For you have the poor with you always, but Me you do not have always.
Parallel translations
- WEB For you always have the poor with you; but you don’t always have me.
- KJV For ye have the poor always with you; but me ye have not always.
- BSB The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have Me.
- NASB For you always have the poor with you; but you do not always have Me.
- NLT You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.
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
Jesus says the poor are always present but He will not always be. He affirms both ongoing care for the poor and the unique moment of His bodily presence.
Overview
Echoing Deuteronomy 15:11, Jesus acknowledges that opportunities to help the poor are continual. But His physical presence before His death and ascension is brief and unrepeatable. He is not dismissing the poor, but teaching that this singular hour calls for an extravagant act of worship that could not wait.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- Deut 15:11For the poor will never cease out of the land. Therefore I command you to surely open your hand to your brother, to your needy, and to your poor, in your land.
- Mark 14:7For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you want to, you can do them good; but you will not always have me.
- John 12:8For you always have the poor with you, but you don’t always have me.”
- John 16:28I came from the Father, and have come into the world. Again, I leave the world, and go to the Father.”
- John 13:33Little children, I will be with you a little while longer. You will seek me, and as I said to the Jews, ‘Where I am going, you can’t come,’ so now I tell you.
- John 16:5But now I am going to him who sent me, and none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’
- John 14:19Yet a little while, and the world will see me no more; but you will see me. Because I live, you will live also.
- Matt 28:20teaching them to observe all things that I commanded you. Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.
- Matt 25:42–45for I was hungry, and you didn’t give me food to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me no drink;
- Matt 25:34–40Then the King will tell those on his right hand, ‘Come, blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world;
- John 17:11I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them through your name which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are.
- Acts 3:21whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God spoke long ago by the mouth of his holy prophets.
- Matt 18:20For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the middle of them.”
- Gal 2:10They only asked us to remember the poor — which very thing I was also zealous to do.
- 1 Jn 3:17But whoever has the world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and closes his heart of compassion against him, how does God’s love remain in him?
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Commentaries & study tools
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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 26:11 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.