¹⁶ For where you have envy and selfish ambition,^(A) there you find disorder and every evil practice.

The Parable of the Wedding Banquet^(A)

22 Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: ² “The kingdom of heaven is like^(B) a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. ³ He sent his servants^(C) to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.

⁴ “Then he sent some more servants^(D) and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’

⁵ “But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business. ⁶ The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. ⁷ The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers^(E) and burned their city.

⁸ “Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. ⁹ So go to the street corners^(F) and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ ¹⁰ So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good,^(G) and the wedding hall was filled with guests.

¹¹ “But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. ¹² He asked, ‘How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend^(H)?’ The man was speechless.

¹³ “Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’^(I)

¹⁴ “For many are invited, but few are chosen.”^(J)

¹⁶ For God so loved^(A) the world that he gave^(B) his one and only Son,^(C) that whoever believes^(D) in him shall not perish but have eternal life.^{(E) 17} For God did not send his Son into the world^(F) to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.^{(G) 18} Whoever believes in him is not condemned,^(H) but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.^{(I) 19} This is the verdict: Light^(J) has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.^{(K) 20} Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.^{(L) 21} But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.