Matthew 23:15 is Jesus rebuking the religious leaders of his day for working hard to win converts while failing to live out the faith themselves. The verse shows that zeal for religious growth is not the same as genuine spiritual health, and that a religion of outward effort can end up damaging the very people it claims to save. Jesus speaks these words to the scribes and Pharisees, the religious teachers and strict observers of the Jewish law, during his final public teaching in the temple area in Jerusalem.
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel around by sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of Gehenna as yourselves.
Matthew 23:15 (WEB)
What Matthew 23:15 Means
The verse opens with a “woe,” a prophetic cry of grief and warning rather than a curse. Jesus addresses the leaders directly and calls them hypocrites, meaning people who act one way in public while being another way inside. The charge is pointed: these men are busy crossing land and sea to gain a single follower.
The heart of the verse is the outcome. Once that person converts, these leaders make him “twice as much a son of Gehenna” as themselves. Gehenna was a name for a place of judgment, so the phrase describes someone headed toward ruin. Jesus is saying that the convert ends up more spiritually corrupted than the teachers who won him over, because he inherits their hypocrisy and multiplies it.
What the verse does not do is condemn missionary effort or the desire to bring people into the faith. Jesus himself sends his followers to make disciples of all nations. The warning falls on the motive and the method, not on the act of reaching out. It promises no particular outcome for people who try to spread their beliefs, only a sober reminder that how you lead others matters as much as the number you lead.
The Context of Matthew 23:15
Matthew 23 is a long speech in which Jesus repeatedly pronounces “woe” on the scribes and Pharisees. The Gospel is traditionally attributed to Matthew, a former tax collector who wrote for a community with strong Jewish roots, so his readers would have understood the religious categories and the tensions between Jesus and the leaders of his time. The chapter is among the most direct condemnations in the Gospels.
Just before verse 15, Jesus accuses these leaders of shutting the kingdom of heaven against people and keeping others from entering. Verse 15 follows that thought naturally: they are not only failing to enter it themselves, they are also recruiting others into a distorted version of it. Read in that light, the verse becomes less about one specific tactic and more about a pattern of religious leadership that puts appearances and rule-keeping ahead of mercy and truth.
Key Phrases in Matthew 23:15
Matthew 23:12
Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
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This verse, just before the woes, states the principle behind them: those who exalt themselves will be humbled. It helps explain why the leaders’ self-presentation is so troubling, since their pride is the root of the hypocrisy Jesus condemns in verse 15.
Romans 2:24
For “the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you,” just as it is written.
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Paul writes that God’s name is blasphemed among the nations because of the conduct of his people. The passage echoes the concern in Matthew 23:15 that poor leadership and inconsistent living can damage how others come to understand God.
A Short Prayer From Matthew 23:15
Lord, you see the places in my heart where I want to look faithful more than I want to be faithful. Keep me honest about my motives when I speak about you or lead others toward you. Let my life match my words, so that anyone drawn near to you through me is drawn toward your mercy and truth, not toward my pride or pretense. Forgive me for the hidden hypocrisies I hardly notice, and make me humble enough to learn from you. Amen.
