6. They love to sit in places of honor at banquets and in the synagogues.
7. They love to be greeted with honor in the markets and to be addressed as ‘Rabbi.’
8. “But you shouldn’t be called Rabbi, because you have one teacher, and all of you are brothers and sisters.
9. Don’t call anybody on earth your father, because you have one Father, who is heavenly.
10. Don’t be called teacher, because Christ is your one teacher.
11. But the one who is greatest among you will be your servant.
12. All who lift themselves up will be brought low. But all who make themselves low will be lifted up.
13. “How terrible it will be for you legal experts and Pharisees! Hypocrites! You shut people out of the kingdom of heaven. You don’t enter yourselves, and you won’t allow those who want to enter to do so.
15. “How terrible it will be for you, legal experts and Pharisees! Hypocrites! You travel over sea and land to make one convert. But when they’ve been converted, they become twice the child of hell you are.
16. “How terrible it will be for you blind guides who say, ‘If people swear by the temple, it’s nothing. But if people swear by the gold in the temple, they are obligated to do what they swore.’
17. You foolish and blind people! Which is greater, the gold or the temple that makes the gold holy?
18. You say, ‘If people swear by the altar, it’s nothing. But if they swear by the gift on the altar, they are obligated to do what they swore.’
19. You blind people! Which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift holy?
20. Therefore, those who swear by the altar swear by it and by everything that’s on it.
21. Those who swear by the temple swear by it and by everything that’s part of it.
22. Those who swear by heaven swear by God’s throne and by the one who sits on it.
23. “How terrible it will be for you legal experts and Pharisees! Hypocrites! You give to God a tenth of mint, dill, and cumin, but you forget about the more important matters of the Law: justice, peace, and faith. You ought to give a tenth but without forgetting about those more important matters.
24. You blind guides! You filter out an ant but swallow a camel.
25. “How terrible it will be for you legal experts and Pharisees! Hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and plate, but inside they are full of violence and pleasure seeking.
26. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup so that the outside of the cup will be clean too.