Daily Devotional for Wednesday, February 4, 2026
Good morning Southside. We are making our way through the Gospel of Matthew and today we come to Matthew 23 and because Jesus has much to say in this chapter that is the whole chapter, we are going to break it down into parts. Today, we are entering into the section that is called the “7 woes” because Jesus begins each one with the word “woe.” Therefore, we are going to look at the first two woes in Matthew 23:13-14:
“But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you shut off the kingdom of heaven from people; for you do not enter in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in. (14) Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense you make long prayers; therefore you will receive greater condemnation” (NASB).
The Greek New Testament word for “woe” is [οὐαί; ouai] and it conveys three things. First, it warns of a judgment to come and second, of regret because the listeners need to repent. Third, when spoken it comes out in sound as an guttural outcry of anger, pain, or both. It is used in the Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) to express grief, despair, sorrow, dissatisfaction, pain, and fear of losing one’s life. In the New Testament it is used to speak of sorrow and of judgment, carrying the mingled ideas of punishment and pity, cursing and compassion. New Testament scholar, William Barclay writes this about this word:
“[Ouai] includes not only wrath but also sorrow. There is righteous anger here, but it is the anger of the heart of love, broken by stubborn human blindness. There is not only an air of savage denunciation; there is also an atmosphere of poignant tragedy” (Source: William Barclay, The Daily Study Bible Series, “The Gospel of Matthew,” Vol. 1B, p. 194).
As we look at each of these “woes” by Jesus, in each one, Jesus calls the Pharisees His favorite term or description of them – hypocrites. Jesus was condemning their failure to live up to not only teaching the Jewish people truth from the Old Testament, but also their failure to teach them how to apply the truth from the Old Testament.
The Pharisees were big on honoring all their extra oral details through their traditions which resulted in adding extra rules, rituals and regulations. They added to the Old Testament and the Mosaic Law while at the same time failing to have any concern for the Jewish people’s relationship to God. Law, not love, had become more important to them.
The first woe Jesus said involved the Pharisees locking the Jewish people out of the kingdom of heaven. What did Jesus mean by this? The Pharisees and the religious leaders’ rejection of Jesus as the Messiah and their insistence on “dotting every “i” and crossing every “t” of the Law was locking the Jews out of the kingdom as well as themselves. They thought they were saved simply for keeping the law; not for having a saving love relationship to God the Father who had given them the law.
“Single convert” may refer to Gentiles converting to Judaism, including being circumcised as proof to their genuine conversion. The Pharisees were limiting their “evangelism” to only pagan Gentiles and not to the Jews themselves. The Pharisees taught as God’s chosen people, they were in no matter what. Therefore, their zeal was unreal and that is what sealed their doom.
Any Jew who might have entered the kingdom of heaven through a saving relation to God, was stopped by the Pharisees (see Matt. 5:20; Matt. 7:21; Matt. 18:3; and Matt. 19:23-24). The Pharisees had limited salvation to a “works-righteousness, to legalism and to merit theology. Pastor and author John MacArthur writes this:
“It (meaning the hypocritical teaching of the Pharisees) may feed their bodies, stimulate their minds, and calm their emotions, but it will inevitably damn their souls. It may raise their moral standards, increase their worldly success, overcome practical problems, and improve their outward relationships with other people, but it will not remove their sin or improve their relationship to God. It may promise heaven, but it can only deliver hell” (Source: John MacArthur, The MacArthur New Testament Bible Commentary, “Matthew,” p. 376).
The second woe is not in the oldest manuscripts but appeared sometime shortly after the oldest manuscripts. This is why some translations put verse 14 into brackets. We find this in Mark 12:40 as well as Luke 20:47 and probably what happened is that originally Matthew left this out but when Mark and Luke put it in their original manuscripts, those copying both for future generations borrowed this from Mark and Luke’s Gospel. The Scribes and Pharisees took advantage of gullible widows. They did not receive any pay for their services but had to rely on the kindness and generosity of the Jewish people. To help to financially support a Scribe or Pharisees was considered to be such a high act of piety, that God gave you special or additional blessings. Therefore, the religious leaders used this to milk the most vulnerable and gullible through a form of extortion.
The scribes were Jewish lawyers and their services were often used by widows who had received a dowry from their father. Often, Scribes were used to help widows with the legal aspect of this. Sadly, many abused their position. There are records where some widows basically gave “power of attorney” over all their finances and possessions to these Scribes and Pharisees. Some of these religious leaders would convince these widows to give their dowry to the Temple as if giving it to God and these religious leaders would then keep some of it for themselves. Sounds like modern televangelists and Christian authors today. Instead of building God’s kingdom; they build their own kingdom with mansions, leat jets and huge bank accounts.
Throughout its pages, Scripture highly honors genuine spiritual leaders who rightly and faithfully represent God and seek no self-glory. God lifts up His true servants and presents them as examples for others to follow and respect. We see this from the Apostle Paul with the church leaders in the church of Galatia (see Gal. 4:14) and the Philippian church with Epaphroditus (see Phil. 2:29-30). The Apostle Paul begged the church of Thessalonica to follow their spiritual leaders (see 1 These. 5:12-13).
In Matthew 23, Jesus condemns the false and fake spirituality of the religious leaders. In their hubris, arrogance and cockiness, they really believed they were the doorkeepers to the kingdom of heaven, not God. The scribes and Pharisees, and all other Jews who followed their hypocritical traditions, lived under the delusion that, because they were His called People and the receivers and human custodians of God’s law (Rom. 3:2; Rom. 9:4-5), they were somehow automatically destined to live under God’s approval. In their spiritual darkness they confused merely knowing the law with keeping it, and merely knowing about the light with living in it.
Reflection Assignment: The Pharisees, like many religious leaders today, were about building their kingdom, not God’s kingdom. What do you see the Christian faith and your relationship to Christ as? Are you trying to get something out of it for yourself or as something you can pass on to others through discipleship? Are you discipling anyone currently? If not, why? According to Jesus you may be shutting people off from the kingdom of heaven. Ask God today to give you the name of someone you could disciple. If you do not know what to do, ask our staff. We will be glad to give you resources to do this.
Scripture To Meditate On: Matthew 18:6, “But if you cause one of these little ones who trusts in Me to fall into sin, it would be better for you to have a large millstone tied around your neck and be drowned in the depths of the sea” (NLT).
Prayer To Pray: “Dear Lord, I do not want to build my kingdom, but Your kingdom. Give me a name today of someone I can disciple, that I can help them be included in Your kingdom. I never want to be a stumbling block to anyone. Lord, use me as a disciple of You to make disciples for You. I love You Lord. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”
I love you Southside! – Pastor Kelly