Old/New Testament

12 Many thousands of people had gathered. They stepped on each other. Jesus began to talk to the disciples. He said, `Take care. Do not let the yeast of the Pharisees spoil you. They are not true to themselves.

² Everything that is covered up will be seen. Everything that is hidden will be known.

³ What you have said in the dark will be heard in the light. What you have said in secret with the door shut will be told from the tops of the houses.'

⁴ `You are my friends. I tell you, do not fear people who can kill your bodies. After that they cannot do anything more to you.

⁵ I will tell you whom you must fear. Fear the one who, after he has killed, has the power to throw into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him!

⁶ Are not five sparrows sold for a tiny sum of money? Yet God does not forget about one of them.

⁷ Even the number of hairs on your head is known. So do not fear. You are worth more than many sparrows.'

⁸ `And I tell you. If anyone tells people that he knows me, the Son of Man will also tell the angels of God that he knows him.

⁹ But if anyone tells people he does not know me, the Son of Man will also tell the angels of God that he does not know that person.

¹⁰ `Everyone who says anything against the Son of Man will be forgiven. But anyone who says wrong things against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.

¹¹ `When men take you to the meeting houses and to the rulers and to the courts, do not be troubled about what you will answer or say.

¹² The Holy Spirit will teach you at the right time what you must say.'

¹³ One of the people in the crowd said, `Teacher, tell my brother to divide with me the things my father left when he died.'

¹⁴ Jesus said, `Man, who made me a judge over you or gave me power to divide your things?'

¹⁵ Then he said to the people, `Take care. Do not be greedy in any way to get more and more things. Even if a man has much more than he needs, it cannot give him life.'

¹⁶ Then he told them a story. He said, `A rich man had a farm. The things that grew on it were many.

¹⁷ He said to himself, "What will I do? I have no place to keep all the food I have grown."

¹⁸ So he said, "This is what I will do. I will break down my storehouses and build bigger ones. I will keep in them all the food and everything I have.

¹⁹ Then I will say to myself, `Man, you have much in your storehouses for many years. Rest now. Eat, drink, and have a good time.' "

²⁰ But God said to him, "You are a fool! Tonight you will die. Then who will have all the things you have kept for yourself?"

²¹ So anyone who keeps things for himself is not rich in the way God wants him to be rich.'

²² Jesus said to his disciples, `So I tell you this. Do not be troubled about what you will eat to keep alive. Do not be troubled about clothes to wear on your body.

²³ Life itself is worth more than food, and the body is worth more than clothes.

²⁴ `Think of the birds. They do not plant, cut, or keep any food. Yet God feeds them. You are worth much more than the birds!

²⁵ `Can any of you live any longer by troubling yourself about these things?

²⁶ If you cannot do a small thing like that, why do you trouble yourself about the other things?

²⁷ `Think about the flowers. See how they grow. They do not work or make cloth. I tell you, King Solomon was a great man. But he was not dressed as fine as one of these flowers.

²⁸ God dresses the grass in the fields so it looks nice. It is in the field one day and the next day it is burned. If God dresses the grass like that, he cares much more that you have clothes to wear. You do not believe in God very much!

²⁹ `Do not keep asking, "What shall we eat?" and, "What shall we drink?" Do not be troubled about that.

³⁰ All the people who are not Jews work for these things. Your Father in heaven knows that you need them.

³¹ But work for God's kingdom. Then you will have all these things also.'