⁵ If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given you.^(A)

¹¹ He answered, “To you it has been given to know the secrets^[a] of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.^{(A) 12} For to those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance, but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.^(B)

Jesus Thanks His Father

²⁵ At that time Jesus said, “I thank^[a] you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants;^{(A) 26} yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.^{[b] 27} All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.^(B)

³ First of all you must understand this, that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and indulging their own lusts^{(A) 4} and saying, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since our ancestors died,^[a] all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation!”^{(B) 5} They deliberately ignore this fact, that by the word of God heavens existed long ago and an earth was formed out of water and by means of water,^(C)

² Anyone who claims to know something does not yet have the necessary knowledge,^(A)

¹⁸ Do not deceive yourselves. If you think that you are wise in this age, you should become fools so that you may become wise.^{(A) 19} For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written,

³¹ but Israel, who did strive for the law of righteousness, did not attain that law.^{(A) 32} Why not? Because they did not strive for it on the basis of faith but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone,^(B)

²¹ for though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their senseless hearts were darkened.^{(A) 22} Claiming to be wise, they became fools, ²³ and they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling a mortal human or birds or four-footed animals or reptiles.^(B)

²⁴ Therefore God gave them over in the desires of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves.^{(C) 25} They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.^(D)