M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
6 Jesus was walking through the grain fields on a Sabbath day. His disciples picked some of the grain as they went along. They cleaned it by rubbing it in their hands, and ate it.
2 Some of the Pharisees said, `Why do your disciples do what is not right on the Sabbath day?"
3 Jesus answered them, `Have you not read what David did? He and his men were hungry.
4 He went into God's house. Some bread was there for God. But David took the bread and ate it. He also gave some of it to the men who were with him. Only the priests have the right to eat that bread.'
5 Jesus said to them, `The Son of Man rules over the Sabbath day.'
6 On another Sabbath day, Jesus went into the meeting house and taught. A man was there whose right hand was thin and weak.
7 The scribes and Pharisees watched Jesus to see if he would heal the man on the Sabbath day. They wanted to find something wrong about Jesus.
8 But Jesus knew what they were thinking. He spoke to the man whose hand was thin and weak. He said, `Come and stand here in front' The man stood up.
9 Jesus said to them, `I ask you, is it right to do good things on the Sabbath day, or to do wrong things? Is it right to heal people so that they will live, or to let them die?'
10 He looked around at them all. Then he said to the man, `Hold out your hand.' The man did so and it was made well like the other hand.
11 The Pharisees were very angry and they talked together about what they could do to Jesus.
12 About that time Jesus went out of the city on the hill to talk with God. He talked with God all night.
13 In the morning he called his disciples to him. He chose twelve of them and called them apostles [special messengers].
14-16 hey were Simon, whom Jesus called Peter, and his brother Andrew, James and John, Philip and Bartholomew, Matthew and Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon the freedom fighter, Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, the one who gave Jesus over to people who hated him.
17 Then Jesus came down the hill with them and stood on the flat ground. Many people came. There were many of his disciples. And there were many people from all parts of Judea, and from Jerusalem, and from the seaside of Tyre and Sidon. They came to hear him and to be healed because they were sick.
18 Some were troubled by bad spirits, and they were healed.
19 All the people wanted to touch Jesus. Power came from him and he healed them all.
20 Jesus looked at his disciples and said, `God will make happy you who are poor. The kingdom of God is for you.
21 `God will make happy you who are hungry now. You will be filled. `God will make happy you who cry now. You will laugh.
22 `God will make you happy when people hate you, when they will not let you belong to their group, when they say wrong things about you and make your name bad. God blesses you when it is for the sake of the Son of Man.
23 Be very happy on that day and dance for joy. God will be good to you in heaven. The fathers of these people did the same things to the prophets of God long ago.
24 `But you who are rich will have trouble. You have already had your good times.
25 `You who have all you want now will have trouble! You will be hungry. `You who laugh now will have trouble. You will be sad and cry.
26 `When all the people praise you, you will have trouble! The fathers of these people did the same things to those who were not true prophets of God.'
27 `But I say to you who hear, love your enemies. Do good things to those who hate you.
28 Bless those who use bad words about you. Ask God to do good to those who trouble you.
29 `If someone hits you on one side of your face, turn the other side also. `If someone takes your coat, let him have your shirt also.
30 `Give to every one who begs you for something.
31 `Do to other people what you want them to do to you.
32 If you love those who love you, what good is there in that? Even bad people love those who love them.
33 If you do good things to those who do good things to you, what good is there in that? Bad people do the same.
34 If you lend to those who will give to you, what good is there in that? Even bad people lend to bad people, if they think they will get the same from them.
35 `Love your enemies. Do good things. Lend to people and do not look to get anything back. You will be paid well. You will be sons of the Highest One. He is kind to those who do not thank him and to those who are bad.
36 So be kind like your Father.'
37 `Do not judge others and you will not be judged. Do not punish others, and you will not be punished. Let others go free and God will let you go free.
38 Give to people and they will give to you. They will fill your cup, press it down, shake it, and let it run over. That is what they will give to you. How much you give to others is how much God will give to you.'
39 Jesus also told the people a story. He said, `A blind man cannot lead a blind man. They will both fall into a hole.
40 The one who learns is not better than his teacher. But every one who learns will be like his teacher when his teacher has finished teaching him.
41 `Why do you look at the small piece of dust in your brother's eye? And you do not see the big stick in your own eye.
42 How can you say to your brother, "Brother, let me take the dust out of your eye"? But you do not see the stick in your own eye. You are not true to yourselves! First take the stick out of your own eye. Then you will be able to see to take the dust out of your brother's eye.'
43 `A good tree does not have bad fruit. And also, a bad tree does not have good fruit.
44 Every kind of tree is known by its fruit. People do not pick fruit like figs from thorn trees. And they do not pick grapes from bramble bushes.
45 A good man has stored up good things in his heart, so he says good things. A bad man has stored up wrong things in his heart, so he will say wrong things. The mouth will say what is in the heart.'
46 `Why do you call me "Lord, Lord," but you do not do what I tell you?
47 `A person comes to me. He hears what I say and obeys me. I will show you who he is like.
