²⁶ “So do not be afraid of them, for there is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known.^{(A) 27} What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs. ²⁸ Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One^(B) who can destroy both soul and body in hell. ²⁹ Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care.^{[a] 30} And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.^{(C) 31} So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.^(D)

¹² They went out and preached that people should repent.^(A)

Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand^(A)(B)

³⁰ The apostles^(C) gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught.^(D)

Jesus Goes to the Festival of Tabernacles

7 After this, Jesus went around in Galilee. He did not want^[a] to go about in Judea because the Jewish leaders^(A) there were looking for a way to kill him.^(B)

That Which Defiles^(A)

7 The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus ² and saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were defiled,^(B) that is, unwashed. ³ (The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of the elders.^{(C) 4} When they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash. And they observe many other traditions, such as the washing of cups, pitchers and kettles.^[a])^(D)

⁵ So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, “Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders^(E) instead of eating their food with defiled hands?”

¹⁴ Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. ¹⁵ Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them.” ^[16] [a]

¹⁷ After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him^(A) about this parable. ¹⁸ “Are you so dull?” he asked. “Don’t you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them? ¹⁹ For it doesn’t go into their heart but into their stomach, and then out of the body.” (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods^(B) clean.)^(C)

²⁰ He went on: “What comes out of a person is what defiles them. ²¹ For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, ²² adultery, greed,^(D) malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. ²³ All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”

Jesus Honors a Syrophoenician Woman’s Faith^(E)

²⁴ Jesus left that place and went to the vicinity of Tyre.^[b](F) He entered a house and did not want anyone to know it; yet he could not keep his presence secret.

The Greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven^(A)

18 At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”

² He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. ³ And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children,^(B) you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.^{(C) 4} Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.^(D)

⁷ Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to stumble! Such things must come, but woe to the person through whom they come!^{(A) 8} If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble,^(B) cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. ⁹ And if your eye causes you to stumble,^(C) gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.^(D)

¹² “What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? ¹³ And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. ¹⁴ In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should perish.

Dealing With Sin in the Church

¹⁵ “If your brother or sister^[a] sins,^[b] go and point out their fault,^(A) just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over. ¹⁶ But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’^{[c](B) 17} If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church;^(C) and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector.^(D)