For if you love only those who love you, what reward can you expect? Do not the very tax-collectors do that?

"Here I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. So you must be wise like serpents, and guileless like doves.

Then it goes and gets seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there, and in the end the man is worse off than he was before. That is the way it will be with this present wicked age."

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

Jesus said to his disciples, "I tell you, it will be hard for a rich man to get into the Kingdom of Heaven!

And again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to get through a needle's eye than for a rich man to get into the Kingdom of God!"

Then Peter spoke and said to him, "Here we have left all we had and followed you. What are we to have?"

Jesus answered, "Let me ask you one question, and if you answer it, I will tell you what authority I have for doing as I do.

And they answered Jesus, "We do not know." He said to them, "Nor will I tell you what authority I have for doing as I do.

"If anyone says to you at that time, 'Look! here is the Christ!' or 'There he is!' do not believe it,

There were five thousand men who ate the loaves.

Jesus said to them, "Let me ask you one question, and if you answer me, I will tell you what authority I have for doing as I do.

So they answered Jesus, "We do not know." Jesus said to them, "Nor will I tell you what authority I have for doing as I do."

If anyone says to you at that time, 'Look! Here is the Christ!' or 'Look! There he is!' do not believe it.

And when they went into the tomb they saw a young man in a white robe sitting at the right, and they were utterly amazed.

and she had been a widow until she was now eighty-four. She never left the Temple, but worshipped night and day with fasting and prayer.

and Elijah was not sent to one of them, but to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon.

And the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled about it to his disciples, and said, "Why do you eat and drink with tax-collectors and irreligious people?"

Give to everyone that asks of you, and if anyone takes away what is yours, do not demand it back.

If you love only those who love you, what merit is there in that? For even godless people love those who love them.

And if you help only those who help you, what merit is there in that? Even godless people act in that way.

As he came up to the gate of the town, a dead man was being carried out; he was his mother's only son, and she was a widow. A crowd of the townspeople was with her.

Now go. Here I send you out like lambs among wolves.

Whenever you come to a town and they welcome you, eat what is offered you,

But Tyre and Sidon will fare better than you at the Judgment!

Here I have given you the power to tread on snakes and scorpions, and to trample on all the power of the enemy. Nothing will hurt you at all.

for at the very moment the holy Spirit will teach you what you ought to say."

And if you have been untrustworthy about what belonged to someone else, who will give you what belongs to you?

instead of saying to him, 'Get my supper ready, and dress yourself, and wait on me while I eat and drink, and you can eat and drink afterward'?

There was a widow in the city and she came to him and said, 'Protect me from my opponent.'

I tell you, it was he who went back to his house with God's approval, and not the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the man who humbles himself will be exalted."

And Jesus said to them, "Nor will I tell you what authority I have for doing as I do."

"Beware of the scribes who like to go about in long robes, and love to be saluted with respect in public places, and to have the front seats in the synagogues and the best places at banquets??47 men who eat up widows' houses and to cover it up make long prayers! They will get all the heavier sentence!"

I tell you, it will all happen before the present generation passes away.

And he said to them, "When I sent you out without any purse or bag or shoes, was there anything you needed?" They said, "No, nothing."

And I will send down upon you what my Father has promised. Wait here in the city until you are clothed with power from on high."

Jesus answered, "If you knew what God has to give, and who it is that said to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water."

But the man who had been cured did not know who it was, for as there was a crowd there, Jesus had left the place.

Jesus answered, "I tell you, it is not because of the signs you have seen that you have come in search of me, but because you ate that bread and had all you wanted of it.

Then they said to him, "Then what sign do you show for us to see and so come to believe you? What work are you doing?

"Why do I even talk to you at all? I have a great deal to say about you and to condemn in you, yet he who sent me is truthful, and the things that I say to the world are things that I have learned from him."

At that, the Jews picked up stones to throw at him, but he disappeared and made his way out of the Temple.

After Jesus had said this he was greatly moved and said solemnly, "I tell you, it is one of you that will betray me!"

But it is your custom to have me release one man for you at Passover time. Do you want me therefore to release the king of the Jews for you?"

Peter turned and saw following them the disciple who was very dear to Jesus, who at the supper leaned back on Jesus' breast and said, "Master, who is it that is going to betray you?"

But Peter said, "I have no silver or gold, but I will give you what I have. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk!"

Peter said to her, "How could you two agree to test the Spirit of the Lord? There at the door are the footsteps of the men who buried your husband, and they will carry you out also."

not by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had designated beforehand, that is, by us, who ate and drank with him after he had risen from the dead.

Then Paul said to him, "God will strike you, you white-washed wall! Do you sit there to try me by the Law, and order them to strike me in violation of the Law?"

As I have been informed that a plot against him is brewing, I am sending him on to you at once, and directing his accusers to present their charges against him before you."

So, for my part, I am eager to preach the good news to you at Rome also.

More than that, we ourselves, though we have in the Spirit a foretaste of the future, groan to ourselves as we wait to be declared God's sons, through the redemption of our bodies.