48 He is like a man who built a house. He dug down deep in the ground and made it stand on a rock. The water in the river came up high. The water beat hard against the house. But the house did not move, because it was built on a rock.
49 A man hears what I say but does not obey me. He is like a man who built his house on top of the ground. He did not dig down deep. The water beat hard against it and it fell with a loud noise!'
7 You wrote me a letter. Here is my answer to the things in the letter. It is good if a man has nothing to do with a woman.
2 But wrong sex is always a danger to us. So it is better for each man to have his own wife and each woman to have her own husband.
3 The husband should give his wife what is right. So also, the wife should give her husband what is right.
4 The wife does not have full right over her own body. But her husband has a right to it. In the same way, the husband does not have full right over his own body. But his wife has a right to it.
5 Do not keep from the other what is right for them to have. It is all right to stay from each other for a while, if you both agree to it. Then you will have time for prayer. Afterwards, come together again. If you do not, Satan might tempt you to do wrong.
6 I say you may do this. I do not say that you must do it.
7 I wish that all men were like I am. But God has made everyone different. One man can live one way and another man can live another way.
8 Here is what I say to those who are not married and to those whose husbands are dead. It is good for them to stay the way I am.
9 But if they cannot keep themselves under control, then they should marry. It is better to marry than to burn with desire for sex.
10 And here is what I say to those who are married. (And yet it is not what I say. It is what the Lord has said.) The wife may not leave her husband.
11 But if she does leave him, she must not marry again, or she must come back to her husband again. And the husband may not send away his wife.
12 Here is what I say to other people. (This is my word, not the Lord's.) Perhaps a Christian brother has a wife who is not a Christian. If she wants to stay with him, then he should not send her away.
13 Perhaps a woman has a husband who is not a Christian. If he wants to stay with her, then the woman should not leave him.
14 The husband who is not a Christian is made holy by the wife. And the wife who is not a Christian is made holy by the husband. If this were not so, then your children would not be holy. But they are holy.
15 If the one who is not a Christian really wants to leave, let him go. The Christian husband or wife is free then. God has called us to live in peace.
16 Wife, you do not know. Perhaps you will win your husband to the Lord. Husband, you do not know. Perhaps you will win your wife to the Lord.
17 Only let me say this. Every man should go on living in the way which the Lord chooses for him. He should go on as he was when God called him to be a Christian. I say this to people in all the churches.
18 If a man was already circumcised when God called him, he should not try to change the marks of it. If a man was not circumcised when God called him, he should not be circumcised.
19 It does not matter whether one is circumcised or not. The thing that matters is doing what God says we must do.
20 Everyone should stay the way he was when God called him.
21 If you were a slave when God called you, do not let that trouble you. But if there is some way for you to get free, then do so.
22 If a man was a slave when the Lord called him, he is the Lord's free man. So also if a man was free when he was called, he is Christ's slave.
23 You were bought and paid for. Do not become slaves of men!
24 So, Christian brothers, everyone should go on living as he was when God called him. But now he lives with God.
25 Here is what I say about those who are not married. (I have no law from the Lord about this. But here is what I think. You can trust me because the Lord has helped me.)
26 I think that, since there is now trouble in the world, it is good for each one to stay as he is.
27 If you have married a wife, do not try to be free from her. If you have no wife, do not look for one.
28 But, if you marry, it is not wrong. And if a woman marries, it is not wrong. People who marry will have trouble in this life. And I want to keep you out of it.
29 Here, my brothers, is what I mean. The time is short. In the time that is left, men who have wives should live as though they did not.
30 People who cry should live as though they were not sad. People who laugh should live as though they were not glad. People who buy things should live as though they did not own them.
31 And people who are busy with things in this world should not be too busy. The world as we see it is passing away.
32 I want your minds to be free. The man who is not married thinks about the things of the Lord. He tries to please the Lord.
33 But the man who is married thinks about the things of this world. He tries to please his wife.
34 In the same way, there is a difference between the woman who is married and the one who is not. The woman who is not married thinks about the things of the Lord. She wants her body and her spirit to be holy. But the married woman thinks about the things of this life. She tries to please her husband.
35 I say this to help you, not to make it hard for you. I want to show you what is good. I do not want anything to stop you from serving the Lord.
36 And if a man feels that he is doing the right thing for the woman he is to marry, then let him marry her. That is, if she is no longer young, and if he wants her very much. Then he must do as he thinks best. It is not wrong for him to do it.
37 But the man who has made up his mind not to marry his woman will do well. That is, if he does not have to marry her, and is able to control himself, and if he is sure about it in his own mind.
38 So the man who marries his woman will do what is good. But the man who does not marry her will do better.
39 A wife may not leave her husband as long as he is living. But if he dies, she is free to marry any man she wants. Only this, he must be a Christian.
40 But I think that she is happier if she stays as she is and does not marry again. (I think too that I am saying what the Spirit of God wants me to say in this matter.)
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