Jesus Curses the Fig Tree^(A)

¹² The next day, when they left Bethany, Yeshua became hungry. ¹³ In the distance he saw a fig tree with leaves. He went to see if he could find any figs on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves because it wasn’t the season for figs. ¹⁴ Then he said to the tree, “No one will ever eat fruit from you again!” His disciples heard this.

Jesus Throws Out the Moneychangers^(B)

¹⁵ When they came to Jerusalem, Yeshua went into the temple courtyard and began to throw out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the moneychangers’ tables and the chairs of those who sold pigeons. ¹⁶ He would not let anyone carry anything across the temple courtyard.

¹⁷ Then he taught them by saying, “Scripture says, ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations,’ but you have turned it into a gathering place for thieves.”

¹⁸ When the chief priests and the experts in Moses’ Teachings heard him, they looked for a way to kill him. They were afraid of him because he amazed all the crowds with his teaching.

¹⁹ (Every evening Yeshua and his disciples would leave the city.)

The Fig Tree Dries Up^(C)

²⁰ While Yeshua and his disciples were walking early in the morning, they saw that the fig tree had dried up. ²¹ Peter remembered what Yeshua had said, so he said to Yeshua, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has dried up.”

²² Yeshua said to them, “Have faith in God! ²³ I can guarantee this truth: This is what will be done for someone who doesn’t doubt but believes what he says will happen: He can say to this mountain, ‘Be uprooted and thrown into the sea,’ and it will be done for him. ²⁴ That’s why I tell you to have faith that you have already received whatever you pray for, and it will be yours. ²⁵ Whenever you pray, forgive anything you have against anyone. Then your Father in heaven will forgive your failures.”^[a]

²⁵ Brothers and sisters, I want you to understand this mystery so that you won’t become arrogant. The minds of some Israelites have become closed until all of God’s non-Jewish people are included. ²⁶ In this way Israel as a whole will be saved, as Scripture says,

²⁸ The Good News made the Jewish people enemies because of you. But by God’s choice they are loved because of their ancestors. ²⁹ God never changes his mind when he gives gifts or when he calls someone. ³⁰ In the past, you disobeyed God. But now God has been merciful to you because of the disobedience of the Jewish people. ³¹ In the same way, the Jewish people have also disobeyed so that God may be merciful to them as he was to you. ³² God has placed all people into the prison of their own disobedience so that he could be merciful to all people.

²⁰ Where is the wise person? Where is the scholar? Where is the persuasive speaker of our time? Hasn’t God turned the wisdom of the world into nonsense? ²¹ The world with its wisdom was unable to recognize God in terms of his own wisdom. So God decided to use the nonsense of the Good News we speak to save those who believe. ²² Jews ask for miraculous signs, and Greeks look for wisdom, ²³ but our message is that Christ was crucified. This offends Jewish people and makes no sense to people who are not Jewish. ²⁴ But to those Jews and Greeks who are called, he is Christ, God’s power and God’s wisdom. ²⁵ God’s nonsense is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.

²⁶ Brothers and sisters, consider what you were when God called you to be Christians. Not many of you were wise from a human point of view. You were not in powerful positions or in the upper social classes. ²⁷ But God chose what the world considers nonsense to put wise people to shame. God chose what the world considers weak to put what is strong to shame. ²⁸ God chose what the world considers ordinary and what it despises—what it considers to be nothing—in order to destroy what it considers to be something. ²⁹ As a result, no one can brag in God’s presence. ³⁰ You are partners with Christ Yeshua because of God. Yeshua has become our wisdom sent from God, our approval, our holiness, and our ransom from sin. ³¹ As Scripture says, “Whoever brags must brag about what the Lord has done.”

God Has Spoken to Us Through His Son

1 In the past God spoke to our ancestors at many different times and in many different ways through the prophets. ² In these last days he has spoken to us through his Son. God made his Son responsible for everything. His Son is the one through whom God made the universe.

Warnings about False Teachers

2 False prophets were among God’s people in the past, as false teachers will be among you. They will secretly bring in their own destructive teachings. They will deny the Lord, who has bought them, and they will bring themselves swift destruction. ² Many people will follow them in their sexual freedom and will cause others to dishonor the way of truth. ³ In their greed they will use good-sounding arguments to exploit you. The verdict against them from long ago is still in force, and their destruction is not asleep.

⁴ God didn’t spare angels who sinned. He threw them into hell, where he has secured them with chains of darkness and is holding them for judgment.

⁵ God didn’t spare the ancient world either. He brought the flood on the world of ungodly people, but he protected Noah and seven other people. Noah was his messenger who told people about the kind of life that has God’s approval.

⁶ God condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and destroyed them by burning them to ashes. He made those cities an example to ungodly people of what is going to happen to them. ⁷ Yet, God rescued Lot, a man who had his approval. Lot was distressed by the lifestyle of people who had no principles and lived in sexual freedom. ⁸ Although he was a man who had God’s approval, he lived among the people of Sodom and Gomorrah. Each day was like torture to him as he saw and heard the immoral things that people did.

⁹ Since the Lord did all this, he knows how to rescue godly people when they are tested. He also knows how to hold immoral people for punishment on the day of judgment. ¹⁰ This is especially true of those who follow their corrupt nature along the path of impure desires and who despise the Lord’s authority.

These false teachers are bold and arrogant. They aren’t afraid to insult the Lord’s glory. ¹¹ Angels, who have more strength and power than these teachers, don’t bring an insulting judgment against them from the Lord. ¹² These false teachers insult what they don’t understand. They are like animals, which are creatures of instinct that are born to be caught and killed. So they will be destroyed like animals ¹³ and lose what their wrongdoing earned them.

These false teachers are stains and blemishes. They take pleasure in holding wild parties in broad daylight. They especially enjoy deceiving you while they eat with you. ¹⁴ They’re always looking for an adulterous woman. They can’t stop looking for sin as they seduce people who aren’t sure of what they believe. Their minds are focused on their greed. They are cursed.

¹⁵ These false teachers have left the straight path and wandered off to follow the path of Balaam, son of Beor. Balaam loved what his wrongdoing earned him. ¹⁶ But he was convicted for his evil. A donkey, which normally can’t talk, spoke with a human voice and wouldn’t allow the prophet to continue his insanity.

¹⁷ These false teachers are dried-up springs. They are a mist blown around by a storm. Gloomy darkness has been kept for them. ¹⁸ They arrogantly use nonsense to seduce people by appealing to their sexual desires, especially to sexual freedom. They seduce people who have just escaped from those who live in error. ¹⁹ They promise these people freedom, but they themselves are slaves to corruption. A person is a slave to whatever he gives in to.

²⁰ People can know our Lord and Savior Yeshua Christ and escape the world’s filth. But if they get involved in this filth again and give in to it, they are worse off than they were before. ²¹ It would have been better for them never to have known the way of life that God approves of than to know it and turn their backs on the holy life God told them to live. ²² These proverbs have come true for them: “A dog goes back to its vomit,” and “A sow that has been washed goes back to roll around in the mud.”

¹¹ How horrible it will be for them! They have followed the path of Cain. They have rushed into Balaam’s error to make a profit. They have rebelled like Korah and destroyed themselves.

A Letter to the Church in Pergamum