²⁸ For which one of you, when he wants to build a watchtower [for his guards], does not first sit down and calculate the cost, to see if he has enough to finish it? ²⁹ Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is unable to finish [the building], all who see it will begin to ridicule him, ³⁰ saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish!’ ³¹ Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and consider whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to encounter the one who is coming against him with twenty thousand? ³² Or else [if he feels he is not powerful enough], while the other [king] is still a far distance away, he sends an envoy and asks for terms of peace. ³³ So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not [carefully consider the cost and then for My sake] ^[a]give up all his own possessions.

³⁴ “Therefore, salt is good; but if salt has become tasteless, with what will it be seasoned? ³⁵ It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; it is thrown away. He who has ears to hear, let him hear and heed My words.”