Now these were the circumstances of the birth of Jesus Christ. Mary, his mother, was engaged to Joseph, but before they were married it was found that she was about to become a mother through the influence of the holy Spirit.

Do not suppose that you can say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham for our forefather,' for I tell you God can produce descendants for Abraham right out of these stones!

And the tempter came up and said to him, "If you are God's son, tell these stones to turn into bread!"

Anyone, therefore, who weakens one of the slightest of these commands, and teaches others to do so, will be ranked lowest in the Kingdom of Heaven; but anyone who observes them and teaches others to do so will be ranked high in the Kingdom of Heaven.

For these are all things the heathen are in pursuit of, and your heavenly Father knows well that you need all this.

But you must make his kingdom, and uprightness before him, your greatest care, and you will have all these other things besides.

These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon, who was called Peter, and his brother Andrew, and James the son of Zebedee and his brother John,

Jesus sent these twelve out, after giving them these directions: "Do not go among the heathen, or to any Samaritan town,

When Jesus had finished giving his twelve disciples these instructions, he went on from there to teach and preach in their towns.

And the owner's slaves came to him and said, 'Was not the seed good that you sowed in your field, sir? So where did these weeds come from?'

When Jesus had finished these figures, he left that place,

and went to his own part of the country. And he taught the people in their synagogue in such a way that they were astonished, and said, "Where did he get this wisdom, and the power to do these wonders?

It is these things that pollute a man, but not eating with unwashed hands!"

Then Jesus called his disciples to him and said to them, "I pity these people for they have been staying with me three days now and they have nothing left to eat, and I do not mean to send them away hungry, for they may give out on the way."

But whoever hinders one of these children who believe in me might better have a great millstone hung around his neck and be sunk in the open sea.

In just that way, it is the will of my Father in heaven that not a single one of these children be lost.

He said to him, "Which ones?" Jesus said, "These: 'You shall not murder, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness,

The young man said to him, "I have obeyed all these commandments. What do I still lack?"

and said, 'These men who were hired last worked only one hour, and you have put them on the same footing with us who have done the heavy work of the day and have stood the midday heat.'

He said to her, "What do you want?" She said to him, "Give orders that these two sons of mine sit one at your right and one at your left, when you are king!"

When the owner of the vineyard comes back, therefore, what will he do to these tenants?"

These two commands sum up the whole of the Law and the Prophets."

"Alas for you, you hypocritical scribes and Pharisees, for you pay tithes on mint, dill, and cummin, and you have let the weightier matters of the Law go??ustice, mercy, and integrity. But you should have observed these, without overlooking the others.

So when you see all these things, you must know that he is just at the door.

I tell you, these things will all happen before the present age passes away.

The king will answer, 'I tell you, in so far as you did it to one of the humblest of these brothers of mine, you did it to me.'

Then he will answer, 'I tell you, in so far as you failed to do it for one of these people who are humblest, you failed to do it for me.'