Love for Enemies

(Matthew 5.38-48; 7.12a)

²⁷ This is what I say to all who will listen to me:

Love your enemies, and be good to everyone who hates you. ²⁸ Ask God to bless anyone who curses you, and pray for everyone who is cruel to you. ²⁹ If someone slaps you on one cheek, don't stop that person from slapping you on the other cheek. If someone wants to take your coat, don't try to keep back your shirt. ³⁰ Give to everyone who asks and don't ask people to return what they have taken from you. ^31 (A) Treat others just as you want to be treated.

³² If you love only someone who loves you, will God praise you for that? Even sinners love people who love them. ³³ If you are kind only to someone who is kind to you, will God be pleased with you for that? Even sinners are kind to people who are kind to them. ³⁴ If you lend money only to someone you think will pay you back, will God be pleased with you for that? Even sinners lend to sinners because they think they will get it all back.

^35 (B) But love your enemies and be good to them. Lend without expecting to be paid back.^[a] Then you will get a great reward, and you will be the true children of God in heaven. He is good even to people who are unthankful and cruel. ³⁶ Have pity on others, just as your Father has pity on you.

Judging Others

(Matthew 7.1-5)

³⁷ Jesus said:

Don't judge others, and God won't judge you. Don't be hard on others, and God won't be hard on you. Forgive others, and God will forgive you. ³⁸ If you give to others, you will be given a full amount in return. It will be packed down, shaken together, and spilling over into your lap. The way you treat others is the way you will be treated.

^39 (C) Jesus also used some sayings as he spoke to the people. He said:

Can one blind person lead another blind person? Won't they both fall into a ditch? ^40 (D) Are students better than their teacher? But when they are fully trained, they will be like their teacher.

⁴¹ You can see the speck in your friend's eye, but you don't notice the log in your own eye. ⁴² How can you say, “My friend, let me take the speck out of your eye,” when you don't see the log in your own eye? You show-offs! First, get the log out of your own eye; then you can see how to take the speck out of your friend's eye.

A Tree and Its Fruit

(Matthew 7.17-20; 12.34b,35)

⁴³ A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot produce good fruit. ^44 (E) You can tell what a tree is like by the fruit it produces. You cannot pick figs or grapes from thornbushes. ^45 (F) Good people do good things because of the good in their hearts, but bad people do bad things because of the evil in their hearts. Your words show what is in your heart.

Two Builders

(Matthew 7.24-27)

⁴⁶ Why do you keep on saying that I am your Lord, when you refuse to do what I say? ⁴⁷ Anyone who comes and listens to me and obeys me ⁴⁸ is like someone who dug down deep and built a house on solid rock. When a flood came and the river rushed against the house, it was built so well that it didn't even shake. ⁴⁹ But anyone who hears what I say and doesn't obey me is like someone whose house wasn't built on solid rock. As soon as the river rushed against that house, it was smashed to pieces!

The Lord Will Send a Flood

6 ^1-2 (A) More and more people were born, until finally they spread all over the earth. Some of their daughters were so beautiful that supernatural beings^[a] came down and married the ones they wanted. ³ Then the Lord said, “I won't let my life-giving breath remain in anyone forever.^[b] No one will live for more than 120 years.”^[c]

^4 (B)(C) The children of the supernatural beings who had married these women became famous heroes and warriors. They were called Nephilim and lived on the earth at that time and even later.

^5 (D) The Lord saw how bad the people on earth were and that everything they thought and planned was evil. ⁶ He was sorry that he had made them, ⁷ and he said, “I'm going to destroy every person on earth! I'll even wipe out animals, birds, and reptiles. I'm sorry I ever made them.”

⁸ But the Lord was pleased with Noah, ^9 (E) and this is the story about him. Noah was the only person who lived right and obeyed God. ¹⁰ He had three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

^11-12 God knew that everyone was terribly cruel and violent. ¹³ So he told Noah:

Cruelty and violence have spread everywhere. Now I'm going to destroy the whole earth and all its people. ¹⁴ Get some good lumber and build a boat. Put rooms in it and cover it with tar inside and out. ¹⁵ Make it 133 meters long, 22 meters wide, and 13 meters high. ¹⁶ Build a roof^[d] on the boat and leave a space of about 44 centimeters between the roof and the sides.^[e] Make the boat three stories high and put a door on one side.

¹⁷ I'm going to send a flood that will destroy everything that breathes! Nothing will be left alive. ¹⁸ But I solemnly promise that you, your wife, your sons, and your daughters-in-law will be kept safe in the boat.^[f]

^19-20 Take into the boat with you a male and a female of every kind of animal and bird, as well as a male and a female of every reptile. I don't want them to be destroyed. ²¹ Store up enough food both for yourself and for them.

^22 (F) Noah did everything God told him to do.

The Flood

7 The Lord told Noah:

Take your whole family with you into the boat, because you are the only one on this earth who pleases me. ² Take seven pairs of every kind of animal that can be used for sacrifice^[g] and one pair of all others. ³ Also take seven pairs of every kind of bird with you. Do this so there will always be animals and birds on the earth. ⁴ Seven days from now I will send rain that will last for 40 days and nights, and I will destroy all other living creatures I have made.

^5-7 (G) Noah was 600 years old when he went into the boat to escape the flood, and he did everything the Lord had told him to do. His wife, his sons, and his daughters-in-law all went inside with him. ^8-9 He obeyed God and took a male and a female of each kind of animal and bird into the boat with him. ¹⁰ Seven days later a flood began to cover the earth.

^11-12 (H) The water under the earth started gushing out everywhere, the sky opened like windows, and rain poured down for 40 days and nights. All this began on the seventeenth day of the second month of the year. ¹³ On that day Noah and his wife went into the boat with their three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and their wives. ¹⁴ They took along every kind of animal, tame and wild, including the birds. ¹⁵ Noah took a male and a female of every living creature with him, ¹⁶ just as God had told him to do. And when they were all in the boat, the Lord closed the door.

^17-18 For 40 days the rain poured down without stopping. And the water became deeper and deeper, until the boat started floating high above the ground. ^19-20 Finally, the mighty flood was so deep that even the highest mountain peaks were about seven meters below the surface of the water. ²¹ Not a bird, animal, reptile, or human was left alive anywhere on earth. ^22-23 (I) The Lord destroyed everything that breathed. Nothing was left alive except Noah and the others in the boat. ²⁴ A hundred fifty days later, the water started going down.

(Written by David when he was running from his son Absalom.)

An Early Morning Prayer