Love and Obedience Rewarded

11 “Therefore you shall love the Lord your God, and keep His charge, His statutes, His judgments, and His commandments always. ² Know today that I do not speak with your children, who have not known and who have not seen the ^[a]chastening of the Lord your God, His greatness and His mighty hand and His outstretched arm— ³ His signs and His acts which He did in the midst of Egypt, to Pharaoh king of Egypt, and to all his land; ⁴ what He did to the army of Egypt, to their horses and their chariots: ^(A)how He made the waters of the Red Sea overflow them as they pursued you, and how the Lord has destroyed them to this day; ⁵ what He did for you in the wilderness until you came to this place; ⁶ and ^(B)what He did to Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben: how the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, their households, their tents, and all the substance that was ^[b]in their possession, in the midst of all Israel— ⁷ but your eyes have ^(C)seen every great ^[c]act of the Lord which He did.

⁸ “Therefore you shall keep every commandment which I command you today, that you may ^(D)be strong, and go in and possess the land which you cross over to possess, ⁹ and ^(E)that you may prolong your days in the land ^(F)which the Lord ^[d]swore to give your fathers, to them and their descendants, ^(G)‘a land flowing with milk and honey.’ ¹⁰ For the land which you go to possess is not like the land of Egypt from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and watered it by foot, as a vegetable garden; ^11 (H)but the land which you cross over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water from the rain of heaven, ¹² a land for which the Lord your God cares; ^(I)the eyes of the Lord your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the very end of the year.

¹³ ‘And it shall be that if you earnestly ^[e]obey My commandments which I command you today, to love the Lord your God and serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul,

God’s People Are Comforted^(A)

²³ Moreover ^(A)I call God as witness against my soul, ^(B)that to spare you I came no more to Corinth. ²⁴ Not ^(C)that we ^[a]have dominion over your faith, but are fellow workers for your joy; for ^(D)by faith you stand.

Paul Urges Forgiveness

2 But I determined this within myself, ^(E)that I would not come again to you in sorrow. ² For if I make you ^(F)sorrowful, then who is he who makes me glad but the one who is made sorrowful by me?

Forgive the Offender

³ And I wrote this very thing to you, lest, when I came, ^(G)I should have sorrow over those from whom I ought to have joy, ^(H)having confidence in you all that my joy is the joy of you all. ⁴ For out of much ^[b]affliction and anguish of heart I wrote to you, with many tears, ^(I)not that you should be grieved, but that you might know the love which I have so abundantly for you.

⁵ But ^(J)if anyone has caused grief, he has not ^(K)grieved me, but all of you to some extent—not to be too severe. ⁶ This punishment which was inflicted ^(L)by the majority is sufficient for such a man, ^7 (M)so that, on the contrary, you ought rather to forgive and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one be swallowed up with too much sorrow. ⁸ Therefore I urge you to reaffirm your love to him. ⁹ For to this end I also wrote, that I might put you to the test, whether you are ^(N)obedient in all things. ¹⁰ Now whom you forgive anything, I also forgive. For ^[c]if indeed I have forgiven anything, I have forgiven that one for your sakes in the presence of Christ, ¹¹ lest Satan should take advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his devices.

Triumph in Christ

¹² Furthermore, ^(O)when I came to Troas to preach Christ’s gospel, and ^(P)a ^[d]door was opened to me by the Lord, ^13 (Q)I had no rest in my spirit, because I did not find Titus my brother; but taking my leave of them, I departed for Macedonia.

¹⁴ Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us ^[e]diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place. ¹⁵ For we are to God the fragrance of Christ ^(R)among those who are being saved and ^(S)among those who are perishing. ^16 (T)To the one we are the aroma of death leading to death, and to the other the aroma of life leading to life. And ^(U)who is sufficient for these things? ¹⁷ For we are not, as ^[f]so many, ^(V)peddling^[g] the word of God; but as ^(W)of sincerity, but as from God, we speak in the sight of God in Christ.

The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard

20 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. ² Now when he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. ³ And he went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the marketplace, ⁴ and said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.’ So they went. ⁵ Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did likewise. ⁶ And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing ^[a]idle, and said to them, ‘Why have you been standing here idle all day?’ ⁷ They said to him, ‘Because no one hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, ^[b]and whatever is right you will receive.’

⁸ “So when evening had come, the owner of the vineyard said to his steward, ‘Call the laborers and give them their wages, beginning with the last to the first.’ ⁹ And when those came who were hired about the eleventh hour, they each received a denarius. ¹⁰ But when the first came, they supposed that they would receive more; and they likewise received each a denarius. ¹¹ And when they had received it, they ^[c]complained against the landowner, ¹² saying, ‘These last men have worked only one hour, and you made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the heat of the day.’ ¹³ But he answered one of them and said, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? ¹⁴ Take what is yours and go your way. I wish to give to this last man the same as to you. ^15 (A)Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things? Or ^(B)is your eye evil because I am good?’ ^16 (C)So the last will be first, and the first last. ^(D)For^[d] many are called, but few chosen.”