For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
Parallel translations
- WEB For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
- BSB For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
- NKJV For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
- NASB For My yoke is comfortable, and My burden is light.”
- NLT For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”
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
Christ's yoke is easy and His burden light. Life under His lordship, though demanding, is sustained by His grace.
Overview
In contrast to the wearying demands of self-righteous religion, Jesus describes His yoke as 'easy' and His burden as 'light.' This is not the absence of obedience but obedience empowered by grace and motivated by love. Resting in His finished work, the disciple finds Christ's commands no longer crushing but the path of joy.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- 1 Jn 5:3For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.
- John 16:33These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.
- Phil 4:13I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.
- 2 Cor 12:9–10And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
- Gal 5:1Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
- Mic 6:8He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?
- 2 Cor 4:17For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;
- 2 Cor 1:4–5Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.
- Gal 5:18But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.
- Acts 15:10Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?
- Acts 15:28For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things;
- Prov 3:17Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Matthew presents Jesus as the promised King — son of David, son of Abraham — the new Moses and true Israel in whom every prophecy reaches 'that it might be fulfilled.'
How Matthew 11:30 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.