for everyone who asks receives, the seeker finds, the door is opened to anyone who knocks.

Well, if for all your evil you know to give your children what is good, how much more will your Father give the holy Spirit from heaven to those who ask him?"

but some of them said, "It is by Beelzebul the prince of daemons that he casts out daemons."

and if Satan is divided against himself, how can his realm stand? You say I am casting out daemons by Beelzebul?

But if it is by the finger of God that I cast daemons out, then the Reign of God has reached you already.

When the strong man in armour guards his homestead, his property is undisturbed;

He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters.

When an unclean spirit leaves a man, it roams through dry places in search of refreshment. As it finds none, then it says, 'I will go back to the house I left,'

Then it goes off to fetch seven other spirits worse than itself; they go in and dwell there, and the last state of that man is worse than the first."

While he was saying this, a woman shouted to him out of the crowd, "Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts you sucked!"

As the crowds were thronging to him, he proceeded to say, "This is an evil generation: it demands a Sign, but no Sign will be given to it except the Sign of Jonah;

for as Jonah was a Sign to the Ninivites, so shall the Son of man be to this generation.

The queen of the South will rise at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them; for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to the wisdom of Solomon, and here is One greater than Solomon.

The men of Ninive will rise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for when Jonah preached they did repent, and here is One greater than Jonah.

Your eye is the lamp of the body: when your eye is sound, then the whole of your body has light, but if your eye is diseased, then your body is darkened.

(Look! perhaps your very light is dark.)

So if your whole body has light, without any corner of it in darkness, it will be lit up entirely, as when a lamp lights you with its rays."

but the Lord said to him, "You Pharisees do clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but your inner life is filled with rapacity and malice.

Better cleanse what is within; then nothing will be unclean for you.

One of the jurists said to him, "Teacher, when you say this you are insulting us as well."

This is why the Wisdom of God said, 'I will send them prophets and apostles, some they will kill and some they will persecute';

Meanwhile as the crowd was gathering in its thousands till they trod on one another, he proceeded to say to his disciples first of all, "Be on your guard against the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy,

Nothing is hidden that shall not be revealed, or concealed that shall not be made known.

Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God.

Then he said to them, "See and keep clear of covetousness in every shape and form, for a man's life is not part of his possessions because he has ample wealth."

And he said, 'This is what I will do. I will pull down my granaries and build larger ones, where I can store all my produce and my goods.

But God said to him, 'Foolish man, this very night your soul is wanted; and who will get all you have prepared?'

life is something more than food, and the body is something more than clothes.

Now if God so clothes grass which blooms to-day in the field and is thrown to-morrow into the furnace, will he not much more clothe you? O men, how little you trust him!

Fear not, you little flock, for your Father is delighted to give you the Realm.

and be like men who are expecting their lord and master on his return from a marriage-banquet, so as to open the door for him at once when he comes and knocks.

So be ready yourselves, for the Son of man is coming at an hour you do not expect."

Peter said, "Lord, are you telling this parable for us, or is it for all and sundry?"

The Lord said, "Well, where is the trusty, thoughtful steward whom the lord and master will set over his establishment to give out supplies at the proper time?

Blessed is that servant if his lord and master finds him so doing when he arrives!

But if that servant says to himself, 'My lord and master is long of arriving,' and if he starts to beat the menservants and maidservants, to eat and drink and get drunk,

I have a baptism to undergo. How I am distressed till it is all over!

You think I am here to make peace on earth? No, I tell you, it is dissension.

And to the crowds he said, "When you see a cloud rise in the west, you say, 'There is a shower coming,' and so it is:

when you feel the south wind blow, you say, 'There will be heat,' and so it is.

You hypocrites, you know how to decipher the look of earth and sky; how is it you cannot decipher the meaning of this era?

And why do you not yourselves settle what is right?

It was at this time that some people came to tell him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.

I tell you, no; unless you repent you will all perish as they did.

I tell you, no; unless you repent you will all perish as they did."

The Lord replied to him, "You hypocrites, does not each of you untether his ox or ass from the stall on the sabbath and lead it away to drink?

As he said this, all his opponents were put to shame, but all the crowd rejoiced over all his splendid doings.

So he said, "What is the Reign of God like? to what shall I compare it?

It is like a grain of mustard-seed which a man took and put into his orchard, where it grew up and became a tree, and the wild birds roosted in its branches."

It is like dough which a woman took and buried in three pecks of flour, till all of it was leavened."

On he went, teaching from one town and village to another, as he made his way to Jerusalem.

