ס Samekh

Jesus Teaches at the Festival

¹⁴ Not until halfway through the festival did Jesus go up to the temple courts and begin to teach.^{(A) 15} The Jews^(B) there were amazed and asked, “How did this man get such learning^(C) without having been taught?”^(D)

¹⁶ Jesus answered, “My teaching is not my own. It comes from the one who sent me.^{(E) 17} Anyone who chooses to do the will of God will find out^(F) whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own. ¹⁸ Whoever speaks on their own does so to gain personal glory,^(G) but he who seeks the glory of the one who sent him is a man of truth; there is nothing false about him. ¹⁹ Has not Moses given you the law?^(H) Yet not one of you keeps the law. Why are you trying to kill me?”^(I)

²⁰ “You are demon-possessed,”^(J) the crowd answered. “Who is trying to kill you?”

²¹ Jesus said to them, “I did one miracle,^(K) and you are all amazed. ²² Yet, because Moses gave you circumcision^(L) (though actually it did not come from Moses, but from the patriarchs),^(M) you circumcise a boy on the Sabbath. ²³ Now if a boy can be circumcised on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses may not be broken, why are you angry with me for healing a man’s whole body on the Sabbath? ²⁴ Stop judging by mere appearances, but instead judge correctly.”^(N)

More on Love and Hatred

¹¹ For this is the message you heard^(A) from the beginning:^(B) We should love one another.^{(C) 12} Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one^(D) and murdered his brother.^(E) And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous.^{(F) 13} Do not be surprised, my brothers and sisters,^[a] if the world hates you.^{(G) 14} We know that we have passed from death to life,^(H) because we love each other. Anyone who does not love remains in death.^{(I) 15} Anyone who hates a brother or sister^(J) is a murderer,^(K) and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him.^(L)

¹⁶ This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.^(M) And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.^{(N) 17} If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them,^(O) how can the love of God be in that person?^{(P) 18} Dear children,^(Q) let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.^(R)

¹⁹ This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence: ²⁰ If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. ²¹ Dear friends,^(S) if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God^{(T) 22} and receive from him anything we ask,^(U) because we keep his commands^(V) and do what pleases him.^{(W) 23} And this is his command: to believe^(X) in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ,^(Y) and to love one another as he commanded us.^{(Z) 24} The one who keeps God’s commands^(AA) lives in him,^(AB) and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.^(AC)