“If therefore you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has anything against you,
Parallel translations
- KJV Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee;
- BSB So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you,
- NKJV Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you,
- NASB Therefore, if you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there you remember that your brother has something against you,
- NLT “So if you are presenting a sacrifice at the altar in the Temple and you suddenly remember that someone has something against you,
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
If you recall at the altar that your brother has something against you, stop. It shows that reconciliation takes priority over worship.
Overview
Jesus teaches that broken relationships hinder true worship. To approach God while a brother holds a grievance is to ignore the heart of the Law. The verse calls disciples to take seriously the wrongs others hold against them, valuing reconciliation as part of genuine devotion to God.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 17
- Mark 11:25Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone; so that your Father, who is in heaven, may also forgive you your transgressions.
- Lev 6:2–6“If anyone sins, and commits a trespass against Yahweh, and deals falsely with his neighbor in a matter of deposit, or of bargain, or of robbery, or has oppressed his neighbor,
- Matt 5:24leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.
- Matt 8:4Jesus said to him, “See that you tell nobody, but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”
- Matt 23:19You blind fools! For which is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifies the gift?
- Luke 19:8Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, half of my goods I give to the poor. If I have wrongfully exacted anything of anyone, I restore four times as much.”
- 1 Sam 15:22Samuel said, “Has Yahweh as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying Yahweh’s voice? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.
- Hos 6:6For I desire mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.
- Amos 5:21–24I hate, I despise your feasts, and I can’t stand your solemn assemblies.
- Lam 3:20My soul still remembers them, and is bowed down within me.
- Isa 1:10–17Hear Yahweh’s word, you rulers of Sodom! Listen to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah!
- Ezek 16:63that you may remember, and be confounded, and never open your mouth any more, because of your shame, when I have forgiven you all that you have done,” says the Lord Yahweh.’”
- Gen 50:15–17When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “It may be that Joseph will hate us, and will fully pay us back for all the evil which we did to him.”
- 1 Kgs 2:44The king said moreover to Shimei, “You know in your heart all the wickedness that you did to David my father. Therefore Yahweh will return your wickedness on your own head.
- Gen 42:21–22They said to one another, “We are certainly guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the distress of his soul, when he begged us, and we wouldn’t listen. Therefore this distress has come upon us.”
- Gen 41:9Then the chief cup bearer spoke to Pharaoh, saying, “I remember my faults today.
- Deut 16:16–17Three times in a year all of your males shall appear before Yahweh your God in the place which he chooses: in the feast of unleavened bread, in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tents. They shall not appear before Yahweh empty.
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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 5:23 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
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