Verses 8-11 affirm that the Christian community is essentially a fellowship in which God is the “one Father” (verse 9) and Jesus alone is the teacher in an absolute sense. This means then that within this community there must be no striving for positions of authority. On the contrary, the “greatest” of believers is the one who humbles himself and becomes “servant” of all other believers (verse 11).

But you are not to be called may be better understood as an active statement: “But you must not let others call.” The command may be understood to mean being called teacher by anyone, and it can be translated “You must not let anyone call you.” Or the verse may be somewhat rearranged and “others” identified as “brothers” or “fellow believers”; for example, “But all of you are brothers (fellow believers), and so none of you should call the other ‘Teacher.’ You have only one teacher.” See also 5.22 for further discussion of brethren or “brothers.”

You have one teacher may be translated “there is only one person who is your teacher” or “you only have one teacher.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on the Gospel of Matthew. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1988. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .