Jesus Calls Levi

¹³ He went out again beside the sea, and ^(A)all the crowd was coming to him, and he was teaching them. ^14 (B)And as he passed by, he saw ^(C)Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him.

¹⁵ And as he reclined at table in his house, many ^(D)tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. ¹⁶ And ^(E)the scribes of^[a] the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, ^(F)“Why does he eat^[b] with tax collectors and sinners?” ¹⁷ And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. ^(G)I came not to call the righteous, ^(H)but sinners.”

A Question About Fasting

¹⁸ Now ^(I)John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. And people came and said to him, ^(J)“Why do John's disciples and ^(K)the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” ¹⁹ And Jesus said to them, ^(L)“Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. ^20 (M)The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and ^(N)then they will fast in that day. ²¹ No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. ²² And no one puts new wine into old ^(O)wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins—and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins.”^[c]

True and False Fasting

¹² Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from ^(A)the living God. ¹³ But ^(B)exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by ^(C)the deceitfulness of sin. ¹⁴ For we have come to share in Christ, ^(D)if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. ¹⁵ As it is said,

¹⁶ For ^(F)who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not ^(G)all those who left Egypt led by Moses? ¹⁷ And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, ^(H)whose bodies fell in the wilderness? ¹⁸ And to whom did he swear that ^(I)they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? ¹⁹ So we see that ^(J)they were unable to enter because of unbelief.

4 Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem ^(K)to have failed to reach it. ² For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because ^(L)they were not united by faith with those who listened.^{[a] 3} For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said,

although his works were finished from the foundation of the world. ⁴ For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way: ^(N)“And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.” ⁵ And again in this passage he said,

⁶ Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news ^(P)failed to enter because of disobedience, ⁷ again he appoints a certain day, “Today,” saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted,

⁸ For if Joshua had given them rest, God^[b] would not have spoken of another day later on. ⁹ So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, ¹⁰ for whoever has entered God's rest has also ^(R)rested from his works as God did from his.

¹¹ Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so ^(S)that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. ¹² For ^(T)the word of God is living and ^(U)active, ^(V)sharper than any ^(W)two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and ^(X)discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. ¹³ And ^(Y)no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are ^(Z)naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.