Matthew 5:19 - Plain English Version

¹⁹ So if you think to yourself, ‘I can break just one little rule,’ and if you teach other people to think like that too, then later on, in God’s family in heaven, nobody will respect you. They will say, ‘You are no good.’ But if you don’t break any of God’s rules, and if you teach other people to follow them too, then later on, in God’s family in heaven, everyone will respect you. And they will say, ‘You are really good.’

More versions

King James Version (Oxford) 1769

¹⁹ Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

Amplified Bible - Classic Edition

¹⁹ Whoever then breaks or does away with or relaxes one of the least [important] of these commandments and teaches men so shall be called least [important] in the kingdom of heaven, but he who practices them and teaches others to do so shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

American Standard Version (1901)

¹⁹ Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

Common English Bible

¹⁹ Therefore, whoever ignores one of the least of these commands and teaches others to do the same will be called the lowest in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever keeps these commands and teaches people to keep them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

Catholic Public Domain Version

¹⁹ Therefore, whoever will have loosened one of the least of these commandments, and have taught men so, shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever will have done and taught these, such a one shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

Matthew 5:19 Cross References

Matthew 11:11

Then Jesus said, “Listen. John the Baptiser is a very important man. He is greater than any other man that ever lived. But everyone in God’s family is more important than John the Baptiser.

Matthew 28:20

You have to teach them to do everything that I told you to do. And remember this, I will be with you all the time. I will be with you to help you, right up until the time when this world will finish.”

Luke 1:15

God will say that this kid is important, so you have to make sure he never drinks any sort of wine or grog at all. You see, the Holy Spirit will come into this kid before he gets born, while he is still inside his mother.

Luke 11:42

You mob follow God’s law that says you have to give him a little bit of everything you get. That little bit is one part out of every 10 parts. You do that for everything you get, even the little plants that grow in your garden. But you don’t do the important things that God wants everyone to do. So God will make trouble for you Pharisee mob. You see, you have to be fair to other people, and you have to love God. Those are the important things that you have to do, and you have to do the other things too.

Acts 1:1

I’m writing to you again, my friend Thiofilus. I wrote to you before, about all the things that Jesus did, and the things that he taught people.

Romans 6:1

God was really good to us even though we did bad things. So what do you reckon? Maybe we should keep on doing bad things, so that people can see how good God is.

Romans 6:15

But maybe you think like this, “We can do whatever bad things we want to do, because that law is not our boss any more and God will be good to us anyway.” No way. Don’t think like that.

1 Timothy 6:11

But Timothy, you belong to God. So you’ve got to keep away from all those bad things that I just told you about. Instead, you’ve got to try to do the right thing all the time, and try to do things that make God happy, and try to trust him more, and try to love people better, and try to keep going when things are tough, and try to be easy on other people, not hard on them. Those are the things you have to try to do all the time.

Titus 3:8

That is all very true. I want you to teach those things strongly. I want you to be sure that people understand those things. Then the people that believe God’s message will think more about doing good things. And those good things will help everyone.

1 Peter 5:4

Then, later, Jesus will come back, and he will be happy with your work, and he will make you great, for ever. He is the leader of all of us, and he looks after us properly.