Outwardly you look like righteous people, but inwardly your hearts are filled with hypocrisy and lawlessness.
Parallel translations
- WEB Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
- KJV Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
- BSB In the same way, on the outside you appear to be righteous, but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.
- NKJV Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
- NASB So you too, outwardly appear righteous to people, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
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
Outwardly they appear righteous, but inwardly they are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. It states the core charge: a gap between appearance and reality.
Overview
Jesus summarizes the whole indictment: the leaders project righteousness while harboring hypocrisy and lawlessness. Their religion is performance, not reality. This drives home the need for the inward transformation that only God can give, contrasting human pretense with the genuine righteousness found through Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Luke 16:15He said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men, but God knows your hearts. For that which is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.
- Ps 51:6Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts. You teach me wisdom in the inmost place.
- Matt 23:5But all their works they do to be seen by men. They make their phylacteries broad, enlarge the fringes of their garments,
- Mark 7:21–23For from within, out of the hearts of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, sexual sins, murders, thefts,
- Matt 12:34–35You offspring of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.
- Heb 4:12–13For the word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and is able to discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
- 1 Sam 16:7But Yahweh said to Samuel, “Don’t look on his face, or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for I don’t see as man sees. For man looks at the outward appearance, but Yahweh looks at the heart.”
- Matt 15:19–20For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual sins, thefts, false testimony, and blasphemies.
- Jer 17:9–10The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly corrupt. Who can know it?
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 23:28 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.