The Season of Trinity

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. ²Above him stood the seraphim. Each one had six wings. With two they covered their faces. With two they covered their feet. With two they flew. ³One called to another and said,

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Armies!

The whole earth is full of his glory!

⁴The foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of the one who called, and the temple was filled with smoke.

⁵Then I said, “I am doomed! I am ruined, because I am a man with unclean lips, and I dwell among a people with unclean lips, and because my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Armies!”

⁶Then one of the seraphim flew to me, carrying a glowing coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs. ⁷He touched my mouth with the coal and said, “Look, this has touched your lips, so your guilt is taken away, and your sin is forgiven.”

³³Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!

How unsearchable are his judgments

and how untraceable his ways!

³⁴“For who has known the mind of the Lord,

or who has been his adviser?”

³⁵“Or who has first given to God

that he will be repaid?”

³⁶For from him and through him and to him are all things.

To him be the glory forever! Amen.

There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. ²He came to Jesus at night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one can do these miraculous signs you are doing unless God is with him.”

³Jesus replied, “Amen, Amen, I tell you: Unless someone is born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

⁴Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?”

⁵Jesus answered, “Amen, Amen, I tell you: Unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God! ⁶Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh. Whatever is born of the Spirit is spirit. ⁷Do not be surprised when I tell you that you must be born from above. ⁸The wind blows where it pleases. You hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

⁹“How can these things be?” asked Nicodemus.

¹⁰“You are the teacher of Israel,” Jesus answered, “and you do not know these things? ¹¹Amen, Amen, I tell you: We speak what we know, and we testify about what we have seen. But you people do not accept our testimony. ¹²If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? ¹³No one has ascended into heaven, except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man, who is in heaven.

¹⁴“Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, ¹⁵so that everyone who believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

¹⁶“For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. ¹⁷For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”

After these events the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision. He said, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.”

²Abram said, “Lord God what can you give me, since I remain childless, and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?” ³Abram also said, “Look, you have given me no offspring, so a servant born in my house will be my heir.”

⁴Just then, the word of the Lord came to him. God said, “This man will not be your heir, but instead one who will come out of your own body will be your heir.” ⁵The Lord then brought him outside and said, “Now look toward the sky and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” He said to Abram, “This is what your descendants will be like.” ⁶Abram believed in the Lord, and the Lord credited it to him as righteousness.

¹⁶We also have come to know and trust the love that God has for us.

God is love. Whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him. ¹⁷In this way his love has been brought to its goal among us, so that we may have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are just like Jesus. ¹⁸There is no fear in love, but complete love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who continues to be afraid has not been brought to the goal in love.

¹⁹We love because he first loved us. ²⁰If anyone says, “I love God,” but hates his brother, he is a liar. For how can anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, love God, whom he has not seen? ²¹This then is the command we have from him: The one who loves God should also love his brother.

¹⁹“There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen, living in luxury every day. ²⁰A beggar named Lazarus had been laid at his gate. Lazarus was covered with sores and ²¹longed to be fed with what fell from the rich man’s table. Besides this, the dogs also came and licked his sores. ²²Eventually the beggar died, and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. ²³In hell, where he was in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far away and Lazarus at his side. ²⁴He called out and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me! Send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in misery in this flame.’

²⁵“But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus received bad things. But now he is comforted here, and you are in misery. ²⁶Besides all this, a great chasm has been set in place between us and you, so that those who want to cross from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’

²⁷“He said, ‘Then I beg you, father, send him to my father’s home, ²⁸because I have five brothers—to warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’

²⁹“Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets. Let them listen to them.’

³⁰“‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’

³¹“Abraham replied to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”

Wisdom has built her house.

She has carved out her seven pillars.

²She has prepared her meat.

She has mixed her wine.

She has already set her table.

³She has sent out her servant girls.

She calls from the highest point in the city,

⁴“Whoever is naïve, let him turn in here.”

To someone who lacks sense she says,

⁵“Come, eat my food,

and drink the wine that I have mixed.

⁶Abandon your naïve ways and live.

Travel the road to understanding.”

⁷Whoever corrects a mocker invites insults,

and whoever warns a wicked person invites abuse.

⁸Do not warn a mocker, or he will hate you.

Warn a wise person, and he will love you.

⁹Give advice to a wise person, and he will become even wiser.

Teach a righteous person, and he will add to his learning.

¹⁰The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,

and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding,

¹³But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. ¹⁴For he himself is our peace. He made the two groups one by destroying the wall of hostility that divided them ¹⁵when he abolished the law of commandments and regulations in his flesh. He did this to create in himself one new person out of the two, in this way making peace. ¹⁶And he did this to reconcile both to God in one body through the cross by putting the hostility to death on it. ¹⁷He also came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. ¹⁸For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.

¹⁹So then, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of God’s household. ²⁰You have been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the Cornerstone. ²¹In him the whole building is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord. ²²In him you too are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

or

1 John 3:13–18

¹³Do not be surprised, brothers, if the world hates you. ¹⁴We know that we have crossed over from death to life, because we love our brothers. The one who does not love remains in death. ¹⁵Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life remaining in him. ¹⁶This is how we have come to know love: Jesus laid down his life for us. And we also should lay down our lives for our brothers. ¹⁷Whoever has worldly wealth and sees his brother in need but closes his heart against him—how can God’s love remain in him? ¹⁸Dear children, let us love not only with word or with our tongue, but also in action and truth.

¹⁵When one of those at the table with him heard these things, he said to Jesus, “Blessed is the one who will feast in the kingdom of God!”

¹⁶Jesus said to him, “A certain man made a great banquet and invited many people. ¹⁷When it was time for the banquet, he sent out his servant to tell those who were invited, ‘Come, because everything is now ready.’ ¹⁸But they all alike began to make excuses.

“The first one told him, ‘I bought a field, and I need to go and see it. I ask you to excuse me.’

¹⁹“Another one said, ‘I bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out. I ask you to excuse me.’

²⁰“Still another said, ‘I just got married, and so I am unable to attend.’

²¹“The servant arrived and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house was angry and said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town, and bring in here the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.’

²²“The servant said, ‘Master, what you commanded has been done, and there is still room.’

²³“Then the master said to the servant, ‘Go out into the highways and hedges, and urge them to come in, so that my house may be filled. ²⁴Yes, I tell you that none of those men who were invited will taste my banquet.’”

¹⁸Who is a God like you, who forgives guilt,

and who passes over the rebellion of the survivors from his inheritance?

He does not hold onto his anger forever.

He delights in showing mercy.

¹⁹He will have compassion on us again.

He will overcome our guilty deeds.

You will throw all their sins into the depths of the sea.

²⁰You will give truth to Jacob and mercy to Abraham,

as you swore to our fathers from days of old.

¹²I give thanks to the one who empowered me, namely, Christ Jesus our Lord, that he treated me as trustworthy, appointing me into his ministry. ¹³He did this even though formerly I was a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a violent man. But I was shown mercy, because I acted ignorantly in unbelief. ¹⁴The grace of our Lord overflowed on me along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. ¹⁵This saying is trustworthy and worthy of full acceptance: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,” of whom I am the worst. ¹⁶But I was shown mercy for this reason: that in me, the worst sinner, Christ Jesus might demonstrate his unlimited patience as an example for those who are going to believe in him, resulting in eternal life. ¹⁷Now to the King eternal, to the immortal, invisible, only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

or

1 Peter 5:6–11

⁶Therefore humble yourselves under God’s powerful hand so that he may lift you up at the appointed time. ⁷Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you. ⁸Have sound judgment. Be alert. Your adversary, the Devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. ⁹Resist him by being firm in the faith. You know that the same kinds of sufferings are being laid on your brotherhood all over the world.

¹⁰After you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who called you into his eternal glory in Christ Jesus, will himself restore, establish, strengthen, and support you. ¹¹To him be the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen.

All the tax collectors and sinners were coming to Jesus to hear him. ²But the Pharisees and the experts in the law were complaining, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

³He told them this parable: ⁴“Which one of you, if you had one hundred sheep and lost one of them, would not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that was lost until he finds it? ⁵And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders ⁶and goes home. Then he calls together his friends and his neighbors, telling them, ‘Rejoice with me, because I have found my lost sheep!’ ⁷I tell you, in the same way there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who do not need to repent.

⁸“Or what woman who has ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, would not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? ⁹And when she finds it, she calls together her friends and neighbors and says, ‘Rejoice with me, because I have found the lost coin.’ ¹⁰In the same way, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

or

Luke 15:11–32

¹¹Jesus said, “A certain man had two sons. ¹²The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them. ¹³Not many days later, the younger son gathered together all that he had and traveled to a distant country. There he wasted his wealth with reckless living. ¹⁴After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that country, and he began to be in need. ¹⁵He went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. ¹⁶He would have liked to fill his stomach with the carob pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.

¹⁷“When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread, and I am dying from hunger! ¹⁸I will get up, go to my father, and tell him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. ¹⁹I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.”’

²⁰“He got up and went to his father. While he was still far away, his father saw him and was filled with compassion. He ran, hugged his son, and kissed him. ²¹The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’

²²“But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick, bring out the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. ²³Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let us eat and celebrate, ²⁴because this son of mine was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found.’ Then they began to celebrate.

²⁵“His older son was in the field. As he approached the house, he heard music and dancing. ²⁶He called one of the servants and asked what was going on. ²⁷The servant told him, ‘Your brother is here! Your father killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and sound.’ ²⁸The older brother was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him.

²⁹“He answered his father, ‘Look, these many years I’ve been serving you, and I never disobeyed your command, but you never gave me even a young goat so that I could celebrate with my friends. ³⁰But when this son of yours arrived after wasting your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!’

³¹“The father said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours. ³²But it was fitting to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found.’”

¹⁵When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “It may be that Joseph will hate us and will pay us back in full for all of the evil that we did to him.”

