TWICE AS MUCH A SON OF HELL

• Intro
  
• Still in the Book of Matthew
  
• Near the End
  
• Verse 15 – Jesus Speaks

​Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves. (Matthew 23:15, NKJV).

As many of you have noticed, I haven’t been blogging on my website as much as I have in the past. At one point, Holy Spirit had me writing an article at least once a week, if not more. It seemed that every time I read my Bible, I had something to share—either through a vlog or a written blog post.
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Something changed shortly after November 2025. Of course, I was still reading and studying my Bible, but I didn’t feel led to share anything publicly. It was as if I had entered a new season. I was learning and being awed by the things Holy Spirit was teaching me, but I kept most of it to myself. This was different for me because I enjoy sharing. Sharing ties directly into my love language, which is quality time.

Anywho, starting in November, I knew GOD was requiring me to remain silent concerning the things I was learning. Therefore, I really haven’t blogged anything since then.

I’m saying all this because I know from my traffic stats that many of you who were reading and watching my content were wondering what happened. So, I wanted to take a few minutes to explain before posting a new blog article. GOD SPEAKS

STILL IN THE BOOK OF MATTHEW

As many of you know, I’ve been studying the Book of Matthew since August or September 2024, primarily focusing on Jesus’ healing ministry—His interactions with His disciples and the people in various communities. Man, Holy Spirit opened my eyes to the principles behind Jesus’ healing ministry. I will admit, it not only opened my eyes to where I was lacking in my heart posture and understanding in this area, but it also changed my perspective and knowledge dramatically.

NEAR THE END​

​Well, almost two years later, I am finally nearing the end of the Book of Matthew. As I read this morning, the Scriptures just opened up when I reached Matthew 23:15. In fact, I had to go back and read that one verse at least three times. I tried to continue reading, but Holy Spirit kept highlighting verse 15 to the point where I felt stuck.

So, I looked down at my footnote for verse 15. It read, “They [meaning the Scribes and Pharisees—the Jewish religious leaders] were ‘zealous missionaries of evil.’” After reading that footnote, I felt like Neo in The Matrix when he does one of his most iconic moves by dodging bullets. I read the footnote a second time and thought, Whoa… let me do a deeper dive on verse 15.
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Verse 15—Jesus SpeakS

As we know, Jesus is speaking to the Jewish religious leaders—the Scribes and Pharisees—in Matthew 23:15. To understand the full context of what is happening here and why, let’s begin at verse 1 of this chapter.

I won’t start at verse 1 here; you will need to go back and read verses 1 through 15 on your own time. But I will summarize some of the verses that lead up to verse 15.

Throughout chapter 23, Jesus gives the Scribes and Pharisees an earful. He rebukes them for being self‑righteous hypocrites. He calls them out for appearing to be caring religious leaders while being devoid of true inner spiritual reality. MY GOD!

Look at what Jesus says about them in verse 3 to His disciples and the multitudes who were present that day:
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Therefore whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do, but do not do according to their works; for they say, and do not do (Matthew 23:3, NKJV).

What—wait! Let me read that in another translation:

​So practice and obey whatever they tell you, but don’t follow their example. For they don’t practice what they teach (Matthew 23:3, NLT).
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Far too many religious leaders in Jesus’ time said one thing according to the Law of Moses, but they failed to practice their own precepts. This is why Jesus says in verse 4 that they “bind heavy burdens, hard to bear” on the people. They placed countless rules and regulations—full of ritual observance—that kept the people in bondage.

Then, in verses 5 through 12, Jesus addresses their public display of pride, declaring that they demanded places of prominence and titles that signified their superiority. Then we get into what I consider the meaty part of the chapter in verses 13 through 15, with verse 16 as a bonus.

Jesus opens verse 13 with an interjection: the word woe, or ouaí (G3759). This Greek word introduces Jesus’ denunciation based on what He says next.
Before we explore what, Jesus says next, let’s discuss denunciation for a moment. According to the Cambridge Dictionary, denunciation is the public criticism of something or someone. So, as we see, Jesus publicly pointed out the sins, failures, self‑righteousness, and prideful behaviors of the religious leaders. Jesus exposed them before the multitudes (Ephesians 5:11).

Many pastors and leaders today claim that Christians should not publicly expose the sins or failures of other Christians. Some even use Scripture to justify their point of view. But this is not what Jesus taught or practiced. He did not avoid addressing the shortcomings of leaders. He exposed them—and He did so publicly. However, we are still obligated to apply the principle stated in Matthew 18:15–17. There is no way around this principle. If you bypass it, no matter how you try to twist it, you are out of order (1 Corinthians 14:40).

Back to Matthew 23. After Jesus opens with woe in verse 13, He says this about the religious leaders:
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​You shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourself, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.
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Man, I could go in many different directions with this, but let me stick with the text.

The point Jesus is making about the Jewish religious leaders is that not only did they refuse the truth, but their legalistic attitudes created a barrier for those who were seeking the truth. What truth is Jesus referring to? Luke 11:52 says they “take away the key of knowledge.” In fact, not only were they withholding the key of knowledge from the masses, they were actively hindering those who were trying to obtain it. Wow! Let’s not miss Jesus’ point here.

The Jewish leaders were committing one of the most terrible crimes against mankind. Not only did they make the gospel and its teachings legalistic, but they also hindered the people from gaining understanding and knowledge through their traditions, rules, and rituals. This resulted in the multitudes not encountering the revelation of GOD. They kept people from GOD. LORD JESUS!

Let’s keep it moving.

Jesus continues in verse 14: “…for you devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense make long prayers….” MY LORD! While professing to be righteous, the religious leaders preyed on widows—pretending to help them while taking advantage of them at the same time.

In verse 15, Jesus says, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.” Simply put, Jesus called them zealous missionaries of evil because they were leading their converts down the wrong path.

You see, in their minds, their zeal for evangelism made them believe they were right with GOD. Remember Saul before he became Paul. In Acts 9, Saul was on his way to the synagogues of Damascus to arrest anyone who belonged to The Way (vv. 1–2). But before he arrived, Christ appeared as a bright light, causing Saul’s temporary blindness. As Saul fell to the ground, Jesus asked, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” (vv. 3–9). Eventually, Saul regained his sight through the disciple Ananias. After realizing his error and repenting, Saul became Paul and converted his faith by becoming a disciple of The Way (vv. 10–22).

As we know, Saul was zealous about his ministry, but he was leading many down the wrong path. It wasn’t until he had a true encounter with Christ that he acknowledged and turned away from his error.

In Matthew 23:15, Jesus was indicating something similar about the Scribes and Pharisees. As leaders, they went to great lengths to win people—but only to lead them into darkness, not to Christ.

So how were they winning a convert but then making him twice as much a son of hell? These religious leaders were not turning men from sin to GOD. In fact, they were no different from the Mormons or Jehovah’s Witnesses of today. They were delivering a false message—another Christ—to the people.

Man! As we examine these verses, we can see that the Scribes and Pharisees of Jesus’ day are no different from many religious leaders today. Far too many leaders pretend to care while taking advantage of the people. Many seek prominent places and titles that signified their superiority. Many do not want truth; therefore, they hinder those who seek it. Many do not care about the sins and struggles of the people. They have no interest in leading people to Christ. Instead, they lead people to celebrate and praise them as leaders. HYPOCRITES!
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Therefore, how fitting Jesus’ words to the Jewish religious leaders back then are for many religious leaders today.