Who Is the Greatest

Plain English Version (PEV)

Mat 18:1–5

1 Jesus said, “If another Christian does something wrong to you, then you have to go to them and talk about it. Just the 2 of you can talk about it together, while you are alone. If they listen to you and agree with you, then you can call them your Christian friend again.
2 But if they don’t want to listen to you, take one or 2 other people with you and go to them. These other people will hear about the wrong things your friend did, and they will hear what you say to your friend. They will find out what is true.
3 If your friend will not listen to all of you, go to the church, and tell the people in the church what happened, and let them sort it out and talk to your friend. If your friend doesn’t want to listen to them, you can stop being their friend. They are like somebody that doesn’t know God, or like somebody that doesn’t do what God says.”
4 Then Jesus said, “Listen. This is true. You Christians in the church are the ones that will know what God wants. If you all agree that something here on this earth is wrong, it will be something that God in heaven already said is wrong. And if you all agree that something here on this earth is all right, it will be something that God in heaven already said is all right.
5 I’ll tell you this again. If you agree together about something, even if it is only 2 of you, and then you ask my Father in heaven to do that thing, he will do it for you.

33 John said to Jesus, “Teacher, we saw a man using your power by saying your name to send bad spirits out of people. He’s not one of our mob, so we told him to stop.”
34 But Jesus said, “No. Don’t stop him. If somebody uses my power by saying my name to do good and powerful things for people, he can’t soon turn around and say bad things about me.
35 You see, if somebody is not trying to block us, well really, he is on our side.
36 And if somebody knows you are my follower, and so he tries to help you, even if he just gives you a drink of water, God will be sure to pay him with something good for that good thing he did.
37 But, if a little one trusts me and somebody gets him to do something bad, God will properly punish that person. Suppose somebody will get a big rock and tie it to that person’s neck and throw him into the sea and drown him, that will be bad for him, but not as bad as the trouble God will give him for getting that little one to go wrong.