leave your offering there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering.
Parallel translations
- WEB leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.
- KJV Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.
- BSB leave your gift there before the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.
- NKJV leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.
- NLT leave your sacrifice there at the altar. Go and be reconciled to that person. Then come and offer your sacrifice to God.
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
Leave your gift, first be reconciled to your brother, then offer it. It commands seeking reconciliation before worship.
Overview
Jesus urges immediate action to mend the relationship before completing one's offering. Right worship and right relationships belong together; God is not honored by gifts from an unreconciled heart. This reflects the gospel ethic of peacemaking and points to the reconciliation God Himself accomplishes in Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Jas 5:16Confess your offenses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The insistent prayer of a righteous person is powerfully effective.
- Rom 12:17–18Repay no one evil for evil. Respect what is honorable in the sight of all men.
- Matt 18:15–17“If your brother sins against you, go, show him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained back your brother.
- 1 Pet 3:7–8You husbands, in the same way, live with your wives according to knowledge, giving honor to the woman, as to the weaker vessel, as being also joint heirs of the grace of life; that your prayers may not be hindered.
- Job 42:8Now therefore, take to yourselves seven bulls and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering; and my servant Job shall pray for you, for I will accept him, that I not deal with you according to your folly. For you have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job has.”
- Prov 25:9Debate your case with your neighbor, and don’t betray the confidence of another;
- 1 Cor 6:7–8Therefore it is already altogether a defect in you, that you have lawsuits one with another. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded?
- 1 Tim 2:8I desire therefore that the men in every place pray, lifting up holy hands without anger and doubting.
- Matt 23:23“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cumin, and have left undone the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy, and faith. But you ought to have done these, and not to have left the other undone.
- Jas 3:13–18Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by his good conduct that his deeds are done in gentleness of wisdom.
- 1 Cor 11:28But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread, and drink of the cup.
- Mark 9:50Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, with what will you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”
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 5:24 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.