Luke 10:1-20

Living Bible

10 The Lord now chose seventy other disciples and sent them on ahead in pairs to all the towns and villages he planned to visit later.

² These were his instructions to them: “Plead with the Lord of the harvest to send out more laborers to help you, for the harvest is so plentiful and the workers so few. ³ Go now, and remember that I am sending you out as lambs among wolves. ⁴ Don’t take any money with you, or a beggar’s bag, or even an extra pair of shoes. And don’t waste time along the way.^[a]

⁵ “Whenever you enter a home, give it your blessing. ⁶ If it is worthy of the blessing, the blessing will stand; if not, the blessing will return to you.

⁷ “When you enter a village, don’t shift around from home to home, but stay in one place, eating and drinking without question whatever is set before you. And don’t hesitate to accept hospitality, for the workman is worthy of his wages!

^8-9 “If a town welcomes you, follow these two rules:

¹⁰ “But if a town refuses you, go out into its streets and say, ¹¹ ‘We wipe the dust of your town from our feet as a public announcement of your doom. Never forget how close you were to the Kingdom of God!’ ¹² Even wicked Sodom will be better off than such a city on the Judgment Day. ¹³ What horrors await you, you cities of Chorazin and Bethsaida! For if the miracles I did for you had been done in the cities of Tyre and Sidon,^[b] their people would have sat in deep repentance long ago, clothed in sackcloth and throwing ashes on their heads to show their remorse. ¹⁴ Yes, Tyre and Sidon will receive less punishment on the Judgment Day than you. ¹⁵ And you people of Capernaum, what shall I say about you? Will you be exalted to heaven? No, you shall be brought down to hell.”

¹⁶ Then he said to the disciples, “Those who welcome you are welcoming me. And those who reject you are rejecting me. And those who reject me are rejecting God who sent me.”

¹⁷ When the seventy disciples returned, they joyfully reported to him, “Even the demons obey us when we use your name.”

¹⁸ “Yes,” he told them, “I saw Satan falling from heaven as a flash of lightning! ¹⁹ And I have given you authority over all the power of the Enemy, and to walk among serpents and scorpions and to crush them. Nothing shall injure you! ²⁰ However, the important thing is not that demons obey you, but that your names are registered as citizens of heaven.”