²² The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth^(A) choke the word, making it unfruitful.

¹⁵ The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden^(A) to work it and take care of it.

¹⁹ Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals^(A) and all the birds in the sky.^(B) He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called^(C) each living creature,^(D) that was its name. ²⁰ So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals.

But for Adam^[a] no suitable helper^(E) was found.

God’s Covenant With Noah

9 Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth.^{(A) 2} The fear and dread of you will fall on all the beasts of the earth, and on all the birds in the sky, on every creature that moves along the ground, and on all the fish in the sea; they are given into your hands.^{(B) 3} Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you.^(C) Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.^(D)

²⁴ “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.^(A)

Do Not Worry^(B)

²⁵ “Therefore I tell you, do not worry^(C) 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 clothes?

¹⁵ Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”^(A)

³⁴ “Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness and the anxieties of life,^(A) and that day will close on you suddenly^(B) like a trap.

²⁰ For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made,^(A) so that people are without excuse.^(B)

²¹ For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.^{(C) 22} Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools^{(D) 23} and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images^(E) made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.

²⁴ Therefore God gave them over^(F) in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.^{(G) 25} They exchanged the truth about God for a lie,^(H) and worshiped and served created things^(I) rather than the Creator—who is forever praised.^(J) Amen.^(K)