¹⁶They sent the following message to Joseph: “Before he died your father commanded us, ¹⁷‘You are to tell Joseph, “Please forgive the offense of your brothers and their sin, because they did evil to you.”’ Now, please forgive the offense of the servants of the God of your father.”

Joseph wept when they spoke to him.

¹⁸His brothers also came and fell down in front of him, and they said, “See now, we are your servants.”

¹⁹Joseph said to them, “Do not be afraid, for am I in the place of God? ²⁰You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring this to pass and to keep many people alive, as it is this day. ²¹Now therefore do not be afraid. I will nourish you and your little ones.” He comforted them and spoke to them in a kind way.

¹⁴Bless those who persecute you; bless, and do not curse. ¹⁵Rejoice with those who are rejoicing; weep with those who are weeping. ¹⁶Have the same respect for one another. Do not be arrogant, but associate with the humble. Do not think too highly of yourselves.

¹⁷Do not pay anyone back evil for evil. Focus on those things that everyone considers noble. ¹⁸If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, maintain peace with everyone. ¹⁹Do not take revenge, dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath. For it is written, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay,” says the Lord. ²⁰But:

If your enemy is hungry, feed him;

if he is thirsty, give him a drink.

For by doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.

²¹Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

or

Romans 8:18–23 

¹⁸For I conclude that our sufferings at the present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is going to be revealed to us. ¹⁹In fact, creation is waiting with eager longing for the sons of God to be revealed. ²⁰For creation was subjected to futility, not by its own will, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in the hope ²¹that even creation itself will be set free from slavery to corruption, in order to share in the glorious freedom of the children of God.

²²For we know that all of creation is groaning with birth pains right up to the present time. ²³And not only creation, but also we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we eagerly await our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.

³⁶“Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

³⁷“Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. ³⁸Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be poured into your lap. In fact, the measure with which you measure will be measured back to you.” 

³⁹He also told them a parable: “A blind man cannot guide a blind man, can he? Won’t they both fall into a pit? ⁴⁰A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher. ⁴¹Why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but fail to notice the beam in your own eye? ⁴²Or how can you tell your brother, ‘Brother, let me remove the speck in your eye,’ when you do not see the beam in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the beam from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck in your brother’s eye.”

¹¹Then the Lord said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is passing by.” Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains and shattered rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind.

After the wind came an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake.

¹²After the earthquake there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire.

After the fire there was a soft, whispering voice.

¹³When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak, and he went out and stood at the entrance to the cave. Then a voice came to him and said, “Why are you here, Elijah?”

¹⁴He said, “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of Armies, but the people of Israel have abandoned your covenant. They have torn down your altars and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking to take my life.”

¹⁵Then the Lord said to him, “Go back the way you came and go to the Wilderness of Damascus. When you get there, you are to anoint Hazael as king over Aram. ¹⁶You will also anoint Jehu son of Nimshi as king over Israel and Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel Meholah as prophet in your place. ¹⁷Whoever escapes the sword of Hazael, Jehu will kill, and whoever escapes the sword of Jehu, Elisha will kill. ¹⁸But I have preserved in Israel seven thousand whose knees have not bent to Baal and whose lips have not kissed him.”

¹⁹So Elijah went from there and found Elisha son of Shaphat. Elisha was doing the plowing with twelve teams of oxen in front of him, and he himself was driving the twelfth team. Elijah crossed over to him and threw his cloak over him. ²⁰Then Elisha left the oxen and ran after Elijah. He said, “Let me kiss my father and my mother good-bye! Then I will follow you.”

Then Elijah said, “Go back! For what have I done to you?”

²¹So Elisha turned back from following him. Then he took the team of oxen and slaughtered them. Using the equipment from the oxen as fuel, he cooked the meat and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he got up, followed Elijah, and served him.

¹⁸For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. ¹⁹In fact, it is written:

I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; 

the intelligence of the intelligent I will bring to nothing. 

²⁰Where is the wise man? Where is the expert in the Jewish law? Where is the probing thinker of the present age? Has God not shown that the wisdom of this world is foolish? ²¹Indeed, since the world through its wisdom did not know God, God in his wisdom decided to save those who believe, through the foolishness of the preached message. ²²Yes, Jews ask for signs, Greeks desire wisdom, ²³but we preach Christ crucified—which is offensive to Jews and foolishness to Greeks, ²⁴but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. ²⁵We preach Christ crucified, because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

or

1 Peter 3:8–15

⁸Finally, all of you, live in harmony with one another. Show sympathy, brotherly love, compassion, and humility. ⁹Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. Instead, speak a blessing, because you were called for the purpose of inheriting a blessing. ¹⁰Indeed:

Let the one who wants to love life

and to see good days

keep his tongue from evil

and his lips from saying anything deceitful.

¹¹Let him turn from evil and do what is good.

Let him seek peace and pursue it.

¹²For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous,

and his ears are open to their requests.

But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.

¹³Who will harm you if you are eager to do what is good? ¹⁴But even if you should happen to suffer because of righteousness, you are blessed. Do not be afraid of what they fear, and do not be troubled. ¹⁵But regard the Lord, the Christ, as holy in your hearts. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give a reason for the hope that is in you.

One time, while the crowd was pressing in on Jesus and listening to the word of God, he was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret. ²He saw two boats there along the lakeshore. The fishermen had left them and were washing their nets. ³Jesus got into one of the boats, which belonged to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from the shore. He sat down and began teaching the crowds from the boat. ⁴When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water, and let down your nets for a catch.”

⁵Simon answered him, “Master, we worked hard all through the night and caught nothing. But at your word I will let down the nets.” ⁶When they had done this, they caught a great number of fish, and their nets were about to tear apart. ⁷They signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them. They came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink. ⁸When Simon Peter saw this, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Go away from me, because I am a sinful man, Lord.” ⁹For Peter and all those with him were amazed at the number of fish they had caught, ¹⁰and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon.

Jesus said to Simon, “Have no fear. From now on you will be catching people.”

¹¹After they brought their boats to the shore, they left everything and followed him.

Then God spoke all these words:

²I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from the land of Egypt, where you were slaves.

³You shall have no other gods beside me. ⁴You shall not make any carved image for yourself or a likeness of anything in heaven above, or on the earth below, or in the waters under the earth. ⁵Do not bow down to them or be subservient to them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God. I follow up on the guilt of the fathers with their children, their grandchildren, and their great-grandchildren, if they also hate me. ⁶But I show mercy to thousands who love me and keep my commandments.

⁷You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not permit anyone who misuses his name to escape unpunished.

⁸Remember the Sabbath day by setting it apart as holy. ⁹Six days you are to serve and do all your regular work, ¹⁰but the seventh day shall be a sabbath rest to the Lord your God. Do not do any regular work, neither you, nor your sons or daughters, nor your male or female servants, nor your cattle, nor the alien who is residing inside your gates, ¹¹for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and everything that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. In this way the Lord blessed the seventh day and made it holy.

¹²Honor your father and your mother so that you may spend many days on the land that the Lord your God is giving to you.

¹³You shall not commit murder.

¹⁴You shall not commit adultery.

¹⁵You shall not steal.

¹⁶You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.

¹⁷You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, his male servant, his female servant, his ox, his donkey, or anything else that belongs to your neighbor.

What shall we say then? Shall we keep on sinning so that grace may increase? ²Absolutely not! We died to sin. How can we go on living in it any longer?

³Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴We were therefore buried with him by this baptism into his death, so that just as he was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too would also walk in a new life.

⁵For if we have been united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly also be united with him in the likeness of his resurrection.

⁶We know that our old self was crucified with him, to make our sinful body powerless, so that we would not continue to serve sin. ⁷For the person who has died has been declared free from sin. ⁸And since we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. ⁹We know that since Christ has been raised from the dead, he will never die again. Death no longer has control over him. ¹⁰For the death he died, he died to sin once and for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God. ¹¹In the same way also consider yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

¹⁷“Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy them but to fulfill them. ¹⁸Amen I tell you: Until heaven and earth pass away, not even the smallest letter, or even part of a letter, will in any way pass away from the Law until everything is fulfilled. ¹⁹So whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever practices and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

²⁰“Indeed I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and experts in the law, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

²¹“You have heard that it was said to people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be subject to judgment.’ ²²But I tell you that everyone who is angry with his brother without a cause will be subject to judgment, and whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca,’ will have to answer to the Sanhedrin. But whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of hell fire.

²³“So if you are about to offer your gift at the altar, and there you remember that your brother has something against you, ²⁴leave your gift there in front of the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother. Then come and offer your gift.

²⁵“If someone accuses you, reach an agreement with him quickly, while you are with him on the way. Otherwise your accuser may bring you to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you will be thrown into prison. ²⁶Amen I tell you: You will never get out until you have paid the last penny.”

⁷The Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. ⁸The Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. ⁹Out of the ground the Lord God made every kind of tree grow—trees that are pleasant to look at and good for food, including the Tree of Life in the middle of the garden and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

¹⁰A river went out from Eden to water the garden, and from there it divided and became the headwaters of four rivers. ¹¹The name of the first river is Pishon. It flows through the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold, ¹²and the gold of that land is good. Incense and onyx stone are also found there. ¹³The name of the second river is Gihon. It is the same river that winds through the whole land of Cush. ¹⁴The name of the third river is Tigris. This is the one which flows along the east side of Assyria. The fourth river is the Euphrates.

¹⁵The Lord God took the man and settled him in the Garden of Eden to work it and to take care of it. ¹⁶The Lord God gave a command to the man. He said, “You may freely eat from every tree in the garden, ¹⁷but you shall not eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, for on the day that you eat from it, you will certainly die.”

¹⁹(I am speaking in a human way because of the weakness of your flesh.) Indeed, just as you offered your members as slaves to impurity and lawlessness, resulting in more lawlessness, so now offer your members in the same way as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification.

