So My people come to you as usual, sit before you, and hear your words; but they do not put them into practice. Although they express love with their mouths, their hearts pursue dishonest gain.
Parallel translations
- WEB They come to you as the people come, and they sit before you as my people, and they hear your words, but don’t do them; for with their mouth they show much love, but their heart goes after their gain.
- KJV And they come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them: for with their mouth they shew much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness.
- NKJV So they come to you as people do, they sit before you as My people, and they hear your words, but they do not do them; for with their mouth they show much love, but their hearts pursue their own gain.
- NASB And they come to you as people come, and sit before you as My people and hear your words, but they do not do them; for they do the lustful desires expressed by their mouth, and their heart follows their unlawful gain.
- NLT So my people come pretending to be sincere and sit before you. They listen to your words, but they have no intention of doing what you say. Their mouths are full of lustful words, and their hearts seek only after money.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The people listen attentively and profess love, but their hearts chase their own gain and they refuse to obey. Hearing without doing is empty.
Overview
God exposes the gap between profession and practice: with their mouths they show devotion, but their hearts pursue dishonest profit. This is the hypocrisy Jesus later rebukes, quoting Isaiah, 'This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me' (Matt. 15:8). True hearing of God's word always issues in doing it (James 1:22), which only a regenerate heart can offer.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 28
- Matt 13:22The seed sown among the thorns is the one who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.
- Ps 78:36–37But they deceived Him with their mouths, and lied to Him with their tongues.
- Jas 1:22–24Be doers of the word, and not hearers only. Otherwise, you are deceiving yourselves.
- Luke 11:28But He replied, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.”
- Isa 29:13Therefore the Lord said: “These people draw near to Me with their mouths and honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. Their worship of Me is but rules taught by men.
- Jas 2:14–16What good is it, my brothers, if someone claims to have faith, but has no deeds? Can such faith save him?
- Luke 6:48–49He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid his foundation on the rock. When the flood came, the torrent crashed against that house but could not shake it, because it was well built.
- Ezek 8:1In the sixth year, on the fifth day of the sixth month, I was sitting in my house, and the elders of Judah were sitting before me; and there the hand of the Lord GOD fell upon me.
- Jer 44:16“As for the word you have spoken to us in the name of the LORD, we will not listen to you!
- 1 Tim 6:9–10Those who want to be rich, however, fall into temptation and become ensnared by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction.
- 1 Jn 3:17–18If anyone with earthly possessions sees his brother in need, but withholds his compassion from him, how can the love of God abide in him?
- Isa 28:13Then the word of the LORD to them will become: “Order on order, order on order, line on line, line on line; a little here, a little there,” so that they will go stumbling backward and will be injured, ensnared, and captured.
- Luke 10:39She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to His message.
- Luke 8:21But He replied, “My mother and brothers are those who hear the word of God and carry it out.”
- Deut 5:28–29And the LORD heard the words you spoke to me, and He said to me, “I have heard the words that these people have spoken to you. They have done well in all that they have spoken.
- Jer 23:33–38“Now when this people or a prophet or priest asks you, ‘What is the burden of the LORD?’ you are to say to them, ‘What burden? I will forsake you, declares the LORD.’
- Luke 12:15–21And He said to them, “Watch out! Guard yourselves against every form of greed, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”
- Ezek 22:27Her officials within her are like wolves tearing their prey, shedding blood, and destroying lives for dishonest gain.
- Ezek 14:1Then some of the elders of Israel came and sat down before me.
- Matt 6:24No one can serve two masters: Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.
- Luke 16:14The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all of this and were scoffing at Jesus.
- Eph 5:5For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure, or greedy person (that is, an idolater), has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
- Jer 43:1–7When Jeremiah had finished telling all the people all the words of the LORD their God—everything that the LORD had sent him to say—
- Ezek 20:1–32In the seventh year, on the tenth day of the fifth month, some of the elders of Israel came to inquire of the LORD, and they sat down before me.
- Matt 19:22When the young man heard this, he went away in sorrow, because he had great wealth.
- Acts 10:33So I sent for you immediately, and you were kind enough to come. Now then, we are all here in the presence of God to listen to everything the Lord has instructed you to tell us.”
- Matt 7:24–27Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.
- Jer 6:16–17This is what the LORD says: “Stand at the crossroads and look. Ask for the ancient paths: ‘Where is the good way?’ Then walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it!’
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Original language
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