But when we hope for something that we do not see, we wait persistently for it.

But I ask again, did Israel fail to understand? Why, to begin with, Moses said, "I will make you jealous of what is no nation at all, I will exasperate you at a senseless nation."

For if your brother's feelings are hurt by what you eat, your life is not governed by love. You must not, by what you eat, ruin a man for whom Christ died.

The Kingdom of God is not a matter of what we eat or drink, but of uprightness, peace, and happiness through the possession of the holy Spirit.

Therefore, if what I eat makes my brother fall, I will never eat meat again, rather than make my brother fall.

It is no superhuman temptation that you have had. And God can be depended on, not to let you be tried beyond your strength, but when temptation comes, to give you a way out of it, so that you can withstand it.

Think of the Israelites' practices. Do not those who eat what is sacrificed have divine fellowship at the sacrificial altar?

If I give thanks for what I eat, why should I be denounced for eating what I give thanks over?

So when you hold your meetings it is not the Lord's Supper that you eat,

For until the Lord comes back, every time you eat this bread and drink from the cup, you proclaim his death.

And let two or three who are inspired to preach speak, while the rest weigh what is said;

in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the sound of the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised free from decay, and we shall be changed.

For he says, "I have listened to you at a welcome time, And helped you on a day of deliverance!" Now the welcome time has come! This is the day of deliverance!

It is not that I am cramping you, it is your own affections.

So although I did write to you, it was not on account of the offender, nor of the injured man, but in the sight of God to reveal to you your devotion to me.

But I will tell you what I think about it. For this is the best way to deal with you, for you were the first not only to do anything about this, but to want to do anything, and that was last year.

These men are making much of you, but not with honorable intentions. They want to shut you out, so that you will have to make much of them.

Never for a moment falter before your opponents, for your fearlessness will be a sure sign for them of their coming destruction, but to you it will be an omen, from God himself, of your deliverance.

Now, my brothers, goodbye, and the Lord be with you. I do not mind writing the same thing over and over to you; it is necessary for your safety.

though I at least am entitled to rely on them. If anyone thinks he can rely on his physical advantages, still more can I!

And you at Philippi know as well as I do, that in the early days of the good news, after I left Macedonia, no church but yours went into partnership and opened an account with me.

So no one can call you to account for what you eat or drink, or do about annual or monthly feasts or Sabbaths.

You must not let anyone deceive you at all. For that is not until the rebellion takes place and the embodiment of disobedience makes his appearance??e who is doomed to destruction,

If a widow has children or grandchildren, let them learn first to show piety in the treatment of their own families, and to return the care of those who brought them up, for that is what God approves.

But a woman who is really a widow, and has no children, has fixed her hope on God, and devotes herself to prayers and entreaties night and day.

A widow who gives herself up to pleasure is dead while she is still alive.

No one under sixty years of age should be put on the list of widows. A widow must have been married but once,

As your example in wholesome instruction, keep before you what you learned from me, in the faith and love that come through union with Christ Jesus.

while we wait for the fulfilment of our blessed hope in the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Christ Jesus.

and now that I send him back to you, it is like sending my very heart.

In the one case, mortal men collect tithes; but in the other, one who, it is intimated, lives on.

For we know who it is that has said, "Vengeance belongs to me! I will pay back!" and in another place, "The Lord will be the judge of his people!"

But you are the chosen race, the royal priesthood, the consecrated nation, his own people, so that you may declare the virtues of him who has called you out of darkness into his wonderful light;

If all these things are to be dissolved in this way, what holy and pious lives you ought to lead,

while you await and hasten the coming of the Day of God, which will cause the heavens to burn up and dissolve and the heavenly bodies to blaze and melt.

Yet it is a new command that I am writing you; it is newly realized in him and in yourselves, for the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.

Let everyone who can hear listen to what the Spirit says to the churches. I will give him who is victorious some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white pebble with a new name written on it which no one knows except the man who receives it.'

But to the rest of you at Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching and have not learned the "deep things" of Satan, as they call them??o you I say, I have no fresh burden to lay on you,

As it is, since you are tepid and neither cold nor hot, I am going to spit you out of my mouth!

Afterward I had another vision: There was a door standing open in the heavens and the first voice like a trumpet that I had heard speak to me, said, "Come up here, and I will show you what must take place."

Then I saw a white horse, and its rider carried a bow. He was given a crown, and he rode forth as a victor to conquer.

Then each of them was given a white robe and they were told to be quiet a little while longer, until the number of their fellow-slaves and their brothers, who were to be killed as they had been, should be complete.

Then I saw a white cloud, and seated on it a being like a man, with a gold crown on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand.

but the angel said to me, "Why are you amazed? I will explain to you what the woman and the animal with seven heads and ten horns that carries her symbolize.

The more she has given herself to pride and luxury the more you must give her torture and grief. Because she says to herself, 'I sit on a throne; I am not a widow, I shall never have any sorrow,'

Then I saw heaven thrown open and there appeared a white horse. His rider was called Faithful and True, and he judges and wages war in uprightness.