Matthew 19
BSASBJesus teaches about marriage, pointing back to God’s design at creation, and then welcomes little children. A rich young man walks away from Jesus because he cannot let go of his wealth, which leads to teaching on how hard and how possible salvation is. The chapter closes with Jesus’ promise of reward to those who give up all to follow Him.
Matthew 19:1-2
Jesus leaves Galilee and heads toward Judea, on the way to Jerusalem. Crowds keep following Him, and He keeps healing them. Even on the road to the cross, His compassion for the sick does not stop.
BSA: healed (“made well, cured, served”): Healing was an act of service, not a display; He gave Himself to people’s needs.
Matthew 19:3
The Pharisees come not to learn but to trap Him. Teachers of that day argued over what grounds justified divorce, so any answer would offend someone. Their question assumes divorce is fine and asks only how easily it may be done.
BSA: tested (“tried to tempt”): Their aim was to catch Him in a trap, not to find the truth.
Greek: πειράζοντες (peirazontes, G3985) — “testing, putting to the proof.” The word is often used of tempting someone to fail. They were trying to push Jesus into a damaging answer.
Matthew 19:4-6
Jesus takes them back past Moses to Creation. God made man and woman for each other, and joined them in a bond deeper than a contract. Marriage is God’s work, so it is not something people should casually undo.
BSA: joined (“united, coupled”): The picture is of two animals yoked under one load, bound together by God. separate (“put asunder, tear apart”): Divorce is described as tearing apart something God has made one.
Greek: συνέζευξεν (synezeuxen, G4801) — “yoked together.” The word pictures two oxen under one yoke. God Himself fastens the couple together.
See also: Genesis 1:27; Genesis 2:24.
Matthew 19:7-8
The Pharisees point to Moses’ law. Jesus says Moses did not command divorce but allowed it, because people’s hearts were hard. It was a concession to human sin, not God’s ideal, which was set at the beginning.
BSA: hardness of heart (“stubbornness, unwillingness to listen”): The problem was a heart that would not bend to God’s design.
Greek: σκληροκαρδίαν (sklērokardian, G4641) — “hard-heartedness.” It joins the words for hard and heart. It names a stubborn, unyielding inner life.
See also: Deuteronomy 24:1.
Matthew 19:9
Jesus states God’s standard plainly. Divorcing a wife and marrying another is adultery, with one exception named: sexual immorality. Christians have understood the details and the exception in different ways, but all hear a serious call to take marriage vows seriously.
BSA: sexual immorality (“immoral sexual behavior”): The exception refers to grave sexual unfaithfulness, a breach of the marriage bond itself.
Greek: πορνείᾳ (porneia, G4202) — “sexual immorality.” This is a broad word for sexual sin outside faithful marriage, not only one specific act.
Matthew 19:10
The disciples are shocked. If marriage is that binding and escape that limited, they say, perhaps it is better not to marry at all. They feel how high Jesus has set the bar.
Matthew 19:11-12
Jesus says not everyone can take in this word. Some are unmarried by birth, some by what others did to them, and some by choice, to serve God’s kingdom more freely. Singleness for the kingdom is a gift, given to some and not to all.
BSA: accept (“receive, take in”): This is a gift received from God, not something achieved by willpower. eunuchs (“voluntarily celibate, for spiritual purposes”): The third kind chooses celibacy for the sake of serving God, not from any physical condition.
Greek: εὐνοῦχοι (eunouchoi, G2135) — “eunuchs, castrated or celibate men.” Jesus uses the word in three senses, ending with those who freely give up marriage for the kingdom.
See also: 1 Corinthians 7:7.
Matthew 19:13
Parents bring little children so Jesus can lay His hands on them and pray. The disciples scold the parents, thinking He has more important matters. Their reaction shows how easily followers of Jesus overlook the small and unimportant.
BSA: rebuked (“warned, scolded”): The disciples spoke sharply, trying to stop the parents from coming.
Matthew 19:14-15
Jesus is displeased with the disciples and welcomes the children. The kingdom belongs to those who come with the open, trusting dependence of a child. He blesses them and moves on.
BSA: hinder (“refuse to, forbid”): Jesus tells them not to put up any barrier between children and Himself.
See also: Matthew 18:3; Mark 10:14.
Matthew 19:16
A man comes eagerly with a sincere question. He assumes eternal life is earned by doing some good thing. His question shows he is thinking of achievement, not of receiving a gift.
