Matthew 5:24

leave your gift there before the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.

Berean Standard Bible

Study note

Setting — Jesus addresses his disciples during the Sermon on the Mount, using the temple worship routine to illustrate interpersonal ethics. He interrupts a sacrificial act at the altar to prioritize human reconciliation before religious observance continues.

The words — ἄφες (aphes) commands to "do leave" or "put aside" the offering, while δῶρον (dōron) specifies the "gift" itself. These terms anchor the instruction in the physical act of abandoning a ritual to pursue immediate relational repair.

The thread — This imperative to prioritize reconciliation over ritual appears alongside instructions to confess sins to one another (James 5:16), refuse retaliation (Romans 12:17), and pursue private confrontation (Matthew 18:15). The theme binds worship ethics to active peace-making across the New Testament.

Why it lands — The text demands that religious observance yield to active reconciliation when a brother holds a grievance. It requires the reader to interrupt worship, restore the relationship, and then resume the ritual.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.

The Greek words

King James Version

Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.

Cross-references

James 5:16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man has great power to prevail.
Romans 12:17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Carefully consider what is right in the eyes of everybody.
Matthew 18:15 If your brother sins against you, go and confront him privately. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over.
1 Peter 3:7 Husbands, in the same way, treat your wives with consideration as a delicate vessel, and with honor as fellow heirs of the gracious gift of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered.
Job 42:8 So now, take seven bulls and seven rams, go to My servant Job, and sacrifice a burnt offering for yourselves. Then My servant Job will pray for you, for I will accept his prayer and not deal with you according to your folly. For you have not spoken accurately about Me, as My servant Job has.”
Proverbs 25:9 Argue your case with your neighbor without betraying another’s confidence,
1 Corinthians 6:7 The very fact that you have lawsuits among you means that you are thoroughly defeated already. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated?
1 Timothy 2:8 Therefore I want the men everywhere to pray, lifting up holy hands, without anger or dissension.
Matthew 23:23 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You pay tithes of mint, dill, and cumin. But you have disregarded the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy, and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.
1 Corinthians 11:28 Each one must examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup.