Do Matthew 5:19 and 11:11 teach that there are ranks in heaven?
A viewer asks whether Matthew 5:19 and 11:11, which speak of the least and the great in heaven, mean there are ranks in heaven.
Answer
In Matthew 5:19, whoever breaks one of the least commandments and teaches men so shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever keeps and teaches them shall be called great. This is a play on words, a pedagogical device to teach that one reaps what he sows. Although in Jesus' teaching the kingdom of heaven is often a mixture of good and evil, as in Matthew 13, that is not the case here, because Matthew 5:20 portrays the kingdom as exclusively for the good: unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter the kingdom. So Matthew 5:19 does not imply that those who break the commandments will occupy the kingdom. When Scripture actually refers to degrees of status in heaven, it uses the phrase lesser in the kingdom, as in Matthew 11:11, not shall be called least in the kingdom. So in Matthew 5:19 Jesus is teaching that those within the kingdom will call those who break the commandments least and those who obey them great, which is also how Chrysostom, Jerome, and Augustine understood it. It is the same polarity as first and last, whoever is first shall be last.