²⁰For when you were slaves of sin, you were free from righteousness. ²¹So what kind of fruit did you have then? They were things of which you are now ashamed. Yes, the final result of those things is death. ²²But now, since you were set free from sin and have become slaves to God, you have your fruit resulting in sanctification—and the final result is eternal life. ²³For the wages of sin is death, but the undeserved gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

In those days, when there was again a large crowd and they had nothing to eat, Jesus called his disciples and said to them, ²“I feel compassion for the crowd because they have already stayed with me three days and do not have anything to eat. ³If I send them home hungry, they will faint on the way. Some of them have come from a long distance.”

⁴His disciples replied, “Where can anyone get enough bread to feed these people here in this deserted place?”

⁵He asked them, “How many loaves do you have?”

“Seven,” they said.

⁶He commanded the crowd to sit down on the ground. Then he took the seven loaves, gave thanks, and broke them. He gave the pieces to his disciples to distribute to the crowd, and they did so. ⁷They also had a few small fish. He blessed them and said that these should be distributed as well. ⁸The people ate and were satisfied. They picked up seven basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. ⁹About four thousand men were there. Then he sent them away.

¹⁶This is what the Lord of Armies says.

Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you.

They are giving you false hope.

They proclaim visions that come from their own hearts

and not from the mouth of the Lord.

¹⁷They keep saying to those who despise me,

“The Lord has said that you will have peace.”

And to everyone who walks in the stubbornness of his own heart,

they say, “No harm will come to you.”

¹⁸But have any of them stood in the council of the Lord,

to see and hear his word?

Who has listened to his word and heard it?

¹⁹Look, a storm from the Lord!

His wrath has gone out,

like a whirlwind twisting down,

whirling over the heads of the wicked.

²⁰The Lord’s anger will not turn back until he has completely fulfilled the purposes of his heart. In later days you will understand it fully.

²¹I did not send these prophets, yet they ran.

I did not speak to them, yet they prophesied.

²²But if they had stood in my council,

they would have made my people hear my words,

and they would have turned them from their evil ways

and from their evil deeds.

²³Am I a God who is only nearby, declares the Lord,

and not a God far away?

²⁴Can anyone hide in secret places

so that I cannot see him? declares the Lord.

Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the Lord.

²⁵I have heard what the prophets who prophesy lies in my name have said. They say, “I have had a dream! I have had a dream!” ²⁶How long will this be in the hearts of these lying prophets? These prophets proclaim the fantasies of their own hearts. ²⁷They think they can make my people forget my name with the dreams each one tells his neighbor, the way their fathers forgot my name because of Baal. ²⁸Let the prophet who has a dream tell his dream. But let the one who has my word speak my word faithfully.

What has chaff to do with grain? declares the Lord. ²⁹Is not my word like a fire? declares the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?

²⁷“For I did not hesitate to proclaim to you the whole counsel of God.

²⁸“Always keep watch over yourselves and over the whole flock in which the Holy Spirit has placed you as overseers, to shepherd the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood. ²⁹I know that after my departure savage wolves, who will not spare the flock, will come in among you. ³⁰Even from your own group men will rise up, twisting the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. ³¹Therefore be always on the alert! Remember that for three years, night and day, I never stopped warning each one of you with tears.

³²“And now I entrust you to God and to the word of his grace, which has power to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified. ³³I did not covet anyone’s silver or gold or clothing. ³⁴You yourselves know that these hands have provided for my needs and for those who were with me. ³⁵In every way I gave you an example that, by working hard like this, we need to help the weak and to remember the words that the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”

³⁶After Paul said these things, he knelt down with all of them and prayed. ³⁷They all wept very much, as they threw their arms around Paul’s neck and kissed him. ³⁸They were most distressed over the statement he made, that they would never see his face again. Then they accompanied him to the ship.

or

Romans 8:12–17

¹²So then, brothers, we do not owe it to the sinful flesh to live in harmony with it. ¹³For if you live in harmony with the sinful flesh, you are going to die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the actions of the body, you will live.

¹⁴Indeed, those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. ¹⁵For you did not receive a spirit of slavery so that you are afraid again, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we call out, “Abba, Father!” ¹⁶The Spirit himself joins our spirit in testifying that we are God’s children.

¹⁷Now if we are children, we are also heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, since we suffer with him, so that we may also be glorified with him.

¹⁵“Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. ¹⁶By their fruit you will recognize them. You do not gather grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles, do you? ¹⁷So then, every good tree produces good fruit, but a bad tree produces bad fruit. ¹⁸A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot produce good fruit. ¹⁹Every tree that does not produce good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. ²⁰So then, by their fruit you will recognize them. ²¹Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. ²²Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and drive out demons in your name and perform many miracles in your name?’ ²³Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you evildoers.’”

²⁶To the merciful you reveal yourself as merciful.

To the blameless person you reveal yourself as blameless.

²⁷To the pure you reveal yourself as pure,

but to the crooked you reveal yourself as crafty.

²⁸Yes, you save humble people,

but your eyes are on the proud, and you bring them down.

²⁹Yes, you are my lamp, O Lord.

The Lord turns my darkness to light.

³⁰For with you I can charge against a battalion,

and with my God I can jump over a wall.

³¹This God—his way is blameless.

The speech of the Lord is pure.

He is a shield for all who take refuge in him.

³²For who is God besides the Lord?

And who is the Rock except our God?

³³This God wraps me with strength

and makes my way smooth.

³⁴By making my feet like those of a deer,

he enables me to stand on high places.

⁶Now these things took place as examples to warn us not to desire evil things the way they did. ⁷Do not become idolaters like some of them—as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink, and got up to celebrate wildly.” ⁸And let us not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and in one day twenty-three thousand fell. ⁹Let us not put Christ to the test, as some of them did, and so were being destroyed by the serpents. ¹⁰And do not grumble, as some of them grumbled, and were destroyed by the destroyer. ¹¹All these things that were happening to them had meaning as examples, and they were written down to warn us, to whom the end of the ages has come.

¹²So let him who thinks he stands be careful that he does not fall. ¹³No testing has overtaken you except ordinary testing. But God is faithful. He will not allow you to be tested beyond your ability, but when he tests you, he will also bring about the outcome that you are able to bear it.

Jesus also said to his disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager who was accused of wasting his possessions. ²The rich man called him in and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you can no longer be manager.’

³“The manager said to himself, ‘What will I do, since my master is taking away the management position from me? I am not strong enough to dig. I am ashamed to beg. ⁴I know what I will do, so that when I am removed from my position as manager, people will receive me into their houses.’

⁵“He called each one of his master’s debtors to him. He asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ ⁶He said, ‘Six hundred gallons of olive oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and write three hundred.’ ⁷Then he said to another, ‘How much do you owe?’ And he said, ‘Six hundred bushels of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill and write four hundred and eighty.’

⁸“The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the children of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the children of the light are. ⁹I tell you, make friends for yourselves with unrighteous mammon, so that when it runs out, they will welcome you into the eternal dwellings.”

¹⁰“The person who is faithful with very little is also faithful with much. And the person who is unrighteous with very little is also unrighteous with much. ¹¹So if you have not been faithful with unrighteous mammon who will entrust you with what is really valuable? ¹²If you have not been faithful with what belongs to someone else, who will give you something to be your own? ¹³No servant can serve two masters. Indeed, either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and mammon.”

⁴You are to tell them that this is what the Lord says:

Do people fall and not get up again?

If a person turns away, doesn’t he turn back again?

⁵Then why has this people turned away?

Why is Jerusalem always turning away?

They hang on to deception

and refuse to let it go.

⁶I have paid attention and listened, but they do not say what is right.

No one repents of his wickedness.

No one asks, “What have I done?”

Everyone pursues his own course,

like a horse charging into battle.

⁷Even the stork in the sky knows her seasons.

The turtledove, the swift, and the thrush

observe the right time for their migration.

But my people do not recognize

the just judgments of the Lord.

⁸How can you say, “We are wise,

and the law of the Lord is with us,”

when in reality the lying pen of the scribes

has changed it into a lie?

⁹Your wise men will be put to shame.

They will be shattered and captured.

Since they have rejected the word of the Lord,

what kind of wisdom do they have?

¹⁰That is why I will give their wives to other men

and their fields to new owners,

because, from the least to the greatest,

all of them are greedy for gain.

From prophet to priest, everyone practices deceit.

¹¹They dress the wound of the daughter of my people

as if it were not serious.

“Peace, peace,” they say,

when there is no peace.

¹²Are they ashamed when they do such a detestable thing?

No, they have no shame at all.

They do not even know how to blush.

That is why they will fall among the fallen.

They will be brought down when I punish them, says the Lord.

or

Jeremiah 7:1-11

¹The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord.

²Stand in the gate of the House of the Lord and proclaim this message there.

Hear the word of the Lord, all you people of Judah who are coming through this gate to worship the Lord. ³This is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says.

Reform your ways and your actions, and I will establish you in this place. ⁴Do not trust in deceptive words and say, “This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.”

⁵Sincerely reform your ways and your actions. Carry out justice between a man and his neighbor. ⁶Do not oppress the alien who lives in your land, the fatherless, or the widow. Do not shed innocent blood in this place. Do not follow after other gods to your own harm. If you avoid these things, ⁷I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your fathers forever and ever.

⁸Take warning. You are trusting in deceptive words that cannot help you.

⁹Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and swear falsely? Will you offer sacrifices to Baal and follow other gods you do not know? ¹⁰Will you come and stand before me in this temple that bears my Name, and say, “We are safe,” the whole time you do all these detestable things? ¹¹This house bears my Name! Have you made it a den of robbers? Watch out! I myself have been watching, declares the Lord.

