Matthew 3:9

3:9 and don’t think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that God can raise up children for Abraham from these stones!

Matthew 6:24

6:24 “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate ¹  the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise ²  the other. You cannot serve God and money. ³ 

Matthew 12:29

12:29 How ⁴  else can someone enter a strong man’s ⁵  house and steal his property, unless he first ties up the strong man? Then he can thoroughly plunder the house. ⁶ 

Matthew 26:42

26:42 He went away a second time and prayed, ⁷  “My Father, if this cup ⁸  cannot be taken away unless I drink it, your will must be done.”

¹ sn The contrast between hate and love here is rhetorical. The point is that one will choose the favorite if a choice has to be made.

² tn Or “and treat [the other] with contempt.”

³ tn Grk “God and mammon.”

¹ tn Grk “Or how can.”

² sn The strong man here pictures Satan.

³ sn Some see the imagery here as similar to Eph 4:7-10, although no opponents are explicitly named in that passage. Jesus has the victory over Satan. Jesus’ acts of healing mean that the war is being won and the kingdom is coming.

¹ tn Grk “saying.” The participle λέγων (legwn) is redundant here in contemporary English and has not been translated.

² tn Grk “this”; the referent (the cup) has been specified in the translation for clarity.