Study Desk

"What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy—full of greed and self-indulgence!

"What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs—beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with dead people's bones and all sorts of impurity.

Outwardly you look like righteous people, but inwardly your hearts are filled with hypocrisy and lawlessness.

"But in saying that, you testify against yourselves that you are indeed the descendants of those who murdered the prophets.

"Therefore, I am sending you prophets and wise men and teachers of religious law. But you will kill some by crucifixion, and you will flog others with whips in your synagogues, chasing them from city to city.

"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones God's messengers! How often I have wanted to gather your children together as a hen protects her chicks beneath her wings, but you wouldn't let me.

But he responded, "Do you see all these buildings? I tell you the truth, they will be completely demolished. Not one stone will be left on top of another!"

And you will hear of wars and threats of wars, but don't panic. Yes, these things must take place, but the end won't follow immediately.

But all this is only the first of the birth pains, with more to come.

But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

In fact, unless that time of calamity is shortened, not a single person will survive. But it will be shortened for the sake of God's chosen ones.

Heaven and earth will disappear, but my words will never disappear.

But what if the servant is evil and thinks, ‘My master won't be back for a while,'

but the other five were wise enough to take along extra oil.

"But the others replied, ‘We don't have enough for all of us. Go to a shop and buy some for yourselves.'

"But while they were gone to buy oil, the bridegroom came. Then those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was locked.

"But he called back, ‘Believe me, I don't know you!'

But the servant who received the one bag of silver dug a hole in the ground and hid the master's money.

"But the master replied, ‘You wicked and lazy servant! If you knew I harvested crops I didn't plant and gathered crops I didn't cultivate,

To those who use well what they are given, even more will be given, and they will have an abundance. But from those who do nothing, even what little they have will be taken away.