³⁰What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who were not pursuing righteousness, have obtained righteousness, a righteousness that is by faith. ³¹But Israel, while pursuing the law as a way of righteousness, did not reach it. ³²Why? Because they kept pursuing it not by faith, but as if it comes by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone. ³³Just as it is written:

Look, I am putting a stone in Zion over which they will stumble

and a rock over which they will fall.

The one who believes in him will not be put to shame.

^10:1Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God on behalf of the Israelites is that they may be saved. ²Indeed, I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but it is not consistent with knowledge. ³Since they were ignorant of the righteousness from God and sought to establish their own righteousness, they did not submit to the righteousness from God. ⁴For to everyone who believes, Christ is the end of the law, resulting in righteousness.

or

1 Corinthians 12:1–11

Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed. ²You know that when you were pagans, you were deceived and somehow led away to mute idols. ³Therefore I am informing you that no one speaking by God’s Spirit says, “A curse be upon Jesus,” and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.

⁴There are various kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. ⁵There are various kinds of service, and yet the same Lord. ⁶There are various kinds of activity, but the same God, who produces all of them in everyone.

⁷Each person is given a manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. ⁸To one person a message of wisdom is given by the Spirit; to another, a message of knowledge, as the same Spirit provides it; ⁹by the same Spirit, faith is given to someone else; and to another, the same Spirit gives healing gifts. ¹⁰Another is given powers to do miracles; another, the gift of prophecy; another, the evaluating of spirits; someone else, different kinds of tongues; and another, the interpretation of tongues. ¹¹One and the same Spirit produces all of these, distributing them to each one individually as he desires.

⁴¹As he came near, he saw the city and wept over it. ⁴²He said, “If you, yes you, had only known on this day the things that would bring peace to you. But now, it is hidden from your eyes. ⁴³In fact, the days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you, surround you, and hem you in on every side. ⁴⁴Within your walls, they will dash you and your children to the ground. And within your walls, they will not leave one stone on top of another, because you did not recognize the time when God came to help you.”

⁴⁵Jesus entered the temple courts and began to drive out those who were selling things there. ⁴⁶He told them, “It is written, ‘My house will be a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of robbers’!”

⁴⁷Every day he was teaching in the temple courts, but the chief priests, the experts in the law, and the leaders of the people continued to look for a way to put him to death. ⁴⁸They could not find any way to do it, because all the people were clinging to him and listening.

The man was intimate with Eve, his wife. She conceived and gave birth to Cain. She said, “I have gotten a man with the Lord.” ²She also gave birth to Cain’s brother Abel.

Abel tended sheep, but Cain worked the ground. ³As time passed, one day Cain brought an offering to the Lord from the fruit of the soil. ⁴Abel also brought some of the firstborn of his flock and their fat portions. The Lord looked favorably on Abel and his offering, ⁵but he did not look favorably on Cain and his offering. Cain was very angry, and his face showed it.

⁶The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why do you have that angry look on your face? ⁷If you do good, will you not be lifted up? If you do not do good, sin is crouching at the door. It has a strong desire for you, but you must rule over it.”

⁸Cain said to Abel, his brother, “Let’s go into the field.” When they were in the field, Cain attacked Abel, his brother, and killed him.

⁹The Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel, your brother?”

He said, “I don’t know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”

¹⁰The Lord said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the soil. ¹¹Now you are cursed and sent away from the soil which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. ¹²When you work the soil, it will no longer give its strength to you. You shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.”

¹³Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is too great for me to bear. ¹⁴Look, today you have driven me away from the soil. I will be hidden from your face, and I will be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth. And whoever finds me will kill me.”

¹⁵The Lord said to him, “No! If anyone kills Cain, he will face sevenfold revenge.” And the Lord appointed a sign for Cain, so that anyone who found him would not strike him down.

You were dead in your trespasses and sins, ²in which you formerly walked when you followed the ways of this present world. You were following the ruler of the domain of the air, the spirit now at work in the people who disobey.

³Formerly, we all lived among them in the passions of our sinful flesh, as we carried out the desires of the sinful flesh and its thoughts. Like all the others, we were by nature objects of God’s wrath.

⁴But God, because he is rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, ⁵made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in trespasses. It is by grace you have been saved! ⁶He also raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. ⁷He did this so that, in the coming ages, he might demonstrate the surpassing riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. ⁸Indeed, it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— ⁹not by works, so that no one can boast.

¹⁰For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared in advance so that we would walk in them.

or

1 Corinthians 15:1–10

Brothers, I am going to call your attention to the gospel that I preached to you. You received it, and you took your stand on it. ²You are also being saved by that gospel that was expressed in the words I preached to you, if you keep your hold on it—unless you believed in vain. ³For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received:

that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures,

⁴that he was buried,

that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,

⁵and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve.

⁶After that he appeared to over five hundred brothers at the same time, most of whom are still alive, but some have fallen asleep. ⁷Then he appeared to James, and then to all the apostles. ⁸Last of all, he appeared also to me, the stillborn child, so to speak. ⁹For I am the least of the apostles, and I am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted God’s church. ¹⁰But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not ineffective. On the contrary, I worked more than all of them (and yet it wasn’t my doing, but it was the grace of God, which was with me, that did it).

⁹Jesus told this parable to certain people who trusted in themselves (that they were righteous) and looked down on others: ¹⁰“Two men went up to the temple courts to pray. One was a Pharisee, and the other was a tax collector. ¹¹The Pharisee stood and prayed about himself like this: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people, robbers, evildoers, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. ¹²I fast twice a week. I give a tenth of all my income.’

¹³“However the tax collector stood at a distance and would not even lift his eyes up to heaven, but was beating his chest and saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’

¹⁴“I tell you, this man went home justified rather than the other, because everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

¹⁷Isn’t it true that in a very short time

Lebanon will be turned into a fertile field,

and the fertile field will seem like a forest?

¹⁸On that day, the deaf will hear the words from a book,

and out of gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind will see.

¹⁹The humble will rejoice in the Lord once again,

and the poor will delight in the Holy One of Israel.

²⁰But the ruthless will come to nothing.

Those who mock will be no more,

and all those who plan evil will be cut off—

²¹all those who slander others with a word,

all those who argue cases at the city gate,

all those who use false testimony to deprive the innocent of justice.

²²Therefore this is what the Lord, who redeemed Abraham,

says about the house of Jacob:

Jacob will not be ashamed anymore.

His face will not grow pale.

²³But when his children see what I do among them,

they will honor my name.

They will honor the Holy One of Jacob.

They will stand in awe of the God of Israel.

²⁴Those who are confused will come to understand,

and those who complain will gladly receive instruction.

.

⁴Such is the confidence we have through Christ before God. ⁵Not that we are competent by ourselves to claim that anything comes from us; rather, our competence is from God. ⁶He also made us competent as ministers of a new testament (not of letter, but of spirit). For the letter kills, but the spirit gives life.

⁷If the ministry that brought death (which was engraved in letters on stone) came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look directly at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face (though it was fading), ⁸how will the ministry of the spirit not be much more glorious? ⁹For if the ministry that brought condemnation has glory, the ministry that brought righteousness has even more glory. ¹⁰In fact, in this case, what was glorious is no longer very glorious, because of the greater glory of that which surpasses it. ¹¹Indeed, if what is fading away was glorious, how much more glorious is that which is permanent!

or

Romans 10:9–17

⁹Certainly, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰For it is with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and it is with the mouth that a person confesses, resulting in salvation. ¹¹For Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.”

¹²So there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, because the same Lord is Lord of all, who gives generously to all who call on him. ¹³Yes, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

¹⁴So then, how can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one about whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without a preacher? ¹⁵And how can they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news of peace, who preach the gospel of good things!”

¹⁶But not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who believed our message?” ¹⁷So then, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message comes through the word of Christ.

³¹Jesus left the region of Tyre again and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, within the region of the Decapolis.

³²They brought a man to him who was deaf and had a speech impediment. They pleaded with Jesus to place his hand on him. ³³Jesus took him aside in private, away from the crowd. He put his fingers into the man’s ears. Then he spit and touched the man’s tongue. ³⁴After he looked up to heaven, he sighed and said, “Ephphatha!” (which means “Be opened!”) ³⁵Immediately the man’s ears were opened, his tongue was set free, and he began to speak plainly. ³⁶Jesus gave the people strict orders to tell no one, but the more he did so, the more they kept proclaiming it. ³⁷They were amazed beyond measure and said, “He has done everything well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak!”

⁸The men from Israel took two hundred thousand of their fellow Israelites captive, including wives, sons, and daughters. They also seized a large amount of plunder from them and took it to Samaria.

⁹There was a prophet of the Lord there, whose name was Oded. He went out to meet the army that came to Samaria and said to them, “Look! Because the Lord, the God of your fathers, was angry against Judah, he gave them into your hand. You have killed them in a rage that reaches up to heaven. ¹⁰Now you intend to subjugate the people of Judah and Jerusalem as male and female slaves for yourselves. Do you not have enough guilt of your own against the Lord your God? ¹¹Now hear me. Send back the captives whom you have taken from your brothers, because the fierce anger of the Lord is upon you.”

¹²Some of the leaders of Ephraim, Azariah son of Johanan, Berekiah son of Meshillemoth, Jehizkiah son of Shallum, and Amasa son of Hadlai, took a stand against those returning from the battle. ¹³They said to them, “You must not bring the captives here, because it would make us guilty before the Lord. You are proposing to increase our sins and our guilt, because great guilt rests upon us and fierce anger burns against Israel.”

¹⁴So the armed men left the captives and the plunder in front of the officials and the whole assembly. ¹⁵The men who had been designated by name got up and took custody of the captives. From the spoils they provided clothing for all those who were naked. They clothed them and provided them with sandals, with food and drink, and with salve for their wounds. They transported all those who were weak on donkeys. They brought them to Jericho, the City of Palms, to their fellow Israelites. Then they returned to Samaria.