A man said to him, "Is it only a few, sir, who are saved?" So he said to them,

once the master of the House has got up and closed the door. You may stand outside and knock at the door, crying, 'Lord, open for us,' but he will answer you, 'I do not know where you come from.'

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, slaying the prophets and stoning those who have been sent to you! How often I would fain have gathered your children as a fowl gathers her brood under her wings! But you would not have it!

See, your House is left to yourselves. I tell you, you will never see me till the day comes when you say, Blessed be he who comes in the Lord's name."

so Jesus asked the jurists and Pharisees, "Is it right to heal on the sabbath or not?"

"Which of you," he said to them, "when an ass or an ox has fallen into a well, will not pull him out at once upon the sabbath day?"

Then you will be blessed; for as they have no means of repaying you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just."

Hearing this, one of his fellow guests said to him, "Blessed is he who feasts in the Realm of God!"

Another said, 'I have married a wife; that is why I cannot come.'

When the servant announced, 'Your order has been carried out, sir, but there is still room,'

For which of you wants to build a tower and does not first sit down to calculate the expense, to see if he has enough money to complete it? ??29 in case, after he has laid the foundation and then is unable to finish the building, all the spectators start to make fun of him,

Or what king sets out to fight against another king without first sitting down to deliberate whether with ten thousand men he can encounter the king who is attacking him with twenty thousand?

If he cannot, when the other is still at a distance he will send an embassy to do homage to him.

Salt is excellent indeed: but if salt becomes insipid, what will restore its flavour?

It is no use for either soil or dunghill, it is flung out. He who has an ear let him listen to this."

So, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over a single sinner who repents."

and bring the fatted calf, kill it, and let us eat and be merry;

for my son here was dead and he has come to life, he was lost and he is found.' So they began to make merry.

Now his elder son was out in the field, and as he came near the house he heard music and dancing;

but he replied, 'Look at all the years I have been serving you! I have never neglected any of your orders, and yet you have never given me so much as a kid, to let me make merry with my friends.

But as soon as this son of yours arrives, after having wasted your means with harlots, you kill the fatted calf for him!'

The father said to him, 'My son, you and I are always together, all I have is yours.

So he summoned him and said, 'What is this I hear about you? Hand in your accounts; you cannot be factor any longer.'

The factor said to himself, 'What am I to do, now that my master is taking the factorship away from me? I am too weak to dig, I am ashamed to beg.

'A hundred barrels of oil,' he said. The factor told him, 'Here is your bill; sit down at once and enter fifty barrels.'

Then he asked another, 'And how much do you owe?' 'A hundred quarters of wheat,' he said. 'Here is your bill,' said the factor, 'just enter eighty.'

And I tell you, use mammon, dishonest as it is, to make friends for yourselves, so that when you die they may welcome you to the eternal abodes.

He who is faithful with a trifle is also faithful with a large trust, and he who is dishonest with a trifle is also dishonest with a large trust.

And if you are not faithful with what belongs to another, how can you ever be given what is your own?

So he told them, "You are the people who get men to think you are good, but God knows what your hearts are! What is lofty in the view of man is loathsome in the eyes of God.

The Law and the prophets lasted till John; since then the good news of the Realm of God is preached, and anyone presses in.

Yet it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for an iota of the Law to lapse.

And as he was being tortured in Hades he raised his eyes and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus in his bosom;

But Abraham said, 'Remember, my son, you got all the bliss when you were alive, just as Lazarus got the ills of life; he is in comfort now, and you are in anguish.

Besides all that, a great gulf yawns between us and you, to keep back those who want to cross from us to you and also those who want to pass from you to us.'

for I have five brothers; let him bear testimony to them, that they may not come to this place of torture as well.'

To his disciples he said, "It is inevitable that hindrances should come, but woe to the man by whom they come;

The apostles said to the Lord, "Give us more faith!"

Well, it is the same with you; when you have done all you are bidden, say, 'We are but servants; we have only done our duty.' "

and lifted up their voice, saying, "Jesus, master, have pity on us."

Noticing them he said, "Go and show yourselves to the priests." And as they went away they were cleansed.

On being asked by the Pharisees when the Reign of God was coming, he answered them, "The Reign of God is not coming as you hope to catch sight of it;

no one will say, 'Here it is' or 'There it is,' for the Reign of God is now in your midst."

Men will say, 'See, here he is!' 'See, there he is!' but do not go out or run after them,

And just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of man;

Or just as it was in the days of Lot; they were eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting and building,

So will it be on the day the Son of man is revealed.

On that day, if a man is on the housetop and his goods inside the house, he must not go down to fetch them out; nor must a man in the field turn back

They asked him, "Where, Lord?" And he said to them, "Where the body is lying, there the vultures will gather."