A Story about Ten Bridesmaids

25 “When the end comes, the kingdom of heaven will be like ten bridesmaids. They took their oil lamps and went to meet the groom. ² Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. ³ The foolish bridesmaids took their lamps, but they didn’t take any extra oil. ⁴ The wise bridesmaids, however, took along extra oil for their lamps. ⁵ Since the groom was late, all the bridesmaids became drowsy and fell asleep.

⁶ “At midnight someone shouted, ‘The groom is here! Come to meet him!’ ⁷ Then all the bridesmaids woke up and got their lamps ready.

⁸ “The foolish ones said to the wise ones, ‘Give us some of your oil. Our lamps are going out.’

⁹ “But the wise bridesmaids replied, ‘We can’t do that. There won’t be enough for both of us. Go! Find someone to sell you some oil.’

¹⁰ “While they were buying oil, the groom arrived. The bridesmaids who were ready went with him into the wedding hall, and the door was shut.

¹¹ “Later the other bridesmaids arrived and said, ‘Sir, sir, open the door for us!’

¹² “But he answered them, ‘I don’t even know who you are!’

¹³ “So stay awake, because you don’t know the day or the hour.

²⁰ But the time will come when the groom will be taken away from them. Then they will fast.

²¹ “No one patches an old coat with a new piece of cloth that will shrink. Otherwise, the new patch will shrink and rip away some of the old cloth, and the tear will become worse. ²² People don’t pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the wine will make the skins burst, and both the wine and the skins will be ruined. Rather, new wine is to be poured into fresh skins.”

Jesus Has Authority over the Day of Worship^(A)

²³ Once on a day of worship Yeshua was going through the grainfields. As the disciples walked along, they began to pick the heads of grain.

²⁴ The Pharisees asked him, “Look! Why are your disciples doing something that is not permitted on the day of worship?”

²⁵ Yeshua asked them, “Haven’t you ever read what David did when he and his men were in need and were hungry? ²⁶ Haven’t you ever read how he went into the house of God when Abiathar was chief priest and ate the bread of the presence? He had no right to eat those loaves. Only the priests have that right. Haven’t you ever read how he also gave some of it to his men?”

²⁷ Then he added, “The day of worship was made for people, not people for the day of worship. ²⁸ For this reason the Son of Man has authority over the day of worship.”

Jesus Heals on the Day of Worship^(B)

3 Yeshua went into a synagogue again. A man who had a paralyzed hand was there. ² The people were watching Yeshua closely. They wanted to see whether he would heal the man on the day of worship so that they could accuse him of doing something wrong.

³ So he told the man with the paralyzed hand, “Stand in the center of the synagogue.” ⁴ Then he asked them, “Is it right to do good or to do evil on the day of worship, to give a person back his health or to let him die?”

But they were silent. ⁵ Yeshua was angry as he looked around at them. He was deeply hurt because their minds were closed. Then he told the man, “Hold out your hand.” The man held it out, and his hand became normal again.

Jesus Speaks to His Disciples

12 Meanwhile, thousands of people had gathered. They were so crowded that they stepped on each other. Yeshua spoke to his disciples and said, “Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees. I’m talking about their hypocrisy. ² Nothing has been covered that will not be exposed. Whatever is secret will be made known. ³ Whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight. Whatever you have whispered in private rooms will be shouted from the housetops.

⁴ “My friends, I can guarantee that you don’t need to be afraid of those who kill the body. After that they can’t do anything more. ⁵ I’ll show you the one you should be afraid of. Be afraid of the one who has the power to throw you into hell after killing you. I’m warning you to be afraid of him.

⁶ “Aren’t five sparrows sold for two cents? God doesn’t forget any of them. ⁷ Even every hair on your head has been counted. Don’t be afraid! You are worth more than many sparrows. ⁸ I can guarantee that the Son of Man will acknowledge in front of God’s angels every person who acknowledges him in front of others. ⁹ But God’s angels will be told that I don’t know those people who tell others that they don’t know me. ¹⁰ Everyone who says something against the Son of Man will be forgiven. But the person who dishonors the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.

¹¹ “When you are put on trial in synagogues or in front of rulers and authorities, don’t worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say. ¹² At that time the Holy Spirit will teach you what you must say.”