¹⁵Brothers, I am speaking in human terms. When someone has established a last will and testament, no one nullifies it or adds to it. ¹⁶The promises God spoke referred to Abraham and to his seed. It doesn’t say, “And to seeds,” as if it were referring to many, but, as referring to one, “And to your seed,” who is Christ. ¹⁷What I am saying is this: The law, which came into being 430 years after the covenant established earlier by God in Christ, does not annul that covenant, with the result that it invalidates the promise. ¹⁸In fact, if the inheritance is by the law, it is no longer by the promise. But God graciously gave it to Abraham by a promise.

¹⁹Then what about the law? It was added for the purpose of revealing transgressions, until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come. It was transmitted through angels by the hand of a mediator. ²⁰Now a mediator is not needed for one party, but God is one.

²¹Then is the law against the promises of God? Certainly not! For if there had been a law given that could give life, certainly righteousness would have been derived from the law. ²²But Scripture imprisoned all things under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ would be given to those who believe.

²³Turning to the disciples, he said privately, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see! ²⁴Indeed, I tell you that many prophets and kings wanted to see the things that you are seeing, yet did not see them, and to hear the things that you are hearing, yet did not hear them.”

²⁵Just then, an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus, saying, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

²⁶“What is written in the law?” he asked him. “What do you read there?”

²⁷He replied, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind; and, love your neighbor as yourself.”

²⁸He said to him, “You have answered correctly. Do this, and you will live.”

²⁹But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

³⁰Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho. He fell among robbers who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. ³¹It just so happened that a priest was going down that way. But when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. ³²In the same way, a Levite also happened to go there, but when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. ³³A Samaritan, as he traveled, came to where the man was. When he saw him, he felt sorry for the man. ³⁴He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them. He put him on his own animal, took him to an inn, and took care of him. ³⁵The next day, when he left, he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him. Whatever extra you spend, I will repay you when I return.’ ³⁶Which of these three do you think acted like a neighbor to the man who fell among robbers?”

³⁷“The one who showed mercy to him,” he replied.

Then Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”

¹⁰Listen, my son, and accept my words,

so that the years of your life will be many.

¹¹I have instructed you in the way of wisdom.

I have led you along straight paths.

¹²When you walk, your stride will not be hindered.

Even if you run, you will not stumble.

¹³Hold on to discipline. Do not let go.

Guard it, because it is your life.

¹⁴Do not travel on the path of the wicked.

Do not walk in the way of evil people.

¹⁵Avoid it! Do not travel on it!

Turn away from it. Pass it by.

¹⁶For they cannot sleep

unless they have been doing wrong,

and they are robbed of sleep

unless they are making someone stumble,

¹⁷because wickedness is the food they eat,

and violence is the wine they drink.

¹⁸But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn,

shining brighter and brighter until it is day.

¹⁹The way of the wicked is like gloomy darkness.

They never know where they will stumble.

²⁰My son, pay attention to my words.

Open your ears to what I say.

²¹Do not let them escape from your sight.

Keep them deep in your heart,

²²because they are life for those who find them

and healing for the entire body.

²³Above all else, guard your heart carefully,

because your life flows from it.

¹⁶What I am saying is this: Walk by the spirit, and you will not carry out what the sinful flesh desires. ¹⁷For the sinful flesh desires what is contrary to the spirit, and the spirit what is contrary to the sinful flesh. In fact, these two continually oppose one another, so that you do not continue to do these things you want to do. ¹⁸But if you are led by the spirit, you are not under the control of the law.

¹⁹Now the works of the sinful flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, complete lack of restraint, ²⁰idolatry, sorcery, hatred, discord, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissensions, heresies, ²¹envy, murders, drunkenness, orgies, and things similar to these. I warn you, just as I also warned you before, that those who continue to do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

²²But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law. ²⁴Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful flesh with its passions and desires.

¹¹On another occasion, as Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem, he was passing along the border between Samaria and Galilee. ¹²When he entered a certain village, ten men with leprosy met him. Standing at a distance, ¹³they called out loudly, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!”

¹⁴When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” As they went away they were cleansed.

¹⁵One of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice. ¹⁶He fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, thanking him. And he was a Samaritan. ¹⁷Jesus responded, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? ¹⁸Was no one found to return and give glory to God except this foreigner?” ¹⁹Then he said to him, “Get up and go your way. Your faith has saved you.”

⁸Then the word of the Lord came to him: ⁹“Get up! Go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and live there. I have commanded a woman there, a widow, to provide for you.”

¹⁰So he got up and went to Zarephath. He came to the city gate, and there he saw a widow gathering sticks. He called to her and said, “Please give me a little water in a jar, so that I can have something to drink.”

¹¹When she went to get it, he called to her, “Please bring me a piece of bread.”

¹²She said, “As surely as the Lord your God lives, I have no food except a handful of flour in a jar and a little olive oil in a pitcher. See, I am gathering a couple of sticks so that I can go and prepare it for myself and my son, so that we can eat it and then die.”

¹³Elijah said to her, “Do not be afraid. Go and do just as you said. But first make a small loaf of bread for me from the flour and bring it out to me. Then go and make another for you and your son. ¹⁴For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says. The jar of flour will not run out and the pitcher of oil will not become empty until the day the Lord sends rain to water the surface of the ground.”

¹⁵So she went and did exactly as Elijah said. He and she, as well as her household, were able to eat for many days. ¹⁶The jar of flour did not run out, and the pitcher of oil did not become empty, just as the Lord had said through Elijah.

²⁵If we live by the spirit, let us also walk in step with it. ²⁶Let us not become conceited, provoking one another and envying one another.

^6:1Brothers, if a person is caught in some trespass, you who are spiritual should restore such a person in a spirit of humility, carefully watching yourself so that you are not also tempted. ²Bear one another’s burdens, and in this way fulfill the law of Christ. ³For if someone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. ⁴Let each person test his own work, and then he will take pride in regard to himself and not his neighbor. ⁵For each man will bear his own burden.

⁶Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with his teacher.

⁷Do not be deceived. God is not mocked. To be sure, whatever a man sows, he will also reap. ⁸Indeed, the one who sows for his own sinful flesh will reap destruction from the sinful flesh. But the one who sows for the spirit will reap eternal life from the spirit. ⁹Let us not become weary of doing good, because at the appointed time we will reap, if we do not give up. ¹⁰So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who belong to the household of faith.

²⁴“No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and mammon.

²⁵“For this reason I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? ²⁶Look at the birds of the air. They do not sow or reap or gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?

²⁷“Which of you can add a single moment to his lifespan by worrying? ²⁸Why do you worry about clothing? Consider how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin, ²⁹but I tell you that not even Solomon in all his glory was dressed like one of these. ³⁰If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will he not clothe you even more, you of little faith?

³¹“So do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ ³²For the unbelievers chase after all these things. Certainly your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. ³³But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

¹⁷After these events, the son of the woman who owned the house became ill. The illness became worse until he stopped breathing.

¹⁸Then she said to Elijah, “What is the issue between us, man of God? Have you come to remind me of my sins and to kill my son?”

¹⁹He said to her, “Bring your son to me.” Then he took him and carried him to the upstairs room where he was living, and he laid him on his bed. ²⁰Then he cried out to the Lord, “O Lord, my God, have you sent tragedy on this woman with whom I am staying by killing her son?”

²¹Then he stretched himself out on the boy three times, and he cried out to the Lord, “O Lord, my God, let this boy’s soul return to his body!” ²²The Lord listened to Elijah’s voice, and the boy’s soul returned to his body, and he came to life. ²³Then Elijah took the boy and brought him down to the house from his upstairs room, and he gave him to his mother.

Elijah said, “See, your son is alive!”

²⁴The woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is true.”

¹³So I ask you not to lose heart because of what I am suffering for you, because it is your glory.

¹⁴For this reason I kneel before the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, ¹⁵from whom the entire family in heaven and on earth receives its name. ¹⁶I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he would strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner self, ¹⁷so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. Then, being rooted and grounded in love, ¹⁸I pray that you would be able to comprehend, along with all the saints, how wide and long and high and deep his love is, ¹⁹and that you would be able to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled to all the fullness of God.

²⁰Now to him, who is able, according to the power that is at work within us, to do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine, ²¹to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever! Amen.

¹¹Soon afterward Jesus went on his way to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd were traveling with him. ¹²As he was approaching the town gate, there was a dead man being carried out, the only son of his mother. She was a widow, and a considerable crowd from the town was with her. ¹³When the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not cry.” ¹⁴He went up to the open coffin, touched it, and the pallbearers stopped. He said, “Young man, I say to you, get up!” ¹⁵The dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother.

¹⁶Fear gripped all of them, and they glorified God, saying, “A great prophet has arisen among us” and “God has visited his people!” ¹⁷This was reported about him in all of Judea and in all the surrounding countryside.

Proverbs 25:6–14 (EHV)

⁶Do not honor yourself in a king’s presence.

Do not stand in a place reserved for great people,

⁷because it is better to be told, “Come up here,”

than for you to be humiliated before a ruler

whom your eyes have seen.

⁸Do not be in a hurry to go to court.

Otherwise, what will you do afterward,

when your neighbor humiliates you?

⁹Argue your case with your neighbor,

but do not reveal someone else’s secret.

¹⁰If you do, the person who hears it will shame you,

and your bad reputation will never leave you.

¹¹A word spoken at the right time

is like golden apples in silver settings.

¹²To ears that listen, a wise person’s correction

is like a gold ring or like jewelry made of pure gold.

¹³To those who send him, a trustworthy messenger

is like cooling snow on a warm day during harvest.

He refreshes his masters’ spirits.

¹⁴A person who brags about a gift that is never given

is like clouds and wind that bring no rain.

As a prisoner in the Lord, therefore, I urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called. ²Live with all humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another in love.

³Make every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. ⁴There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in the one hope of your calling. ⁵There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, ⁶one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in us all.