BSA: eternal (“lasting forever, age-during”): This is the life of the age to come, a life that begins with God now and never ends.
Matthew 19:17
Jesus turns the man from the question of what to do toward God Himself, the only One who is truly good. Then He points him to the commandments. The commandments show what a good life looks like, and they will expose what the man lacks.
BSA: good (“perfectly”): Goodness in the full sense belongs to God alone, so no one reaches it by their own effort.
See also: Mark 10:18.
Matthew 19:18-19
Jesus lists commandments about how we treat other people. He ends with the command to love one’s neighbor as oneself, which sums up the rest. He leaves out the command against coveting, the one that will soon touch the man’s heart.
See also: Leviticus 19:18; Exodus 20:12-16.
Matthew 19:20
The young man claims to have kept all these, at least outwardly. Yet he feels something missing. That inner restlessness is honest, and it opens the way for Jesus to show him the real issue.
BSA: lack (“fall short, be inferior, come short of”): He senses a gap he cannot name, even after all his careful obedience.
Matthew 19:21
Jesus goes to the one thing the man’s heart holds on to. He tells him to sell his possessions, give to the poor, and follow Him. The treasure is real, but it is found in following Jesus, not in keeping the wealth.
BSA: perfect (“complete, mature”): Jesus speaks of wholeness of devotion, a heart held back from nothing.
Greek: τέλειος (teleios, G5046) — “complete, whole, mature.” The word means reaching the full goal, not flawless in every detail. Jesus offers the man a whole-hearted life.
See also: Matthew 6:19-21.
Matthew 19:22
The man leaves grieving. He wanted eternal life, but he loved his wealth more than he trusted Jesus. This sad scene shows that anything held more tightly than Christ can keep us from Him.
BSA: sorrow (“to grieve”): He left genuinely pained, aware of what he was giving up by turning away.
Matthew 19:23-24
Jesus warns that riches make it hard to enter the kingdom, because they breed self-reliance. His picture of a camel through a needle’s eye is deliberately impossible. Entering is beyond human power.
BSA: camel (“a large animal”): The camel was the largest animal familiar to His hearers, making the contrast stark. needle (“a sewing instrument, requiring precision”): It is an ordinary sewing needle, with a very tiny eye.
Greek: τρυπήματος (trypēmatos, G5169) — “hole, eye (of a needle).” It means a small punched hole. The image is of something truly impossible, not a hard squeeze.
See also: Mark 10:23-25.
Matthew 19:25-26
The disciples had thought wealth was a sign of God’s favor, so they are stunned and ask who can be saved. Jesus answers that salvation is impossible for people to achieve, but nothing is impossible for God. Salvation is His work.
BSA: saved (“rescued, delivered from harm, healed”): Salvation means being rescued by another, not rescuing ourselves. impossible (“totally”): Jesus stresses that by human effort alone it cannot be done at all.
See also: Genesis 18:14; Ephesians 2:8-9.
Matthew 19:27
Peter contrasts the disciples with the rich man. They have left everything for Jesus, so what is in it for them? The question is honest, and Jesus answers it generously rather than rebuking him.
BSA: left (“forsaken, released”): They let go of their old lives to follow Him.
Matthew 19:28
Jesus promises that in the renewal of all things, when He reigns in glory, the twelve will share in His rule over Israel. God will one day make creation new. Those who followed Him will be honored in that day.
BSA: renewal (“rebirth, regeneration”): It points to a new beginning for the whole creation, like a birth.
Greek: παλιγγενεσίᾳ (palingenesia, G3824) — “new birth, renewal.” It joins the words for again and birth. It names the world made new at the end of the age.
See also: Revelation 21:5; Luke 22:28-30.
Matthew 19:29
Anyone who gives up family, home or land for Christ’s sake will receive far more, and will inherit eternal life. The loss is real, but God repays it many times over, in His family now and in the age to come.
BSA: hundredfold (“a hundred times more, abundantly”): God’s return far outweighs what is surrendered.
See also: Mark 10:29-30.
Matthew 19:30
Jesus closes with a reversal. Those who seem first, in status or wealth, may end up last, and those who seem last may be first. God’s measure of greatness is not the world’s, and He rewards the humble and faithful.
BSA: last (“in a position of humility, least”): The last are the humble ones whom the world overlooks, but God honors them.
See also: Matthew 20:16.