A Question About Fasting

¹⁸ Now ^(A)John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. And people came and said to him, ^(B)“Why do John's disciples and ^(C)the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?”

^12 (A)I fast twice a week; ^(B)I give tithes of all that I get.’

¹⁸ that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. ^(A)And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

A Question About Fasting

¹⁴ Then ^(A)the disciples of John came to him, saying, ^(B)“Why do we and ^(C)the Pharisees fast,^[a] but your disciples do not fast?” ¹⁵ And Jesus said to them, ^(D)“Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? ^(E)The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and ^(F)then they will fast. ¹⁶ No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch tears away from the garment, and a worse tear is made. ¹⁷ Neither is new wine put into old ^(G)wineskins. If it is, the skins burst and the wine is spilled and the skins are destroyed. But new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.”

Fasting

¹⁶ “And ^(A)when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. ^(B)Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.

³ For, being ignorant of ^(A)the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness.

A Question About Fasting

³³ And they said to him, ^(A)“The disciples of John ^(B)fast often and ^(C)offer prayers, ^(D)and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours eat and drink.” ³⁴ And Jesus said to them, ^(E)“Can you make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? ^35 (F)The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and ^(G)then they will fast in those days.” ³⁶ He also told them a parable: “No one tears a piece from a new garment and puts it on an old garment. If he does, he will tear the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old. ³⁷ And no one puts new wine into old ^(H)wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. ³⁸ But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. ³⁹ And no one after drinking old wine desires new, for he says, ‘The old is good.’”^[a]

^5 (A)They do all their deeds ^(B)to be seen by others. For they make ^(C)their phylacteries broad and ^(D)their fringes long,