The Daily Audio Bible

The Great Commandment, and David’s Master

³⁴ When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they got together in a group. ³⁵ One of them, a lawyer, put him on the spot with this question.

³⁶ “Teacher,” he said, “which is the most important commandment in the law?”

³⁷ “You must love the Lord your God,” replied Jesus, “with all your heart, with all your life, and with all your mind. ³⁸ This is the first commandment, and it’s the one that really matters. ³⁹ The second is similar, and it’s this: You must love your neighbor as yourself. ⁴⁰ The entire law hangs on these two commandments—and that goes for the prophets, too.”

⁴¹ While the Pharisees were gathered there, Jesus asked them, ⁴² “What’s your view of the Messiah? Whose son is he?”

“David’s,” they said to him.

⁴³ “Why then,” said Jesus, “does David (speaking by the spirit) call him ‘Master,’ when he says,

⁴⁵ “If David calls him ‘Master,’ how can he be his son?”

⁴⁶ Nobody was able to answer him a single word. From that day on nobody dared ask him anything any more.

Warnings against scribes and Pharisees

23 Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples: ² “The scribes and Pharisees,” he said, “sit on the seat of Moses. ³ So you must do whatever they tell you, and keep it, but don’t do the things they do. You see, they talk but they don’t do. ⁴ They tie up heavy bundles which are difficult to carry, and they dump them on people’s shoulders—but they themselves aren’t prepared to lift a little finger to move them!

⁵ “Everything they do is for show, to be seen by people. Yes, they make their prayer-boxes large and their prayer-tassels long, ⁶ and they love the chief places at dinners, the main seats in the synagogues, ⁷ the greetings in the market-places, and having people call them ‘Rabbi.’

⁸ “You mustn’t be called ‘Rabbi.’ You have one teacher, and you are all one family. ⁹ And you shouldn’t call anyone ‘father’ on earth, because you have one father, in heaven. ¹⁰ Nor should you be called ‘teacher,’ because you have one teacher, the Messiah.

¹¹ “The greatest among you should be your servant. ¹² People who make themselves great will be humbled; and people who humble themselves will become great.”