²² But Jesus told him, “Follow me now. Let the spiritually dead bury their own dead.^[a]”

³² We had to celebrate this happy day. For your brother was dead and has come back to life! He was lost, but now he is found!’”

¹³ You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins.

¹⁴ for the light makes everything visible. This is why it is said,

⁵ that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!)

Made Alive with Christ

2 Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins.

⁶ But the widow who lives only for pleasure is spiritually dead even while she lives.

⁴³ The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Come, follow me.”

The First Disciples

¹⁸ One day as Jesus was walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers—Simon, also called Peter, and Andrew—throwing a net into the water, for they fished for a living. ¹⁹ Jesus called out to them, “Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people!” ²⁰ And they left their nets at once and followed him.

²¹ A little farther up the shore he saw two other brothers, James and John, sitting in a boat with their father, Zebedee, repairing their nets. And he called them to come, too. ²² They immediately followed him, leaving the boat and their father behind.

Jesus Calls Matthew

⁹ As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at his tax collector’s booth. “Follow me and be my disciple,” Jesus said to him. So Matthew got up and followed him.