New Testament in a Year
27 But I say to you who are listening now to Me: [[a]in order to heed, make it a practice to] love your enemies, treat well (do good to, act nobly toward) those who detest you and pursue you with hatred,
28 Invoke blessings upon and pray for the happiness of those who curse you, implore God’s blessing (favor) upon those who abuse you [who revile, reproach, disparage, and high-handedly misuse you].
29 To the one who strikes you on the [b]jaw or cheek, offer the other [c]jaw or cheek also; and from him who takes away your outer garment, do not withhold your undergarment as well.
30 Give away to everyone who begs of you [who is [d]in want of necessities], and of him who takes away from you your goods, do not demand or require them back again.
31 And as you would like and desire that men would do to you, do exactly so to them.
32 If you [merely] love those who love you, what [e]quality of credit and thanks is that to you? For even [f]the [very] sinners love their lovers (those who love them).
33 And if you are kind and good and do favors to and benefit those who are kind and good and do favors to and benefit you, what [g]quality of credit and thanks is that to you? For even [h]the preeminently sinful do the same.
34 And if you lend money [i]at interest to those from whom you hope to receive, what [j]quality of credit and thanks is that to you? Even notorious sinners lend money [k]at interest to sinners, so as to recover as much again.
35 But love your enemies and be kind and do good [doing favors [l]so that someone derives benefit from them] and lend, expecting and hoping for nothing in return but [m]considering nothing as lost and despairing of no one; and then your recompense (your reward) will be great (rich, strong, intense, and abundant), and you will be sons of the Most High, for He is kind and charitable and good to the ungrateful and the selfish and wicked.
36 So be merciful (sympathetic, tender, responsive, and compassionate) even as your Father is [all these].
37 Judge not [neither pronouncing judgment nor subjecting to censure], and you will not be judged; do not condemn and pronounce guilty, and you will not be condemned and pronounced guilty; acquit and forgive and [n]release (give up resentment, let it drop), and you will be acquitted and forgiven and [o]released.
38 Give, and [gifts] will be given to you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, will they pour [p]into [the pouch formed by] the bosom [of your robe and used as a bag]. For with the measure you deal out [with the measure you use when you confer benefits on others], it will be measured back to you.
39 He further told them [q]a proverb: Can a blind [man] guide and direct a blind [man]? Will they not both stumble into a ditch or a [r]hole in the ground?
40 A pupil is not superior to his teacher, but everyone [when he is] completely trained (readjusted, restored, set to rights, and perfected) will be like his teacher.
41 Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye but do not notice or consider the beam [of timber] that is in your own eye?
42 Or how can you say to your brother, Brother, allow me to take out the speck that is in your eye, when you yourself do not see the beam that is in your own eye? You actor (pretender, hypocrite)! First take the beam out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother’s eye.
43 For there is no good (healthy) tree that bears decayed (worthless, stale) fruit, nor on the other hand does a decayed (worthless, sickly) tree bear good fruit.
44 For each tree is known and identified by its own fruit; for figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor is a cluster of grapes picked from a bramblebush.
45 The upright (honorable, intrinsically good) man out of the good treasure [stored] in his heart produces what is upright (honorable and intrinsically good), and the evil man out of the evil storehouse brings forth that which is depraved (wicked and intrinsically evil); for out of the abundance (overflow) of the heart his mouth speaks.
46 Why do you call Me, Lord, Lord, and do not [practice] what I tell you?
47 For everyone who comes to Me and listens to My words [in order to heed their teaching] and does them, I will show you what he is like:
48 He is like a man building a house, who dug and went down deep and laid a foundation upon the rock; and when a flood arose, the torrent broke against that house and could not shake or move it, because it had been securely built or [s]founded on a rock.
49 But he who merely hears and does not practice doing My words is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation, against which the torrent burst, and immediately it collapsed and fell, and the breaking and ruin of that house was great.
Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation