heaven their angels#Ps 34:7; 91:11; Heb 1:14 continually view the face of my Father in heaven.#18:10 Some mss include v. 11: For the Son of Man has come to save the lost.#Mt 6:29; 25:40,45; Lk 15:7,10 12What do you think?#Lk 15:1–7 If someone has a hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, won’t he leave the ninety-nine on the hillside and go and search for the stray?#Mt 17:25; 21:28 13And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he rejoices over that sheep#18:13 Lit over it more than over the ninety-nine that did not go astray. 14In the same way, it is not the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones perish.
Restoring a Brother
15 “If your brother sins against you, # 18:15 Other mss omit against you go tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have won your brother.#Lv 19:17; Lk 17:3; Gl 6:1; 2Th 3:15; Jms 5:19; 1Pt 3:1 16But if he won’t listen, take one or two others with you, so that by the testimony#18:16 Lit mouth of two or three witnesses every fact may be established.#18:16 Dt 19:15#Nm 35:30; Jn 8:17; 2Co 13:1; 1Tm 5:19; Heb 10:28 17If he doesn’t pay attention to them, tell the church.#18:17 Or congregation#Mt 16:18; 1Co 14:4; Rv 1:4 If he doesn’t pay attention even to the church, let him be like a Gentile and a tax collector to you.#Rm 16:17; 1Co 5:9; 6:1–6; 2Th 3:6,14; 2Jn 10 18Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will have been bound#18:18 Or earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will have been loosed#18:18 Or earth will be loosed in heaven.#Mt 16:19; Jn 20:23 19Again, truly I tell you, if two of you on earth agree about any matter that you#18:19 Lit they pray for, it will be done for you#18:19 Lit for them by my Father in heaven. 20For where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am there among them.”
The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant
21Then Peter approached him and asked, “Lord, how many times must I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? As many as seven times?” #Lk 17:3–4; Col 3:13
22 “I tell you, not as many as seven,” Jesus replied, “but seventy times seven.#18:22 Or but seventy-seven times
23 “For this reason, the kingdom of heaven can be compared to a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24When he began to settle accounts, one who owed ten thousand talents#18:24 A talent is worth about 6,000 denarii, or twenty years’ wages for a laborer was brought before him. 25Since he did not have the money to pay it back, his master commanded that he, his wife, his children, and everything he had be sold to pay the debt.#Ex 21:2; Lv 25:39; 2Kg 4:1; Neh 5:5,8; Lk 7:42
26 “At this, the servant fell facedown before him and said, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you everything.’ 27Then the master of that servant had compassion, released him, and forgave him the loan.
28 “That servant went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. # 18:28 A denarius = one day’s wage #
Mt 20:2; 22:19; Mk 6:37; 14:5; Lk 7:41; 10:35; Jn 6:7 He grabbed him, started choking him, and said, ‘Pay what you owe!’
29 “At this, his fellow servant fell down # 18:29 Other mss add at his feet and began begging him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.’ 30But he wasn’t willing. Instead, he went and threw him into prison until he could pay what was owed. 31When the other servants saw what had taken place, they were deeply distressed and went and reported to their master everything that had happened. 32Then, after he had summoned him, his master said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. 33Shouldn’t you also have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’ #Mt 6:12; Eph 4:32; Col 3:13; 1Jn 4:11 34And because he was angry, his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured until he could pay everything that was owed. 35So also my heavenly Father will do to you unless every one of you forgives his brother or sister#18:35 Other mss add their trespasses from your heart.”#Pr 21:13; Mt 6:14; Jms 2:13
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Matthew 18: CSB
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© 2017 Holman Bible Publishers
Matthew 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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