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“I Tell You This, My Friends”
1 As all these things took place, when so many thousands of people had gathered that they were trampling on one another, Jesus began to speak to his disciples first: “Be on your guard against the yeast—that is, the hypocrisy—of the Pharisees.
2 Now, there is nothing hidden that will not be brought out into the open, or secret that will not be made known.
3 Everything ᵖyou have talked about, therefore, when we’re by ourselves, will be heard right out in the open, and what ᵖyou have talked about behind closed doors privately will be proclaimed publicly from the rooftops.
4 “Now I tell ᵖyou this, my friends: Don’t fear those who can kill the body but after that can do nothing more.
5 I will warn ᵖyou whom you should fear: Fear the one who, after the killing, has authority to have ᵖyou thrown into Gehenna. Yes, I tell ᵖyou, he is the one you must fear!
6 Five sparrows are sold for two pennies, aren’t they? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God.
7 Why, even the hairs on your head have all been counted. Don’t be afraid. ᵖYou are worth more than many, many sparrows.
8 “I tell ᵖyou this: If a person openly acknowledges his allegiance to me in the presence of men, the Son of Man, likewise, will himself openly acknowledge that person as his own in the presence of the angels of God.
9 If someone disowns me in the presence of men, however, he will be disowned in the presence of the angels of God.
10 And if a person speaks something against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him. If someone speaks blasphemy, however, against the Spirit, he will not be forgiven.
11 “When people bring ᵖyou before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, don’t worry about how ᵖyou should make your defense or what you should say.
12 The Holy Spirit, you see, is the one who will teach ᵖyou at that time what you are to say.”
“Be on Your Guard against Every Kind of Greed … Don’t Worry about Your Life, What You Will Eat”
13 Someone in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, please tell my brother to give me my share of the family inheritance.”
14 “Sir,” Jesus said to him, “who was it that appointed me to decide your case and divide the property between ᵖyou?”
15 Then he said to them, “Watch out and be on your guard against every kind of greed, because it isn’t the abundance of his possessions on which a person’s life depends.”
16 Then he told them a parable: “There was a certain rich man whose land produced an abundant harvest.
17 ‘What should I do?’ he began wondering to himself. ‘I don’t have anywhere to store my crops.’
18 Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do: I will tear down my barns and build some that are even bigger, where I will store all my wheat and my other goods.
19 Then I’ll say to myself, “Lucky man! You have enough stored up to last you for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink, and enjoy yourself.” ’
20 But God said to him, ‘You foolish man! Tonight your very life will be demanded back from ˢyou. The things you have prepared for yourself—whose will they be?’
21 This is how it will be with anyone who stores up treasures for himself but is not rich in this: The things that truly matter in the sight of God.”
22 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “That’s why I tell ᵖyou this: Don’t worry about ᵖyour life, what you will eat, or about ᵖyour body, what you will wear.
23 Life, after all, is far more than food, and your body more than clothing.
24 Consider the ravens: They don’t sow, they don’t reap, they have no storeroom or barn, and yet it is God who keeps providing them with food. Of truly how much greater worth are ᵖyou than the birds?
25 “Now who of ᵖyou by worrying can add an hour to his life?
26 Well then, if ᵖyou aren’t able to do even so trivial a thing as that, why should you worry about the other things?
27 Consider the wildflowers, how they grow: They don’t toil, nor do they spin thread. Nevertheless, I tell ᵖyou this: Not even Solomon in all his splendor was adorned like one of these!
28 Well, if this is how God clothes the grass in the field, which is here today but tomorrow is put into the oven, how much more surely is he going to clothe ᵖyou, O ᵖyou of little faith!
29 ᵖYou, indeed, mustn’t fret about what you will eat or what you will drink; don’t be anxious.
30 Concerning all these things, you see, it is the Gentile world that sets its heart on them. ᵖYour Father, however, knows that you need these things.
31 Instead, continually set your hearts on his Kingdom, and these things will be provided for ᵖyou.
32 Don’t be afraid, little flock, because ᵖyour Father has gladly chosen to give ᵖyou the Kingdom.
33 Sell ᵖyour possessions and give the money to the poor. Make for yourselves money bags that will not wear out, an unfailing treasure stored away in the heavens, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys.
34 Where ᵖyour treasure is, you see, there your hearts, too, themselves will be.”
“Be Dressed and Ready for Service”
35 “Be dressed and ready for service and keep your lamps burning;
36 ᵖyou must be like servants waiting expectantly for their master to return from the wedding festivities, so that when he comes and knocks, they can immediately open the door for him.
37 Blessed are those slaves whom the master, upon his arrival, finds awake and watching. Amen, I solemnly tell ᵖyou this: The master will dress himself to serve and have them recline at the meal table, and coming up to where they are, he will serve them.
38 If he comes in the second, or even in the third watch of the night and finds them awake and watchful, blessed are those slaves.
39 But understand this: If the master of the household had recognized at what time the thief was about to come, he would not have allowed the thief to break into his house.
40 ᵖYou, too, must yourselves be prepared. For it is in an appointed time ᵖyou don’t suppose that the Son of Man is going to come.”
41 “Lord,” Peter said, “is it only to us that you are addressing this parable, or to everyone?”
42 The Lord replied, “Who then is the trustworthy and wise steward, whom the master will put in charge of his household servants to give them at the appointed time their allotted portion of food?
43 Blessed is that slave whom the master, upon his arrival, finds doing this.
44 I tell ᵖyou the truth: The master will over all his possessions put that slave in charge.
45 But suppose that slave says to himself, ‘My master is delayed in coming,’ and begins to beat the other slaves, both men and women, and to eat and drink and get drunk—
46 the master of that slave will come in a day that the slave is not anticipating and in an appointed time he doesn’t recognize and cut him in two; that slave’s portion he will make the same as the punishment he assigns to the unfaithful.
47 As for that servant who knew his master’s will but didn’t make preparations or do what his master wanted, he will be punished with many lashes.
48 The one who didn’t know his master’s will and yet did things deserving of punishment, however, will be punished with few lashes. From everyone who has been given much, much will be required, and from the one who has been entrusted with much, even more will be demanded.
“I’m Here to Bring Fire to the Land”
49 “I am here to bring fire to the land,+ and how I wish it were already lit!
50 Yet I have a baptism of overwhelming affliction to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is finished!
51 Do ᵖyou think that peace is what I’m here to bring to the land? No, I tell ᵖyou, not peace, but division.
52 There will be from now on five people divided, you see, in one and the same family, three against two and two against three.
53 They will be divided father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.+”
“The Present Appointed Time You Don’t Know How to Interpret?”
54 Jesus also said to the crowds: “When ᵖyou see clouds beginning to form in the west, you immediately say, ‘Here comes a thunderstorm,’ and it turns out that way.
55 And when ᵖyou feel a wind from the south beginning to blow in, you say, ‘It’s going to be a real scorcher,’ and it is.
56 You hypocrites! The appearance of the sky ᵖyou do know how to interpret, but the present appointed time ᵖyou don’t know how to interpret? How in the world is this?
“Do Your Best to Settle the Matter with Him on the Way”
57 “Why don’t ᵖyou weigh out what is right, moreover, based on your own judgment?
58 For example, as ˢyou are going with ˢyour accuser before the official serving as judge, do your best to settle the matter with him on the way. Otherwise, he may drag ˢyou before the judge; the judge, in turn, will hand you over to the court officer; the court officer, in turn, will throw you into prison.
59 I tell ˢyou this: You will certainly not get out of there until you have paid back the very last cent you owe.”