---
title: Matthew 23:4
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/matthew-23-4/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/matthew-23-4.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Matthew 23:4
testament: NT
section: Gospels
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Matthew 23:4

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> They tie up heavy, burdensome loads and lay them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.

## NWT Wording of the Key Phrase

- NWT (2013 revision): "They bind up heavy loads and put them on the shoulders of men, but they themselves are not willing to budge them with their finger."

## JW Usage

The Watchtower cites Matthew 23:4 against the Pharisees and against Christendom's teachings — the legalism of mainstream religion is framed as the heavy yoke Jesus rebuked. The Watchtower itself is presented as the alternative: Jehovah's arrangement under the Governing Body is depicted as the liberating contrast to Pharisaic and Catholic legalism. The organisation's own catalogue of conduct rules — beard policy, birthday ban, blood policy, voting and jury prohibitions, dress standards, meeting and field-service expectations — is exempted from the same scrutiny.

## Protestant Usage

Hold the verse up as a mirror. Jesus's complaint against the Pharisees was twofold: they bound heavy burdens on others, and they applied the burdens with a harshness that did not match their own willingness to help bear them. The 2023 reversal of the beard policy — after sixty years of brothers being denied pioneering, judicial-committee privileges, and even potential marriages over a rule that was never in Scripture — fits Jesus's description exactly. Pair Matthew 23:4 with Romans 14:5 ("let each one be fully convinced in his own mind") and Colossians 2:20-23 (decrees of "do not handle, do not taste, do not touch" as having "the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion"). Wherever an organisation binds the conscience on matters Scripture leaves to the believer, it is doing what Jesus warned against — even when its motives are sincere.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [The Beard Ban — A Rule the Bible Never Made](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/jw-beard-ban.md) — Romans 14:5 / Colossians 2:20-23 [Practice]