Paul’s role as an apostle

4 So a person should think about us this way—as servants of Christ and managers of God’s secrets. ² In this kind of situation, what is expected of a manager is that they prove to be faithful. ³ I couldn’t care less if I’m judged by you or by any human court; I don’t even judge myself. ⁴ I’m not aware of anything against me, but that doesn’t make me innocent, because the Lord is the one who judges me. ⁵ So don’t judge anything before the right time—wait until the Lord comes. He will bring things that are hidden in the dark to light, and he will make people’s motivations public. Then there will be recognition for each person from God.

Psalm 37^[a]

Of David.

The old and the new

³³ Some people said to Jesus, “The disciples of John fast often and pray frequently. The disciples of the Pharisees do the same, but your disciples are always eating and drinking.”

³⁴ Jesus replied, “You can’t make the wedding guests fast while the groom is with them, can you? ³⁵ The days will come when the groom will be taken from them, and then they will fast.”

³⁶ Then he told them a parable. “No one tears a patch from a new garment to patch an old garment. Otherwise, the new garment would be ruined, and the new patch wouldn’t match the old garment. ³⁷ Nobody pours new wine into old wineskins. If they did, the new wine would burst the wineskins, the wine would spill, and the wineskins would be ruined. ³⁸ Instead, new wine must be put into new wineskins. ³⁹ No one who drinks a well-aged wine wants new wine, but says, ‘The well-aged wine is better.’”