Beginning
On judging others
7 “Don’t judge people, and you won’t be judged yourself. 2 You’ll be judged, you see, by the judgment you use to judge others! You’ll be measured by the measuring-rod you use to measure others! 3 Why do you stare at the splinter in your neighbor’s eye, but ignore the plank in your own? 4 How can you say to your neighbor, ‘Here—let me get that splinter out of your eye,’ when you’ve got the plank in your own? 5 You’re just play-acting! First take the plank out of your own eye, and then you’ll see clearly enough to take the splinter out of your neighbor’s eye.
6 “Don’t give holy things to dogs. Don’t throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they will trample them under their feet—and then turn round and attack you!”
On prayer
7 “Ask and it will be given to you! Search and you will find! Knock and the door will be opened for you! 8 Everyone who asks receives; everyone who searches finds; everyone who knocks will have the door opened. 9 Don’t you see? Supposing your son asks you for bread—which of you is going to give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish—which of you is going to give him a serpent? 11 Well then: you may be evil, but you still know how to give good gifts to your children; how much more will your father in heaven give good things to those who ask him!
12 “So whatever you want people to do to you, do just that to them. Yes; this is what the law and the prophets are all about.”
The two ways
13 “Go in by the narrow gate. The gate that leads to destruction, you see, is nice and wide, and the road going there has plenty of room. Lots of people go that way. 14 But the gate leading to life is narrow, and the road going there is a tight squeeze. Not many people find their way through.
15 “Watch out for false prophets. They will come to you dressed like sheep, but inside they are hungry wolves. 16 You’ll be able to tell them by the fruit they bear: you don’t find grapes growing on thorn-bushes, do you, or figs on thistles? 17 Well, in the same way, good trees produce good fruit, and bad trees produce bad fruit. 18 Actually, good trees can’t produce bad fruit, nor can bad ones produce good fruit! 19 Every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit is cut down and thrown on the fire. 20 So: you must recognize them by their fruits.
21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Master, Master’ will enter the kingdom of heaven; only people who do the will of my father in heaven. 22 On that day lots of people will say to me, ‘Master, Master—we prophesied in your name, didn’t we? We cast out demons in your name! We performed lots of powerful deeds in your name!’
23 “Then I will have to say to them, ‘I never knew you! You’re a bunch of evildoers—go away from me!’ ”
True obedience
24 “So, then, everyone who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 Heavy rain fell; floods rose up; the winds blew and beat on that house. It didn’t fall, because it was founded on the rock. 26 And all those who hear these words of mine and don’t do them—they will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 Heavy rain fell; floods rose up; the winds blew and battered the house—and down it fell! It fell with a great crash.”
28 When Jesus finished these words, the crowds were astonished at his teaching. 29 He was teaching them, you see, on his own authority, quite unlike their scribes.
Two healings
8 When Jesus came down from the hillside, large crowds followed him. 2 Suddenly someone with a virulent skin disease approached, and knelt down in front of him.
“Master,” he said, “if you want, you can make me clean!”
3 Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him.
“I do want to,” he said. “Be clean!” At once his disease was cured.
4 “Take care,” Jesus said to him, “not to say anything to anyone. Instead, go and show yourself to the priest, and make the offering which Moses commanded. That will be a proof to them.”
5 Jesus went into Capernaum. A centurion came up and pleaded with him.
6 “Master,” he said, “my servant is lying at home, paralyzed. He’s in a very bad state.”
7 “I’ll come and make him better,” said Jesus.
8 “Master,” replied the centurion, “I don’t deserve to have you come under my roof! Just say the word, and my servant will be healed. 9 I know what authority’s all about, you see—I’ve got soldiers answering to me, and I can say to one of them, ‘Go!’ and he goes, and to another one, ‘Come here!’ and he comes, and I can say, ‘Do this,’ to my slave, and he does it!”
10 Jesus was fair amazed when he heard this.
“I’m telling you the truth,” he said to the people who were following. “I haven’t found faith like this—not even in Israel! 11 Let me tell you this: lots of people will come from East and West and join the great party of celebration with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. 12 But the children of the kingdom will be thrown into outer darkness, where people will weep and gnash their teeth.”
13 Then he turned to the centurion.
“Go home,” he said. “Let it be for you as you believed.”
And his servant was healed at that very moment.
On following Jesus
14 Jesus went into Peter’s house. There he saw Peter’s mother-in-law laid low with a fever. 15 He touched her hand. The fever left her, and she got up and waited on him.
16 When evening came, they brought to him many people who were possessed by demons. He cast out the spirits with a word of command, and healed everyone who was sick. 17 This happened so that the word spoken by Isaiah the prophet might come true:
He himself took our weaknesses
and bore our diseases.
18 When Jesus saw the crowd all around him, he told them to go across to the other side of the lake. 19 A scribe came up and spoke to him.
“Teacher,” he said, “I will follow you wherever you go!”
20 “Foxes have their dens,” replied Jesus, “and the birds in the sky have their nests. But the son of man has nowhere he can lay his head.”
21 “Master,” said another of his disciples, “let me first go and see to my father’s funeral.”
22 “Follow me!” replied Jesus. “And leave the dead to bury their own dead.”
The calming of the storm
23 So Jesus got into the boat, and his disciples followed him. 24 All of a sudden a great storm blew up on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves. Jesus, however, was asleep. 25 They came and woke him up.
“Help! Master! Rescue us!” they shouted. “We’re done for!”
26 “Why are you so scared, you little-faith lot?” he replied.
Then he got up and told the wind and the sea to behave themselves, and there was a great calm. 27 They were all astonished.
“What sort of man is this,” they said, “that the winds and the sea do what he says?”
The healing of the demoniacs
28 So he went across to the other side, to the region of the Gadarenes. Two demon-possessed men met him, coming out of the tombs. They were very violent and made it impossible for anyone to go along that road.
29 “What is it with us and you, son of God?” they yelled. “Have you come here to torture us ahead of the time?”
30 Some way off from where they were there was a large herd of pigs feeding.
31 “If you cast us out,” the demons begged Jesus, “send us into the herd of pigs!”
32 “Off you go, then!” said Jesus.
So the demons went out of the men and into the pigs. Then and there the entire herd rushed down the steep slope into the lake, and were drowned in the water.
33 The herdsmen took to their heels. They went off to the town and told the whole tale, including the bit about the demon-possessed men. 34 So the whole town came out to see Jesus for themselves. When they saw him, they begged him to leave their district.
Scripture quotations from The New Testament for Everyone are copyright © Nicholas Thomas Wright 2011, 2018, 2019.