M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

False prophets

4 Beloved, do not believe every spirit. Rather, test the spirits to see whether they are from God. Many false prophets, you see, have gone out into the world. ² This is how we know God’s spirit: every spirit that agrees that Jesus the Messiah has come in the flesh is from God, ³ and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This spirit is actually the spirit of the Antimessiah. You have heard that it was coming, and now it is already in the world.

⁴ But you, children, are from God, and you have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. ⁵ They are from the world, and that is why they speak from the world, and why the world listens to them. ⁶ We are from God; people who know God listen to us, but people who are not from God do not listen to us. That is how we can tell the spirit of truth from the spirit of error.

God’s love

⁷ Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God, and all who love are fathered by God and know God. ⁸ The one who does not love has not known God, because God is love. ⁹ This is how God’s love has appeared among us: God sent his only son into the world, so that we should live through him. ¹⁰ Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the sacrifice that would atone for our sins. ¹¹ Beloved, if that’s how God loved us, we ought to love one another in the same way. ¹² Nobody has ever seen God. If we love one another, God abides in us and his love is completed in us. ¹³ That is how we know that we abide in him, and he in us, because he has given us a portion of his spirit. ¹⁴ And we have seen and bear witness that the father sent the son to be the world’s savior. ¹⁵ Anyone who confesses that Jesus is God’s son, God abides in them and they abide in God. ¹⁶ And we have known and have believed the love which God has for us.

God is love; those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. ¹⁷ This is what makes love complete for us, so that we may have boldness and confidence on the day of judgment, because just as he is, so are we within this world. ¹⁸ There is no fear in love; complete love drives out fear. Fear has to do with punishment, and anyone who is afraid has not been completed in love. ¹⁹ We love, because he first loved us. ²⁰ If someone says, “I love God,” but hates their brother or sister, that person is a liar. Someone who doesn’t love a brother or sister whom they have seen, how can they love God, whom they haven’t seen? ²¹ This is the command we have from him: anyone who loves God should love their brother or sister too.

The calling of Zacchaeus

19 They went into Jericho and passed through. ² There was a man named Zacchaeus, a chief tax-collector, who was very rich. ³ He was trying to see who Jesus was, but, being a small man, he couldn’t, because of the crowd. ⁴ So he ran on ahead, along the route Jesus was going to take, and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him.

⁵ When Jesus came to the place, he looked up. “Zacchaeus,” he said to him, “hurry up and come down. I have to stay at your house today.” ⁶ So he hurried up, came down, and welcomed him with joy.

⁷ Everybody began to murmur when they saw it. “He’s gone in to spend time with a proper old sinner!” they were saying.

⁸ But Zacchaeus stood there and addressed the master.

“Look, Master,” he said, “I’m giving half my property to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I’m giving it back to them four times over.”

⁹ “Today,” said Jesus, “salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham. ¹⁰ You see, the son of man came to seek and to save the lost.”

The king, the servants and the money

¹¹ While people were listening to this, Jesus went on to tell a parable. They were, after all, getting close to Jerusalem, and they thought that the kingdom of God was going to appear at any moment.

¹² “There was once a nobleman,” he said, “who went into a country far away to be given royal authority and then return. ¹³ He summoned ten of his slaves and gave them ten silver coins. ‘Do business with these,’ he said, ‘until I come back.’ ¹⁴ His subjects, though, hated him, and sent a delegation after him to say, ‘We don’t want this man to be our king.’

¹⁵ “So it happened that when he received the kingship and came back again, he gave orders to summon the slaves who had received the money, so that he could find out how they had got on with their business efforts. ¹⁶ The first came forward and said, ‘Master, your money has made ten times its value!’

¹⁷ “ ‘Well done, you splendid servant!’ he said. ‘You’ve been trustworthy with something small; now you can take command of ten cities.’

¹⁸ “The second came and said, ‘Master, your money has made five times its value!’

¹⁹ “ ‘You too—you can take charge of five cities.’

²⁰ “The other came and said, ‘Master, here is your money. I kept it wrapped in this handkerchief. ²¹ You see, I was afraid of you, because you are a hard man: you profit where you made no investment, and you harvest what you didn’t sow.’

²² “ ‘I’ll condemn you out of your own mouth, you wicked scoundrel of a servant!’ he replied. ‘So: you knew that I was a hard man, profiting where I didn’t invest and harvesting where I didn’t sow? ²³ So why didn’t you put my money with the bankers? Then I’d have had the interest when I got back!’

²⁴ “ ‘Take the money from him,’ he said to the bystanders, ‘and give it to the man who’s made ten of them!’ ²⁵ (‘Master,’ they said to him, ‘he’s got ten coins already!’)

²⁶ “Let me tell you: everyone who has will be given more; but if someone has nothing, even what he has will be taken away from him. ²⁷ But as for these enemies of mine, who didn’t want me to be king over them—bring them here and slaughter them in front of me.”

The triumphal entry

²⁸ With these words, Jesus went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.

²⁹ As they came close, as near as Bethany and Bethphage, at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of the disciples on ahead. ³⁰ “Go into the village over there,” he said, “and as you arrive you’ll find a colt tied up, one that nobody has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. ³¹ If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ you should say, ‘Because the master needs it.’ ”

³² The two who were sent went off and found it just as Jesus had said to them. ³³ They untied the colt, and its owners said to them, “Why are you untying the colt?”

³⁴ “Because the master needs it,” they replied.

³⁵ They brought it to Jesus, threw their cloaks on the colt, and mounted Jesus on it. ³⁶ As he was going along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road.

³⁷ When he came to the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began to celebrate and praise God at the tops of their voices for all the powerful deeds they had seen.

³⁹ Some of the Pharisees from the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, tell your disciples to stop that.”

⁴⁰ “Let me tell you,” replied Jesus, “if they stayed silent, the stones would be shouting out!”

Jesus cleanses the Temple

⁴¹ When he came near and saw the city, he wept over it.

⁴² “If only you’d known,” he said, “on this day—even you!—what peace meant. But now it’s hidden, and you can’t see it. ⁴³ Yes, the days are coming upon you when your enemies will build up earthworks all round you, and encircle you, and squeeze you in from every direction. ⁴⁴ They will bring you crashing to the ground, you and your children within you. They won’t leave one single stone on another, because you didn’t know the moment when God was visiting you.”

⁴⁵ He went into the Temple and began to throw out the traders.

⁴⁶ “It’s written,” he said, “ ‘My house shall be a house of prayer; but you’ve made it a brigands’ cave.’ ”

⁴⁷ He was teaching every day in the Temple. But the chief priests, the scribes and the leading men of the people were trying to destroy him. ⁴⁸ They couldn’t find any way to do it, because all the people were hanging on his every word.