Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

¹⁸ People like that are stupid. They do not understand anything. They cannot see the truth, as if they are blind. Their minds cannot think properly. ¹⁹ None of them think carefully about what they are doing. They do not say to themselves, ‘I burned half of the wood in the fire. I even baked bread and I cooked meat on it. It gave me food to eat. Then I used the rest of the wood to make a useless idol! I took a piece of wood and I worshipped it! Why did I do that?’

²⁰ Someone like that is stupid enough to eat ashes. His mind has deceived him. He cannot save himself from his lies. He will not say to himself, ‘This thing that I hold in my right hand is completely false!’

Jesus tells a story about a tree and its fruit

¹⁵ ‘Some people say that they are prophets from God. But their words are false. They seem to be like sheep that are not dangerous. But they are really like hungry wild dogs. What they teach will hurt you.

¹⁶ You will know these people by the way that they live. The things that they do are like their fruit. Grapes do not grow on thorn bushes. Figs do not grow on weeds.^{[a] 17} Good fruit grows on a tree that is good. Bad fruit grows on a tree that is not good. ¹⁸ A good tree cannot make bad fruit. A bad tree cannot make good fruit. ¹⁹ A farmer will cut down any tree that does not make good fruit. He will burn it on a fire. ²⁰ In the same way, look at the way people live. Then you will know what they are really like.