Matthew 5:18

The context

The Sermon on the Mount has opened with blessings and with the images of salt and light. Verse 18 begins a paragraph in which Jesus states his relation to the law and the prophets before giving a series of antitheses. The paragraph insists that his teaching fulfils rather than dissolves what came before, and it does so on his own authority.

What it establishes

It establishes that Jesus affirmed the enduring standing of the law down to its smallest written details, and that he tied that endurance to a limit: until heaven and earth pass, and until all is accomplished.

What it does not establish

It does not say how the law applies to Gentiles. The clause about all things being accomplished is disputed, and the antitheses that follow re-read several commandments in ways that have generated centuries of argument. The verse asserts permanence; it does not supply a hermeneutic.

Short note, first pass, October 2026. Corrections welcome.

Cited in these answers

• If only the words of Jesus matter, why do we need Paul and the rest of the New Testament?

Part of Scripture, Opened — the exegetical layer behind every citation on this site. Scripture quotations are from the ESV.