3. So you should obey them. Do everything they tell you to do. But their lives are not good examples for you to follow. They tell you to do things, but they don’t do those things themselves.
4. They make strict rules that are hard for people to obey. They try to force others to obey all their rules. But they themselves will not try to follow any of those rules.
5. “The only reason they do what they do is for other people to see them. They make the little Scripture boxes they wear bigger and bigger. And they make the tassels on their prayer clothes long enough for people to notice them.
6. These men love to have the places of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues.
7. They love for people to show respect to them in the marketplaces and to call them ‘Teacher.’
8. “But you must not be called ‘Teacher.’ You are all equal as brothers and sisters. You have only one Teacher.
9. And don’t call anyone on earth ‘Father.’ You have one Father. He is in heaven.
10. And you should not be called ‘Master.’ You have only one Master, the Messiah.
11. Whoever serves you like a servant is the greatest among you.
12. People who think they are better than others will be made humble. But people who humble themselves will be made great.
13. “It will be bad for you teachers of the law and you Pharisees! You are hypocrites! You close the way for people to enter God’s kingdom. You yourselves don’t enter, and you stop those who are trying to enter.
15. “It will be bad for you teachers of the law and you Pharisees! You are hypocrites. You travel across the seas and across different countries to find one person who will follow your ways. When you find that person, you make him worse than you are. And you are so bad that you belong in hell!