Jesus Calls Levi

¹³ Jesus^[a] went out again beside the sea; the whole crowd gathered around him, and he taught them.^{(A) 14} As he was walking along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax-collection station, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him.^(B)

¹⁵ And as he sat at dinner^[b] in Levi’s^[c] house, many tax collectors and sinners were also sitting^[d] with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. ¹⁶ When the scribes of^[e] the Pharisees saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, they said to his disciples, “Why does he eat^[f] with tax collectors and sinners?”^{(C) 17} When Jesus heard this, he said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician but those who are sick; I have not come to call the righteous but sinners.”^(D)

The Question about Fasting

¹⁸ Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting, and people^[g] came and said to him, “Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” ¹⁹ Jesus said to them, “The wedding attendants cannot fast while the bridegroom is with them, can they? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. ²⁰ The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day.^(E)

²¹ “No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak; otherwise, the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. ²² Similarly, no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost, and so are the skins, but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins.”^[h]

False and True Worship

¹² Take care, brothers and sisters, that none of you may have an evil, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. ¹³ But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” so that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. ¹⁴ For we have become partners of Christ, if only we hold our first confidence firm to the end. ¹⁵ As it is said,

¹⁶ Now who were they who heard and rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt under the leadership of Moses?^{(B) 17} And with whom was he angry forty years? Was it not those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?^{(C) 18} And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, if not to those who were disobedient?^{(D) 19} So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.^(E)

The Rest That God Promised

4 Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest is still open, let us take care that none of you should seem to have failed to reach it.^{(F) 2} For indeed the good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them because they were not united by faith with those who listened.^{[a](G) 3} For we who have believed are entering that rest, just as God^[b] has said,

though his works were finished since the foundation of the world. ⁴ For somewhere it speaks about the seventh day as follows, “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.”^{(H) 5} And again in this place it says, “They shall not enter my rest.” ⁶ Since therefore it remains open for some to enter it and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, ⁷ again he sets a certain day—“today”—saying through David much later, in the words already quoted,

⁸ For if Joshua had given them rest, God^[c] would not speak later about another day. ⁹ So then, a Sabbath rest still remains for the people of God, ¹⁰ for those who enter God’s^[d] rest also rest from their labors as God did from his. ¹¹ Let us therefore make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one may fall through such disobedience as theirs.

¹² Indeed, the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.^{(J) 13} And before him no creature is hidden, but all are naked and laid bare to the eyes of the one to whom we must render an account.^(K)