A Story about Material Possessions

¹³ Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to give me my share of the inheritance that our father left us.”

¹⁴ Yeshua said to him, “Who appointed me to be your judge or to divide your inheritance?”

¹⁵ He told the people, “Be careful to guard yourselves from every kind of greed. Life is not about having a lot of material possessions.”

¹⁶ Then he used this illustration. He said, “A rich man had land that produced good crops. ¹⁷ He thought, ‘What should I do? I don’t have enough room to store my crops.’ ¹⁸ He said, ‘I know what I’ll do. I’ll tear down my barns and build bigger ones so that I can store all my grain and goods in them. ¹⁹ Then I’ll say to myself, “You’ve stored up a lot of good things for years to come. Take life easy, eat, drink, and enjoy yourself.” ’

²⁰ “But God said to him, ‘You fool! I will demand your life from you tonight! Now who will get what you’ve accumulated?’ ²¹ That’s how it is when a person has material riches but is not rich in his relationship with God.”

Stop Worrying^(A)

²² Then Yeshua said to his disciples, “So I tell you to stop worrying about what you will eat or wear. ²³ Life is more than food, and the body is more than clothes. ²⁴ Consider the crows. They don’t plant or harvest. They don’t even have a storeroom or a barn. Yet, God feeds them. You are worth much more than birds.

²⁵ “Can any of you add an hour to your life by worrying? ²⁶ If you can’t do a small thing like that, why worry about other things? ²⁷ Consider how the flowers grow. They never work or spin yarn for clothes. But I say that not even Solomon in all his majesty was dressed like one of these flowers. ²⁸ That’s the way God clothes the grass in the field. Today it’s alive, and tomorrow it’s thrown into an incinerator. So how much more will he clothe you people who have so little faith?

²⁹ “Don’t concern yourself about what you will eat or drink, and quit worrying about these things. ³⁰ Everyone in the world is concerned about these things, but your Father knows you need them. ³¹ Rather, be concerned about his kingdom. Then these things will be provided for you. ³² Don’t be afraid, little flock. Your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom.

³³ “Sell your material possessions, and give the money to the poor. Make yourselves wallets that don’t wear out! Make a treasure for yourselves in heaven that never loses its value! In heaven thieves and moths can’t get close enough to destroy your treasure. ³⁴ Your heart will be where your treasure is.

The Son of Man Will Return When You Least Expect Him

³⁵ “Be ready for action, and have your lamps burning. ³⁶ Be like servants waiting to open the door at their master’s knock when he returns from a wedding. ³⁷ Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. I can guarantee this truth: He will change his clothes, make them sit down at the table, and serve them. ³⁸ They will be blessed if he comes in the middle of the night or toward morning and finds them awake.

³⁹ “Of course, you realize that if the homeowner had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let him break into his house. ⁴⁰ Be ready, because the Son of Man will return when you least expect him.”

⁴¹ Peter asked, “Lord, did you use this illustration just for us or for everyone?”

⁴² The Lord asked, “Who, then, is the faithful, skilled manager that the master will put in charge of giving the other servants their share of food at the right time? ⁴³ That servant will be blessed if his master finds him doing this job when he comes. ⁴⁴ I can guarantee this truth: He will put that servant in charge of all his property. ⁴⁵ On the other hand, that servant may think that his master is taking a long time to come home. The servant may begin to beat the other servants and to eat, drink, and get drunk. ⁴⁶ His master will return at an unexpected time. Then his master will punish him severely and assign him a place with unfaithful people.

⁴⁷ “The servant who knew what his master wanted but didn’t get ready to do it will receive a hard beating. ⁴⁸ But the servant who didn’t know what his master wanted and did things for which he deserved punishment will receive a light beating. A lot will be expected from everyone who has been given a lot. More will be demanded from everyone who has been entrusted with a lot.

Jesus Will Cause Conflict

⁴⁹ “I have come to throw fire on the earth. I wish that it had already started! ⁵⁰ I have a baptism to go through, and I will suffer until it is over.

⁵¹ “Do you think I came to bring peace to earth? No! I can guarantee that I came to bring nothing but division. ⁵² From now on a family of five will be divided. Three will be divided against two and two against three. ⁵³ A father will be against his son and a son against his father. A mother will be against her daughter and a daughter against her mother. A mother-in-law will be against her daughter-in-law and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.”

