What does Matthew 5:19 mean?

Verses 19 and 20 of this passage pose challenges for various traditions and interpretations. Jesus has declared that He has come to complete the purpose of the Old Testament, not to discard it (Matthew 5:17–18). The law will not pass away until all is accomplished; until heaven and earth pass away.

Now Jesus specifies further that His listeners are forbidden to ignore the commands of the law and the Prophets, either in their teaching or their own choices. Those who relax the commandments in the law will be called least in heaven's kingdom. Those who keep and teach them still will be called greatest in the kingdom. To fully understand this statement, it must be carefully read in context with the rest of Scripture.

Critically, Jesus does not say that one must keep the commandments in order to attain heaven. Part of this discourse is explaining that human effort will never be good enough (Matthew 5:20). And Jesus is clear that salvation comes by faith, not by good behavior (John 17:3). Careful reading shows that Jesus is speaking of both persons—those who do and those who do not obey the law of Moses—are in the kingdom of heaven. The point here is about one's rewards or status in that kingdom.

Likewise, application of Jesus' teaching throughout the New Testament is that believers in Jesus are not required to follow the law of Moses in order to be welcomed into the family of God through faith in Christ. As Paul will write to believers in Jesus in Romans 7:4–6:

"You also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code."

Why, then, would Jesus make such a strong declaration about not setting aside the laws of the Old Testament? Some scholars suggest Jesus was emphasizing that the law remained fully in effect at that moment, so obedience to God in every aspect of Jewish life and practice still mattered. His death for sin and His defeat of death through resurrection had not yet taken place, and such scholars suggest the conversation would change after the resurrection.

Others teach a more likely explanation, which is that a full, complete understanding of the law cannot be undone or discarded. In a broad sense, Christians are never meant to embrace antinomianism, which the attitude that no rules apply, at all. The teachings of Christ, for example, are never posed as options for true believers (John 14:15). The law of Moses had a specific purpose, and a specific audience: that does not change. Once all things are completed, those commandments are not "abolished," they are "fulfilled" (Hebrews 9:10–11; 10:1–4). Jesus' intent is not to throw away any part of God's commandments, only to understand them as they are meant to be understood.