²⁵ “When you have had children and children’s children and become complacent in the land, if you act corruptly by making an idol in the form of anything, thus doing what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God and provoking him to anger,^{(A) 26} I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that you will soon utterly perish from the land that you are crossing the Jordan to occupy; you will not live long on it but will be utterly destroyed.^{(B) 27} The Lord will scatter you among the peoples; only a few of you will be left among the nations where the Lord will lead you.^{(C) 28} There you will serve gods made by human hands, objects of wood and stone that neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell.^{(D) 29} From there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find him if you search after him with all your heart and soul.^{(E) 30} In your distress, when all these things have happened to you in time to come, you will return to the Lord your God and heed him. ³¹ Because the Lord your God is a merciful God, he will neither abandon you nor destroy you; he will not forget the covenant with your ancestors that he swore to them.^(F)

²³ But I call on God as witness against me: it was to spare you that I did not come again to Corinth.^{(A) 24} I do not mean to imply that we lord it over your faith; rather, we are workers with you for your joy because you stand firm in faith.^(B) 2 ¹ So I made up my mind not to make another visit that causes you grief.^{(C) 2} For if I cause you grief, who is there to make me glad but the one whom I have grieved? ³ And I wrote as I did, so that when I came, I might not suffer grief from those who should have made me rejoice, for I am confident about all of you, that my joy would be the joy of all of you.^{(D) 4} For I wrote you out of much distress and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to cause you grief but to let you know the abundant love that I have for you.

Forgiveness for the Offender

⁵ But if anyone has caused grief, he has caused it not to me but to some extent—not to exaggerate it—to all of you. ⁶ This punishment by the majority is enough for such a person;^{(E) 7} so now instead you should forgive and console him, so that he may not be overwhelmed by even worse grief. ⁸ So I urge you to reaffirm your love for him. ⁹ I wrote for this reason: to test you and to know whether you are obedient in everything.^{(F) 10} Anyone whom you forgive, I also forgive. In fact, what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, has been for your sake in the presence of Christ. ¹¹ And we do this so that we may not be outwitted by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his designs.

Paul’s Anxiety in Troas

¹² When I came to Troas to proclaim the good news^[a] of Christ, a door was opened for me in the Lord,^{(G) 13} but my mind could not rest because I did not find my brother Titus there. So I said farewell to them and went on to Macedonia.

¹⁴ But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession and through us spreads in every place the fragrance that comes from knowing him.^{[b] 15} For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing:^{(H) 16} to the one group a fragrance from death^[c] to death, to the other a fragrance from life^[d] to life. Who is qualified for these things?^{(I) 17} For we are not peddlers of God’s word like so many,^[e] but as persons of sincerity, as persons sent from God, we are speaking in Christ before God.^(J)

The Parable of the Lost Sheep

15 Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him.^{(A) 2} And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.”^(B)

The Parable of the Prodigal and His Brother

¹¹ Then Jesus^[a] said, “There was a man who had two sons.^{(A) 12} The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the wealth that will belong to me.’ So he divided his assets between them.^{(B) 13} A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant region, and there he squandered his wealth in dissolute living. ¹⁴ When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that region, and he began to be in need. ¹⁵ So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that region, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. ¹⁶ He would gladly have filled his stomach^[b] with the pods that the pigs were eating, and no one gave him anything. ¹⁷ But when he came to his senses he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger! ¹⁸ I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; ¹⁹ I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands.” ’ ²⁰ So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him.^{(C) 21} Then the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’^{[c](D) 22} But the father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly, bring out a robe—the best one—and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.^{(E) 23} And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate, ²⁴ for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!’ And they began to celebrate.^(F)

²⁵ “Now his elder son was in the field, and as he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. ²⁶ He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on. ²⁷ He replied, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf because he has got him back safe and sound.’ ²⁸ Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him. ²⁹ But he answered his father, ‘Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command, yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends. ³⁰ But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your assets with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!’^{(G) 31} Then the father^[d] said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. ³² But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.’ ”^(H)