One Sabbath day, when Jesus went into the house of a leader of the Pharisees to eat bread, they were watching him closely.

²Right in front of him was a man who was suffering from swelling of his body. ³Jesus addressed the legal experts and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?”

⁴But they were silent. So he took hold of the man, healed him, and let him go. ⁵He said to them, “Which of you, if your son or an ox would fall into a well on a Sabbath day, would not immediately pull him out?”

⁶And they could not reply to these things.

⁷When he noticed how they were selecting the places of honor, he told the invited guests a parable. ⁸“When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not recline in the place of honor, or perhaps someone more distinguished than you may have been invited by him. ⁹The one who invited both of you may come and tell you, ‘Give this man your place.’ Then you will begin, with shame, to take the lowest place.

¹⁰“But when you are invited, go and recline in the lowest place, so that when the one who invited you comes, he will tell you, ‘Friend, move up to a higher place.’ Then you will have honor in the presence of all who are reclining at the table with you.

¹¹“Yes, everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”

¹²So now, Israel, what is the Lord your God asking of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, ¹³to keep the commandments of the Lord and his statutes that I am commanding you today for your own good.

¹⁴Indeed, the heavens and the heaven of heavens, the earth and everything that is on it—these belong to the Lord your God. ¹⁵Still, the Lord attached himself to your fathers, loved them, and he chose their descendants after them (That’s you!) from all peoples, as it is today.

¹⁶So cut away the tough shell of your sinful nature, and do not be stubborn any longer.

¹⁷The Lord your God is God of Gods and Lord of Lords, the great God, the mighty one and the awesome one, who does not show favoritism and does not take a bribe.¹⁸He carries out justice for the fatherless and widows. He loves the alien who dwells among you and gives him food and clothing. ¹⁹So you are to love the alien, because you were aliens in the land of Egypt.

²⁰Fear the Lord your God, serve him, cling to him, and take your oaths in his name.

²¹He is your glory. He is your God, who performed for you these great and awesome things that your own eyes have seen.

Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes,

²To the church of God in Corinth—those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, who are called as saints—along with all in every place who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours:

³Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!

⁴I always thank my God for you because of the grace of God given to you in Christ Jesus. ⁵You were enriched in him in every way, in all your speaking and all your knowledge, ⁶because the testimony about Christ was established in you. ⁷As a result you do not lack any gift as you eagerly wait for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁸He will also keep you strong until the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁹God is faithful, who called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.

³⁴When they heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees met together. ³⁵One of them who was an expert in the law asked him a question, trying to trap him. ³⁶“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment of the Law?”

³⁷Jesus said to him, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ ³⁸This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹The second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ⁴⁰All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commandments.”

⁴¹While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question: ⁴²“What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?”

They said to him, “The Son of David.”

⁴³He said to them, “Then how can David in the Spirit call him Lord, saying,

⁴⁴The Lord said to my Lord,

‘Sit at my right hand,

until I put your enemies

under your feet’?

⁴⁵“So if David calls him Lord, how is he his son?”

⁴⁶No one was able to answer him a word, and from that day on no one dared to ask him any more questions.

¹⁰Jacob set out from Beersheba and traveled toward Haran. ¹¹He came to a certain place and decided to spend the night there, because the sun had set. He took one of the stones from that place, put it under his head, and lay down to sleep in that place. ¹²He had a dream in which he saw a stairway set up on the earth with its top reaching to heaven. There were angels of God ascending and descending on it. ¹³There at the top stood the Lord, who said, “I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. The land on which you are lying, I give to you and to your descendants. ¹⁴Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south. In you and in your seed all the families of the earth will be blessed. ¹⁵Now, I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back again into this land. Indeed, I will not leave you, until I have done what I have promised to you.”

¹⁶Jacob woke up from his sleep, and he said, “Certainly the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.” ¹⁷He was afraid and he said, “How awe-inspiring is this place! This is nothing other than the house of God, and this is the gate to heaven.”

²²As far as your former way of life is concerned, you were taught to take off the old self, which is corrupted by its deceitful desires, ²³and to be renewed continually in the spirit of your mind, ²⁴and to put on the new self, which has been created to be like God in righteousness and true holiness.

²⁵Therefore, after you put away lying, let each of you speak truthfully with your neighbor, because we are all members of one body. ²⁶“Be angry, yet do not sin.” Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry. ²⁷Do not give the Devil an opportunity. ²⁸Let the one who has been stealing steal no longer. Instead, let him work hard doing what is good with his own hands, so that he has something to share with a person who is in need.

Jesus got into a boat, crossed over, and came to his own town. ²There people brought to him a man who was paralyzed, lying on a stretcher. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Take heart, son! Your sins are forgiven.”

³Then some of the experts in the law said among themselves, “This fellow is blaspheming!”

⁴Since Jesus knew their thoughts, he said, “Why are you thinking evil in your hearts? ⁵Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? ⁶But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins,” he then said to the paralyzed man, “Get up, take your stretcher, and go home.”

⁷The man got up and went home. ⁸When the crowd saw this, they were filled with awe and glorified God, who had given such authority to men.

Hey, all of you who are thirsty, come to the water,

even if you have no money!

Come, buy and eat!

Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.

²Why do you spend money on something that is not bread?

Why do you waste your labor on something that does not satisfy?

Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good.

Satisfy your appetite with rich food.

³Turn your ear toward me, and come to me.

Listen, so that you may continue to live.

Yes, I will make an everlasting covenant with you,

the faithful mercies promised to David.

⁴Look, I appointed him as a witness for peoples,

a leader and commander of peoples.

⁵Look, you will call out to a nation you do not know,

and a nation that does not know you will run to you,

on account of the Lord your God,

because of the Holy One of Israel,

for he has glorified you.

⁶Seek the Lord while he may be found!

Call on him while he is near!

⁷Let the wicked man abandon his way.

Let an evil man abandon his thoughts.

Let him turn to the Lord,

and he will show him mercy.

Let him turn to our God,

because he will abundantly pardon.

⁸Certainly my plans are not your plans,

and your ways are not my ways, declares the Lord.

⁹Just as the heavens are higher than the earth,

so my ways are higher than your ways,

and my plans are higher than your plans.

¹⁵Consider carefully, then, how you walk, not as unwise people, but as wise people. ¹⁶Make the most of your time, because the days are evil. ¹⁷For this reason, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. ¹⁸And do not get drunk on wine, which causes you to lose control. Instead, be filled with the Spirit ¹⁹by speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs (singing and making music with your hearts to the Lord), ²⁰by always giving thanks for everything to God the Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, ²¹and by submitting to one another in reverence for Christ.

Jesus spoke to them again in parables. He said, ²“The kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. ³He sent out his servants to summon those who were invited to the wedding banquet, but they did not want to come.

⁴“Then he sent out other servants and said, ‘Tell those who are invited: Look, I have prepared my dinner. My oxen and my fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet!’

⁵“But those who were invited paid no attention and went off, one to his own farm, another to his business. ⁶The rest seized the king’s servants, mistreated them, and killed them. ⁷As a result, the king was very angry. He sent his army and killed those murderers and burned their town.

⁸“Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. ⁹So go to the main crossroads and invite as many as you find to the wedding banquet.’ ¹⁰Those servants went out to the roads and gathered together everyone they found, both good and bad, and the wedding hall was filled with guests. ¹¹But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. ¹²He said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without wearing wedding clothes?’ The man was speechless. ¹³Then the king told the servants, ‘Tie him hand and foot and throw him into the outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ ¹⁴For many are called, but few are chosen.”

or

Matthew 21:33–44

³³“Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a winepress in it, and built a tower. He leased it out to some tenant farmers and went away on a journey. ³⁴When the time approached to harvest the fruit, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit. ³⁵The tenant farmers seized his servants. They beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. ³⁶Then the landowner sent even more servants than the first time. The tenant farmers treated them the same way. ³⁷Finally, he sent his son to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said. ³⁸But when the tenant farmers saw the son, they said to each other, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and take his inheritance!’ ³⁹They took him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. ⁴⁰So when the landowner comes, what will he do to those tenant farmers?”

⁴¹They told him, “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end. Then he will lease out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him his fruit when it is due.”

⁴²Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:

The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.

This was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes?

⁴³“That is why I tell you the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces its fruit. ⁴⁴Whoever falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.”

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. ²The earth was undeveloped and empty. Darkness covered the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.

³God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. ⁴God saw that the light was good. He separated the light from the darkness. ⁵God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” There was evening and there was morning—the first day.

⁶God said, “Let there be an expanse between the waters, and let it separate the water from the water.” ⁷God made the expanse, and he separated the water that was below the expanse from the water that was above the expanse, and it was so. ⁸God called the expanse “sky.” There was evening and there was morning—the second day.

⁹God said, “Let the waters under the sky be gathered together to one place, and let the dry land appear,” and it was so. ˻The waters under the sky gathered to their own places, and the dry land appeared.˼ ¹⁰God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathering places of the waters he called “seas.” God saw that it was good. ¹¹God said, “Let the earth produce plants—vegetation that produces seed, and trees that bear fruit with its seed in it—each according to its own kind on the earth,” and it was so. ¹²The earth brought forth plants, vegetation that produces seed according to its own kind, and trees that bear fruit with its seed in it, each according to its own kind, and God saw that it was good. ¹³There was evening and there was morning—the third day.

¹⁴God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to divide the day from the night, and let them serve as markers to indicate seasons, days, and years. ¹⁵Let them serve as lights in the expanse of the sky to give light to the earth,” and it was so. ¹⁶God made the two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He also made the stars. ¹⁷God set these lights in place in the expanse of the sky to provide light for the earth, ¹⁸to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. God saw that it was good. ¹⁹There was evening and there was morning—the fourth day.