Use Good Judgment

⁵⁴ Yeshua said to the crowds, “When you see a cloud coming up in the west, you immediately say, ‘There’s going to be a rainstorm,’ and it happens. ⁵⁵ When you see a south wind blowing, you say, ‘It’s going to be hot,’ and that’s what happens. ⁵⁶ You hypocrites! You can forecast the weather by judging the appearance of earth and sky. But for some reason you don’t know how to judge the time in which you’re living. ⁵⁷ So why don’t you judge for yourselves what is right? ⁵⁸ For instance, when an opponent brings you to court in front of a ruler, do your best to settle with him before you get there. Otherwise, he will drag you in front of a judge. The judge will hand you over to an officer who will throw you into prison. ⁵⁹ I can guarantee that you won’t get out until you pay every penny of your fine.”

⁶ After the Festival of Unleavened Bread, we boarded a ship at Philippi. Five days later we joined them in Troas and stayed there for seven days.

⁷ On Sunday we met to break bread. Paul was discussing Scripture with the people. Since he intended to leave the next day, he kept talking until midnight. ⁸ (Many lamps were lit in the upstairs room where we were meeting.)

⁹ A young man named Eutychus was sitting in a window. As Paul was talking on and on, Eutychus was gradually falling asleep. Finally, overcome by sleep, he fell from the third story and was dead when they picked him up. ¹⁰ Paul went to him, took him into his arms, and said, “Don’t worry! He’s alive!” ¹¹ Then Eutychus went upstairs again, broke the bread, and ate. Paul talked with the people for a long time, until sunrise, and then left.

¹² The people took the boy home. They were greatly relieved that he was alive.

Paul’s Trip to Miletus

¹³ We went ahead to the ship and sailed for the city of Assos. At Assos, we were going to pick up Paul. He had made these arrangements, since he had planned to walk overland to Assos. ¹⁴ When Paul met us in Assos, we took him on board and went to the city of Mitylene. ¹⁵ We sailed from there. On the following day we approached the island of Chios. The next day we went by the island of Samos, and on the next day we arrived at the city of Miletus. ¹⁶ Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus to avoid spending time in the province of Asia. He was in a hurry to get to Jerusalem for the day of Pentecost, if that was possible.

¹¹ So I ask, “Has Israel stumbled so badly that it can’t get up again?” That’s unthinkable! By Israel’s failure, salvation has come to people who are not Jewish to make the Jewish people jealous. ¹² The fall of the Jewish people made the world spiritually rich. Their failure made people who are not Jewish spiritually rich. So the inclusion of Jewish people will make the world even richer.

¹³ Now, I speak to you who are not Jewish. As long as I am an apostle sent to people who are not Jewish, I bring honor to my ministry. ¹⁴ Perhaps I can make my people jealous and save some of them. ¹⁵ If Israel’s rejection means that the world has been brought back to God, what does Israel’s acceptance mean? It means that Israel has come back to life.

¹⁶ If the first handful of dough is holy, the whole batch of dough is holy. If the root is holy, the branches are holy. ¹⁷ But some of the olive branches have been broken off, and you, a wild olive branch, have been grafted in their place. You get your nourishment from the roots of the olive tree. ¹⁸ So don’t brag about being better than the other branches. If you brag, remember that you don’t support the root, the root supports you. ¹⁹ “Well,” you say, “Branches were cut off so that I could be grafted onto the tree.” ²⁰ That’s right! They were broken off because they didn’t believe, but you remain on the tree because you do believe. Don’t feel arrogant, but be afraid. ²¹ If God didn’t spare the natural branches, he won’t spare you, either. ²² Look at how kind and how severe God can be. He is severe to those who fell, but kind to you if you continue to hold on to his kindness. Otherwise, you, too, will be cut off from the tree.

²³ If Jewish people do not continue in their unbelief, they will be grafted onto the tree again, because God is able to do that. ²⁴ In spite of the fact that you have been cut from a wild olive tree, you have been grafted onto a cultivated one. So wouldn’t it be easier for these natural branches to be grafted onto the olive tree they belong to?

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.

