The First Commandment

²⁸ One of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well he asked him, “Which commandment is the first of all?”^{(A) 29} Jesus answered, “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one;^{(B) 30} you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ ³¹ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”^{(C) 32} Then the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that ‘he is one, and besides him there is no other’;^{(D) 33} and ‘to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength’ and ‘to love one’s neighbor as oneself’—this is much more important than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.”^{(E) 34} When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” After that no one dared to ask him any question.^(F)

Concerning Prayer

⁵ “And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward.^{(A) 6} But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.^[a](B)

⁷ “When you are praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard because of their many words.^{(C) 8} Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

⁹ “Pray, then, in this way:

The Beginning of the Galilean Ministry

¹⁴ Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the good news^[a] of^[b] God^{(A) 15} and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near;^[c] repent, and believe in the good news.”^[d](B)

Jesus Calls the First Disciples

¹⁶ As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea, for they were fishers. ¹⁷ And Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of people.” ¹⁸ And immediately they left their nets and followed him.^{(C) 19} As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets. ²⁰ Immediately he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.

¹⁹ So they took him and brought him to the Areopagus and asked him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? ²⁰ It sounds rather strange to us, so we would like to know what it means.” ²¹ Now all the Athenians and the foreigners living there would spend their time in nothing but telling or hearing something new.

²² Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, “Athenians, I see how extremely spiritual you are in every way. ²³ For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, ‘To an unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. ²⁴ The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands,^{(A) 25} nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things.^{(B) 26} From one ancestor^[a] he made all peoples to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live,^{(C) 27} so that they would search for God^[b] and perhaps fumble about for him and find him—though indeed he is not far from each one of us.^{(D) 28} For ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said,

²⁹ “Since we are God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals.^{(F) 30} While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent,^{(G) 31} because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”^(H)

The Commissioning of the Disciples

¹⁶ Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them.^{(A) 17} When they saw him, they worshiped him, but they doubted. ¹⁸ And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.^{(B) 19} Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit^{(C) 20} and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”^[a]