²⁰God said, “Let the waters swarm with living creatures, and let birds and other winged creatures fly above the earth in the open expanse of the sky.” ²¹God created the large sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their own kind, and every winged bird according to its own kind. God saw that it was good. ²²God blessed them when he said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the waters of the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” ²³There was evening and there was morning—the fifth day.

²⁴God said, “Let the earth produce living creatures according to their own kind, livestock, creeping things, and wild animals according to their own kind,” and it was so. ²⁵God made the wild animals according to their own kind, and the livestock according to their own kind, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its own kind. God saw that it was good.

²⁶God said, “Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that crawls on the earth.”

²⁷God created the man in his own image.

In the image of God he created him.

Male and female he created them.

²⁸God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” ²⁹God said, “Look, I have given you every plant that produces seed on the face of the whole earth, and every tree that bears fruit that produces seed. It will be your food. ³⁰To every animal of the earth, and to every bird of the sky, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so.

³¹God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. There was evening and there was morning—the sixth day.

^2:1The heavens and the earth were finished, along with everything in them. ²On the seventh day God had finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had been doing. ³God blessed the seventh day and set it apart as holy, because on it he rested from all his work of creation that he had done.

¹⁰Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. ¹¹Put on the full armor of God, so that you can stand against the schemes of the Devil. ¹²For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. ¹³For this reason, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to take a stand on the evil day and, after you have done everything, to stand. ¹⁴Stand, then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness fastened in place, ¹⁵and with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace tied to your feet like sandals. ¹⁶At all times hold up the shield of faith, with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the Evil One. ¹⁷Also take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

⁴⁶Jesus came again to Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine.

In Capernaum, there was a certain royal official whose son was sick. ⁴⁷When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea into Galilee, he went to him and begged him to come down and heal his son, because his son was about to die.

⁴⁸Jesus told him, “Unless you people see miraculous signs and wonders, you certainly will not believe.”

⁴⁹The royal official said to him, “Lord, come down before my little boy dies.”

⁵⁰“Go,” Jesus told him, “your son is going to live.”

The man believed this word that Jesus spoke to him and left.

⁵¹Already as he was going down, his servants met him with the news that his boy was going to live. ⁵²So he asked them what time his son got better. They told him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.” ⁵³Then the father realized that was the exact time when Jesus had told him, “Your son is going to live.” And he himself and his whole household believed.

⁵⁴This was the second miraculous sign Jesus did after he came from Judea into Galilee.

⁶With what am I to appear before the Lord?

How should I bow down to God on high?

Should I appear before him with burnt offerings,

with one-year-old calves?

⁷Will the Lord be delighted with thousands of rams,

with tens of thousands of streams of oil?

Should I give my firstborn for my rebellion,

the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?

⁸He has told you, mankind, what is good.

What does the Lord require from you,

except to carry out justice and to love mercy

and to walk humbly with your God?

³I thank my God every time I remember you. ⁴Every time I pray for all of you, I always pray with joy, ⁵because of your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now. ⁶I am convinced of this very thing: that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. ⁷I am equally convinced that it is right for me to think this way about all of you, because I have you in my heart, for both in my chains and in my defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all share in this grace with me. ⁸Yes, God is my witness of how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.

⁹And I pray that your love may still increase more and more in knowledge and every insight. ¹⁰This will result in your approval of the things that really matter, so that you will be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, ¹¹filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

²¹Then Peter came up and asked Jesus, “Lord, how many times must I forgive my brother when he sins against me? As many as seven times?”

²²Jesus said to him, “Not seven times, but I tell you as many as seventy-seven times. ²³For this reason the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. ²⁴When he began to settle them, a man who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. ²⁵Because the man was not able to pay the debt, his master ordered that he be sold, along with his wife, children, and all that he owned to repay the debt.

²⁶“Then the servant fell down on his knees in front of him, saying, ‘Master, be patient with me, and I will pay you everything!’ ²⁷The master of that servant had pity on him, released him, and forgave him the debt.

²⁸“But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him one hundred denarii. He grabbed him and began choking him, saying, ‘Pay me what you owe!’

²⁹“So his fellow servant fell down and begged him, saying, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back!’ ³⁰But he refused. Instead he went off and threw the man into prison until he could pay back what he owed.

³¹“When his fellow servants saw what had happened, they were very distressed. They went and reported to their master everything that had taken place.

³²“Then his master called him in and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt when you begged me to. ³³Should you not have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had mercy on you?’ ³⁴His master was angry and handed him over to the jailers until he could pay back everything he owed.

³⁵“This is what my heavenly Father will also do to you unless each one of you forgives his brother from his heart.”

¹¹because Wisdom is better than gems,

and anything you may desire cannot equal her.

¹²I, Wisdom, dwell with good judgment.

I discover knowledge and foresight.

¹³The fear of the Lord is to hate evil.

I hate haughtiness, arrogance, an evil way, and a perverse mouth.

¹⁴Good advice and sound judgment are mine.

I, Understanding, have strength.

¹⁵By me kings reign,

and rulers administer justice.

¹⁶By me officials govern,

as well as nobles and all just judges.

¹⁷I certainly love those who love me,

and those who eagerly look for me find me.

¹⁸Riches and honor are with me,

as well as enduring wealth and righteousness.

¹⁹My fruit is better than gold, better than pure gold,

and what I produce is better than fine silver.

²⁰I walk on the path of righteousness,

down the middle of the pathways of justice,

²¹so I can provide a rich inheritance to those who love me,

and I can fill their treasuries.

²²The Lord possessed me at the beginning of his way,

before his works of long ago.

¹⁷Brothers, join together in imitating me and in paying attention to those who are walking according to the pattern we gave you. ¹⁸To be sure, many walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. I told you about them often, and now I am saying it while weeping. ¹⁹Their end is destruction, their god is their appetite, and their glory is in their shame. They are thinking only about earthly things. ²⁰But our citizenship is in heaven. We are eagerly waiting for a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ. ²¹By the power that enables him to subject all things to himself, he will transform our humble bodies to be like his glorious body.

¹⁵Then the Pharisees went out and plotted together how to trap him in his words. ¹⁶They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians. “Teacher,” they said, “we know that you are truthful and teach the way of God in accord with the truth. You are not concerned about gaining anyone’s approval because you are not swayed by appearances. ¹⁷So tell us, what do you think? Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”

¹⁸But Jesus knew their evil purpose and said, “Why are you testing me, hypocrites? ¹⁹Show me the coin used for the tax.”

They brought him a denarius.

²⁰He asked them, “Whose image and inscription is this?”

²¹“Caesar’s,” they replied to him.

Then he said to them, “Therefore give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”

²²When they heard this, they were amazed. Then they left him and went away.

⁹Wake up! Wake up!

Clothe yourself with strength, you arm of the Lord!

Awake as in days of old,

as in generations of long ago.

Was it not you who cut Rahab to pieces,

and who pierced the sea monster?

¹⁰Was it not you who dried up the sea,

the waters of the great deep,

and who made a road through the depths of the sea

for the redeemed to cross over?

¹¹Then those ransomed by the Lord will return.

They will enter Zion with a joyful shout,

and everlasting joy will crown their heads.

Happiness and joy will overtake them.

Sorrow and sighing will flee away.

¹²I, even I, am the one who comforts you.

Who are you, Zion, that you fear humans, who die,

or a child of Adam, who passes away like grass?

¹³You have forgotten the Lord, your Creator,

who stretches out the heavens,

who makes the earth stand firm.

You tremble continually all day,

because of the rage of the oppressor,

who is preparing to destroy.

But where is the rage of the oppressor now?

¹⁴The prisoner will soon be released.

He will not die and go to the pit,

and he will not lack bread.

¹⁵I am the Lord your God,

who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar.

The Lord of Armies is his name!

¹⁶I have placed my words in your mouth,

and with the shadow of my hand I have covered you—

I, who planted the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth,

I, who say to Zion, “You are my people.”

⁹For this reason, from the day we heard about your love, we also have not stopped praying for you. We keep asking that you would be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, ¹⁰so that you might live in a way that is worthy of the Lord. Our goal is that you please him by bearing fruit in every kind of good work and by growing in the knowledge of God, ¹¹as you are being strengthened with all power because of his glorious might working in you. Then you will have complete endurance and patience, joyfully ¹²giving thanks to the Father, who qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light.

¹³The Father rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, ¹⁴in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

¹⁸As he was saying these things to them, there was a ruler who came, bowed down to him, and said, “My daughter has just died. But come, place your hand on her, and she will live.”

¹⁹Jesus got up and followed him, as did his disciples. ²⁰Just then, a woman who had been suffering from chronic bleeding for twelve years came up from behind and touched the fringe of his garment. ²¹For she had been saying to herself, “If I just touch his garment, I will be healed.”

²²When Jesus turned around and saw her, he said, “Take heart, daughter! Your faith has healed you.” And the woman was healed from that moment.

²³When Jesus came into the ruler’s house and saw the flute players and the noisy crowd, ²⁴he said to them, “Go away, for the girl is not dead but is sleeping.”

But they laughed at him.

²⁵When the crowd was sent out of the house, Jesus went in, took the girl by the hand, and she was raised. ²⁶News of this went out through the entire region.

When the people saw that it took so long for Moses to come down from the mountain, the people gathered around Aaron and said to him, “Get up, make a god for us, who will go before us, because this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt—we do not know what has become of him.”

²Aaron said to them, “Pull off the gold earrings from your wives and sons and daughters and bring them to me.”

³All the people pulled off their gold earrings and brought them to Aaron. ⁴He took what they handed him and shaped it with an engraving tool and made it into a bull calf cast out of metal. Then they said, “This is your god, Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt.”

⁵When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of it, and Aaron made a proclamation. He said, “Tomorrow shall be a festival to the Lord.”

⁶They got up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought fellowship offerings. Then the people sat down to eat and to drink and got up to celebrate wildly.

