⁷ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.^(A)

³² I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”^(A)

¹⁰ Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”^(A)

³² But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.’ ”^(A)

¹³ And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray.

The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector

⁹ He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt: ¹⁰ “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. ¹¹ The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.

⁶ as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.

⁷ Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ.^(A)

⁹ I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived

¹⁵ So he said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of others, but God knows your hearts, for what is prized by humans is an abomination in the sight of God.^(A)