How to Treat Christians Who Live Like Non-Christians

5 Your own members are aware that there is sexual sin going on among them. This kind of sin is not even heard of among unbelievers—a man is actually married to his father’s wife. ² You’re being arrogant when you should have been more upset about this. If you had been upset, the man who did this would have been removed from among you. ³ Although I’m not physically present with you, I am with you in spirit. I have already judged the man who did this as though I were present with you. ⁴ When you have gathered together, I am with you in spirit. Then, in the name of our Lord Yeshua, and with his power, ⁵ hand such a person over to Satan to destroy his corrupt nature so that his spiritual nature may be saved on the day of the Lord.

⁶ It’s not good for you to brag. Don’t you know that a little yeast spreads through the whole batch of dough? ⁷ Remove the old yeast of sin so that you may be a new batch of dough, since you don’t actually have the yeast of sin.

Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. ⁸ So we must not celebrate our festival with the old yeast of sin or with the yeast of vice and wickedness. Instead, we must celebrate it with the bread of purity and truth that has no yeast.

²³ We were kept under control by Moses’ laws until this faith came. We were under their control until this faith which was about to come would be revealed.

²⁴ Before Christ came, Moses’ laws served as our guardian. Christ came so that we could receive God’s approval by faith. ²⁵ But now that this faith has come, we are no longer under the control of a guardian. ²⁶ You are all God’s children by believing in Christ Yeshua. ²⁷ Clearly, all of you who were baptized in Christ’s name have clothed yourselves with Christ. ²⁸ There are neither Jews nor Greeks, slaves nor free people, males nor females. You are all the same in Christ Yeshua. ²⁹ If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants and heirs, as God promised.

God Saved Us because of His Great Love for Us

2 You were once dead because of your failures and sins. ² You followed the ways of this present world and its spiritual ruler. This ruler continues to work in people who refuse to obey God. ³ All of us once lived among these people, and followed the desires of our corrupt nature. We did what our corrupt desires and thoughts wanted us to do. So, because of our nature, we deserved God’s anger just like everyone else.

⁴ But God is rich in mercy because of his great love for us. ⁵ We were dead because of our failures, but he made us alive together with Christ. (It is God’s kindness^[a] that saved you.) ⁶ God has brought us back to life together with Christ Yeshua and has given us a position in heaven with him. ⁷ He did this through Christ Yeshua out of his generosity to us in order to show his extremely rich kindness in the world to come. ⁸ God saved you through faith as an act of kindness. You had nothing to do with it. Being saved is a gift from God. ⁹ It’s not the result of anything you’ve done, so no one can brag about it. ¹⁰ God has made us what we are. He has created us in Christ Yeshua to live lives filled with good works that he has prepared for us to do.

God Has United Jewish and Non-Jewish People

¹¹ Remember that once you were not Jewish physically. Those who called themselves “the circumcised” because of what they had done to their bodies called you “the uncircumcised.” ¹² Also, at that time you were without Christ. You were excluded from citizenship in Israel, and the pledges^[b] God made in his promise were foreign to you. You had no hope and were in the world without God.

¹³ But now through Christ Yeshua you, who were once far away, have been brought near by the blood of Christ. ¹⁴ So he is our peace. In his body he has made Jewish and non-Jewish people one by breaking down the wall of hostility that kept them apart. ¹⁵ He brought an end to the commandments and demands found in Moses’ Teachings so that he could take Jewish and non-Jewish people and create one new humanity in himself. So he made peace. ¹⁶ He also brought them back to God in one body by his cross, on which he killed the hostility. ¹⁷ He came with the Good News of peace for you who were far away and for those who were near. ¹⁸ So Jewish and non-Jewish people can go to the Father in one Spirit.

¹⁹ That is why you are no longer foreigners and outsiders but citizens together with God’s people and members of God’s family. ²⁰ You are built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. Christ Yeshua himself is the cornerstone. ²¹ In him all the parts of the building fit together and grow into a holy temple in the Lord. ²² Through him you, also, are being built in the Spirit together with others into a place where God lives.

²⁵ Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave his life for it. ²⁶ He did this to make the church holy by cleansing it, washing it using water along with spoken words. ²⁷ Then he could present it to himself as a glorious church, without any kind of stain or wrinkle—holy and without faults.