⁷The Lord spoke to Moses: “Hurry down, because your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves! ⁸They have quickly turned from the way which I commanded them. They have made a calf for themselves out of metal and have worshipped it. They have sacrificed to it and said, ‘This is your god, Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt.’”

⁹The Lord said to Moses, “I have seen these people, and they certainly are a stiff-necked people. ¹⁰So now leave me alone, so that my anger can burn hot against them, so that I may consume them and make you into a great nation.”

¹¹Moses begged the Lord his God and said, “O Lord, why does your anger burn against your people, whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? ¹²Why should the Egyptians say, ‘He brought them out for an evil purpose, to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn back from your fierce anger and change your mind about inflicting disaster on your people. ¹³Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self. You said to them, ‘I will multiply your seed like the stars of the sky, and I will give all this land that I have spoken about to your seed, and they shall inherit it forever.’”

¹⁴Then the Lord changed his mind about the disaster which he said he would inflict on his people.

¹⁵Moses turned and went down the mountain, with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hand—tablets that were written on both sides, written on one side and on the other. ¹⁶The tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets.

¹⁷When Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, “There is the noise of war in the camp.”

¹⁸Moses said, “It is not the sound of people who shout for victory; neither is it the sound of people who cry because of defeat. But I do hear the sound of people who are celebrating.”

¹⁹As soon as Moses came near the camp, he saw the calf and the dancing, and Moses’ anger burned. So he threw the tablets out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain. ²⁰He took the calf that they had made, burned it with fire, ground it to powder, and scattered it on the water. Then he made the people of Israel drink it.

or

Job 14:1-6

Man born of woman has a few short days,

and they are full of anxiety.

²He blossoms like a flower, but soon withers.

He recedes like a shadow and does not remain.

³You keep your eye on such a man.

You bring me into judgment in your presence.

⁴Who can produce something pure from something that is impure?

No one.

⁵Certainly his days are determined.

The number of his months has been set by you.

A limit is set, which he cannot exceed.

⁶Turn your gaze away from him, and let him be,

until he finishes his day’s work as a hired man.

¹³We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who have fallen asleep, so that you do not grieve in the same way as the others, who have no hope. ¹⁴Indeed, if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, then in the same way we also believe that God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep through Jesus.

¹⁵In fact, we tell you this by the word of the Lord: We who are alive and left until the coming of the Lord will certainly not go on ahead of those who have fallen asleep. ¹⁶For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. ¹⁷Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them, to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord. ¹⁸Therefore, encourage one another with these words.

¹⁵“Therefore when you see the abomination that causes desolation, that was spoken of through the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place—let the reader understand— ¹⁶then those who are in Judea should flee to the mountains. ¹⁷The one on the housetop should not go down to take anything out of his house. ¹⁸The one who is in the field should not return to get his clothes. ¹⁹How terrible it will be for those who are pregnant or are nursing babies in those days! ²⁰Pray that your flight will not take place in the winter or on a Sabbath. ²¹For at that time there will be great distress, unlike any that has happened since the beginning of the world until now, and unlike any that will happen again. ²²If those days were not shortened, nobody would be saved. But for the sake of the elect, those days will be shortened.

²³“At that time if anyone tells you, ‘Look, here is the Christ,’ or ‘There he is,’ do not believe it. ²⁴For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will perform great signs and wonders so as to deceive even the elect, if it were possible.

²⁵“See, I have told you in advance. ²⁶So if they tell you, ‘Look! There he is in the wilderness,’ do not go out there, or ‘Look! Here he is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. ²⁷Just as the lightning flashes from the east and shines as far as the west, so it will be when the Son of Man comes. ²⁸Wherever the carcass may be, there the vultures will gather.”

or

Luke 17:20–30

²⁰The Pharisees asked Jesus when the kingdom of God would come. Jesus answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming in a way you can observe, ²¹nor will people say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘Look, there it is!’ because the kingdom of God is within you.”

²²He said to the disciples, “The days will come when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it. ²³They will tell you, ‘Look, there he is!’ or ‘Look, here he is!’ Do not go out or chase after them, ²⁴for the Son of Man in his day will be like the lightning that flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other side. ²⁵But first, he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. ²⁶Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it also be in the days of the Son of Man. ²⁷They were eating and drinking, marrying and being given in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all. ²⁸Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot: They were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, ²⁹but on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. ³⁰It will be the same on the day the Son of Man is revealed.”

⁹I continued to watch until thrones were set up, and the Ancient of Days was seated. His clothing was white as snow, and the hair on his head was like pure wool. His throne was flames of fire. Its wheels were blazing fire. ¹⁰A river of fire flowed out from his presence. Thousands upon thousands served him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. The court was seated, and books were opened.

¹¹I kept paying attention to the sound of the boastful words that the horn was speaking. I kept watching until the beast was killed, and its body was destroyed and thrown into the burning fire. ¹²As for the rest of the beasts, their dominion had been taken away, but their lives were prolonged for a set period of time.

¹³I kept watching the night visions, and there, in the clouds of heaven, I saw one like a son of man coming. He came to the Ancient of Days, and he was brought before him. ¹⁴To him was given dominion, honor, and a kingdom. All peoples, nations, and languages will worship him. His dominion is an eternal dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will not be destroyed.

³First, know this: In the last days scoffers will come with their mocking, following their own lusts. ⁴They will say, “Where is this promised coming of his? For from the time that our fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they have from the beginning of the creation.” ⁵You see, what they are intentionally forgetting is that the heavens came into existence long ago by the word of God and that the earth came together out of the water and between the waters. ⁶Through these waters the former world perished, when it was flooded with water. ⁷And now, by that same word, the heavens and earth have been stored up for fire, since they are being kept until the day of judgment and the destruction of the ungodly. ⁸But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: For the Lord, one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day. ⁹The Lord is not slow to do what he promised, as some consider slowness. Instead, he is patient for your sakes, not wanting anyone to perish, but all to come to repentance.

¹⁰But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. On that day the heavens will pass away with a roar, the elements will be dissolved as they burn with great heat, and the earth and what was done on it will be burned up. ¹¹Therefore, since all these things will be destroyed, what kind of people ought you to be, living in holiness and godliness, ¹²as you look forward to and hasten the coming of the day of God? That day will cause the heavens to be set on fire and destroyed, and the elements to melt as they burn with great heat. ¹³But according to his promise we look forward to new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.

¹⁴Therefore, dear friends, as you look forward to these things, make every effort to be found in peace, spotless and blameless in his sight.

³¹“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. ³²All the nations will be gathered in his presence, and he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. ³³He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. ³⁴Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. ³⁵For I was hungry and you gave me food to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me. ³⁶I was lacking clothes and you clothed me. I was sick and you took care of me. I was in prison and you visited me.’

³⁷“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you a drink? ³⁸When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or lacking clothes and clothe you? ³⁹When did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’

⁴⁰“The King will answer them, ‘Amen I tell you: Just as you did it for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did it for me.’

⁴¹“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire, which is prepared for the Devil and his angels. ⁴²For I was hungry and you did not give me food to eat. I was thirsty and you did not give me anything to drink. ⁴³I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, lacking clothes and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not take care of me.’

⁴⁴“Then they will also answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or lacking clothes or sick or in prison and did not serve you?’

⁴⁵“At that time he will answer them, ‘Amen I tell you: Just as you did not do it for one of the least of these, you did not do it for me.’ ⁴⁶And they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

¹⁷Watch this! I am about to create new heavens and a new earth.

The former things will not be remembered.

They will not come to mind.

¹⁸Instead, rejoice and celebrate forever, because of what I am creating.

Watch this! I am about to create Jerusalem to be a source of gladness,

and her people will be a source of joy.

¹⁹I also will be glad because of Jerusalem,

and I will rejoice over my people.

The sound of weeping will not be heard in her again,

nor will the sound of crying.

²⁰There will never again be an infant there who lives for only a few days,

or an elderly man who does not fill out all his days,

for one who dies at a hundred will be considered a young man,

and one who fails to attain the age of one hundred will be regarded as cursed.

²¹Then they will build houses and live in them.

They will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

²²They will not build a house and have another person live in it.

They will not plant and have another person eat the crop,

for the days of my people will be like the days of a tree,

and my chosen ones will enjoy all the work of their hands.

²³They will not labor only to receive nothing,

and they will not give birth to children doomed to disaster,

for they will be offspring who are blessed by the Lord,

and their descendants will be with them.

²⁴Then even before they call, I will answer.

While they are still speaking, I will hear.

²⁵The wolf and the lamb will graze together,

and lions will eat straw like cattle,

but the serpent will eat dust as its food.

They will not harm or destroy anywhere on my holy mountain,

says the Lord.

Concerning the times and dates, brothers, there is no need to write to you, ²for you yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. ³When people are saying, “Peace and security,” destruction will suddenly come on them, like labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will certainly not escape. ⁴But you, brothers, are not in the dark so that this day takes you by surprise like a thief, ⁵for you are all sons of the light and sons of the day. We do not belong to the night or the darkness. ⁶So then let us not sleep like everyone else, but rather let us remain alert and sober.

⁷To be sure, those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. ⁸But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet. ⁹You see, God did not appoint us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. ¹⁰He died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him. ¹¹Therefore, encourage one another and build each other up, just as you are also doing.

“At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. ²Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. ³When the foolish ones took their lamps, they did not take any oil with them; ⁴but the wise took oil in their containers with their lamps. ⁵While the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and fell asleep. ⁶But at midnight there was a shout, ‘Look, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’ ⁷Then all those virgins got up and trimmed their lamps. ⁸The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil because our lamps are going out.’ ⁹But the wise answered, ‘No, there may not be enough for us and for you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’ ¹⁰But while they were away buying oil, the bridegroom came. Those who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet, and the door was shut. ¹¹Later, the other virgins also came and said, ‘Lord, Lord, let us in.’ ¹²But he answered, ‘Amen I tell you: I do not know you.’ ¹³Therefore, keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.”