²⁸ The earth produces of itself first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head.

⁹ And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight^{(A) 10} to help you to determine what really matters, so that in the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, ¹¹ having produced the harvest^[a] of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God.

³¹ It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth, ³² yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.”

¹² And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, just as we abound in love for you.^{(A) 13} And may he so strengthen your hearts in holiness that you may be blameless before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.^[a](B)

¹⁰ so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, as you bear fruit in every good work and as you grow in the knowledge of God.^(A)

⁶ I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work in you will continue to complete^[a] it until the day of Jesus Christ.

²⁶ So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well.

¹¹ He has made everything suitable for its time; moreover, he has put a sense of past and future into their minds, yet they cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.^(A)