Following Jesus

⁵⁷ As they were traveling on the road someone said to Him,^(A) “I will follow You wherever You go!”

⁵⁸ Jesus told him, “Foxes have dens, and birds of the sky^[a] have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head.” ⁵⁹ Then He said to another, “Follow Me.”

“Lord,” he said, “first let me go bury my father.”^[b]

⁶⁰ But He told him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and spread the news of the kingdom of God.”^(B)

⁶¹ Another also said, “I will follow You, Lord, but first let me go and say good-bye to those at my house.”^(C)

⁶² But Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

³⁷ The person who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me;^(A) the person who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. ³⁸ And whoever doesn’t take up his cross and follow^[a] Me is not worthy of Me.

¹³ Brothers, I do not^[a] consider myself to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind^(A) and reaching forward to what is ahead, ¹⁴ I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly^[b] call in Christ Jesus.^(B)

² Do not be conformed^(A) to this age,^(B) but be transformed by the renewing of your mind,^(C) so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will^(D) of God.