^47 (A)Everyone who comes to Me and hears My words and does them, I will show you whom he is like: ⁴⁸ he is like a man building a house, who dug and went deep, and laid a foundation on the rock; and when a flood occurred, the river burst against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. ⁴⁹ But the one who heard and did not do accordingly, is like a man who built a house on the ground without any foundation; and the river burst against it and immediately it collapsed, and the ruin of that house was great.”

Build Your House on the Rock

²⁴ “Therefore ^(A)everyone who hears these words of Mine and does them, ^[a]may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. ²⁵ And the rain descended, and the rivers came, and the winds blew and fell against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. ²⁶ And everyone hearing these words of Mine and not doing them, may be compared to a foolish man who built his house on the sand. ²⁷ And the rain descended, and the rivers came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell—and great was its fall.”

^22 (A)But become doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. ²³ For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his ^[a]natural face ^(B)in a mirror; ²⁴ for once he looked at himself and has gone away, ^[b]he immediately forgot what kind of person he was. ²⁵ But one who looks intently at the perfect law, ^(C)the law of freedom, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this man will be ^(D)blessed in ^[c]what he does.

²⁶ If anyone thinks himself to be religious while not ^[d](E)bridling his tongue but deceiving his own heart, this man’s religion is worthless. ²⁷ Pure and undefiled religion ^(F)before our God and Father is this: to ^(G)visit ^(H)orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained ^[e]by ^(I)the world.