Matthew 21:31

Plain English Version

Then Jesus asked those Jewish leaders, “Which one of that man’s sons did what their father wanted?” They said, “The oldest son did what their father wanted.” Then Jesus said, “Listen. There are people that did bad things, but they will go into God’s family before you mob do. You know, there are some men that get tax money from people and give it to the Roman government. And sometimes a woman does bad things, so if men pay her money she sleeps with them, like a woman sleeps with her husband. But some of those bad people will go into God’s family before you mob do.

Cross References

Matthew 20:16

Then Jesus told them what that story means. He said, “One day, those people that are the last ones now, they will be the first ones. And those people that are the first ones now, they will be the last ones.” (We have not yet translated 20:17—21:27. You can read that story and those messages in Mark 10:32—11:33.)

Matthew 21:30

The father also went to his youngest son and said the same thing to him. He said, ‘Son, go and work on our farm today.’ The youngest son said, ‘Yes, Dad, I will go.’ But he didn’t go and work on their farm.”

Matthew 5:18

Listen. God’s book is really important. Everything in it will happen. You know, the earth and sky are always here. They don’t change. Well, just like that, God’s word and his laws will not change, not even a little bit. They will stay the same until everything in God’s book happens.

Matthew 5:46

You see, if you only love the people that love you, that is nothing. Even bad people do that. God will not give you anything for only loving people that love you.

Matthew 6:5

Jesus said, “Don’t pray like those people that want everyone to think they are good, even though they are not good. They like to stand up and pray in the meeting houses and on the busy street corners, so that lots of people can see them praying. They want to hear people say, ‘That’s a good person.’ But listen, that is all those people will get. God will not give them anything good for doing that.”

Matthew 7:21

And Jesus said, “Lots of people call me, ‘My leader and my boss,’ but some of them will never be in God’s family. God will only have people that do what he wants them to do. God will have those people in his family, but not the other people. God is my father in heaven.

Luke 15:10

Well, just like that, whenever somebody turns back to God, God’s angel messengers in heaven are really happy too. Whenever one bad person stops doing bad things, and lives God’s way, God’s angel messengers in heaven are really happy.”

Luke 19:22

His boss got angry and yelled at him, ‘You are a bad work-man. Just now you reckoned that I am a hard man, and you reckoned that I grab things that don’t belong to me. That is not true. But if you reckon that I am a hard man, I will be a hard judge for you.

John 3:3

Jesus said to him, “Listen, I am telling you straight, people have to get born again, and then they can be in God’s family.”

John 3:5

Jesus said, “Listen, I am telling you straight, if anyone wants to be in God’s family, they have to get born again God’s way. God has to make them clean, and he has to put his spirit in them.

Acts 17:30

You see, at first people didn’t know about God, but at that time he didn’t worry about it. Now it is different. Now he says to all of us, that we have to turn around and stop doing bad things.

Romans 3:19

You know, it’s like this. God gave his law to the Jewish people for them to follow. And God is the judge of everybody in the whole world. And nobody has kept all of that law, so nobody can argue with him. Nobody can tell God, “I have kept all those laws, so I’m all right. You can’t punish me.” We can’t say that, because we all broke that law at some time. So why is the law there? It is there just to let us know that we always go wrong. That’s what it is there for.

Romans 5:20

You see, the law came and showed people that they did wrong things. But that didn’t stop them. They still did wrong things. Yes, people kept on doing more bad things, but at the same time God kept on being good to people, more and more.

2 Peter 3:9

God is not slow to do the things that he promised to do. Some people think that he is being slow, but no, he is quietly waiting for you people. He doesn’t want anyone to die for ever. He wants everyone to turn around. He wants them to stop doing bad things and turn to him.