Study Desk

It happened that while ^(F1)Jesus was praying in a certain place, when He had finished, one of His disciples said to Him, "Lord, teach us to pray, just as John also taught his disciples."

And He said to them, "^(C1)When you pray, say: '^(F1)Father, ^(F2)hallowed be Your name. ^(F3)Your kingdom come.

-'Give us ^(C1)each day our ^(F1)daily bread.

-'And forgive us our sins, For we ourselves also forgive everyone who ^(C1)is indebted to us. And do not lead us into temptation.'"

And He said to them, "^(F1)Suppose one of you has a friend, and goes to him at midnight and says to him, 'Friend, lend me three loaves,

because a friend of mine has come to me from a journey and I have nothing to serve him';

and from inside he answers and says, 'Do not bother me; the door has already been shut and my children ^(F1)and I are in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.'

"I tell you, even if he will not get up and give him anything just because he is his friend, yet ^(C1)because of his ^(F1)shamelessness he will get up and give him as much as he needs.

"So I say to you, ^(F1)(C1)ask, and it will be given to you; ^(F2)seek, and you will find; ^(F3)knock, and it will be opened to you.

"For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, it will be opened.

"Now ^(F1)which one of you fathers will his son ask for a ^(F2)fish, and instead of a fish, he will give him a snake?

"Or he will even ask for an egg, and his father will give him a scorpion?

"So ^(C1)if you, despite being ^(F1)evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will ^(F2)your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?"

^(C1)And He was casting out a mute demon; when the demon had gone out, the man who was previously unable to speak talked, and the crowds were amazed.

But some of them said, "He casts out the demons ^(C1)by ^(C2)Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons."

Others, ^(F1)to test Him, ^(C1)were demanding of Him a ^(F2)sign from heaven.

^(C1)But He knew their thoughts and said to them, "Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste; and a house divided against ^(F1)itself falls.

"And if ^(C1)Satan also has been divided against himself, how will his kingdom ^(F1)stand? For you claim that I cast out the demons by ^(C2)Beelzebul.

"Yet if by ^(C1)Beelzebul I cast out the demons, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore, they will be your judges.

"But if I cast out the demons by ^(F1)the ^(C1)finger of God, then ^(C2)the kingdom of God has come upon you.

"When ^(F1)a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are ^(F2)secure.

"But when someone stronger than he attacks him and overpowers him, that man takes away his armor on which he had relied and distributes his plunder.

"^(C1)The one who is not with Me is against Me; and the one who does not gather with Me scatters.

"^(C1)When the unclean spirit comes out of ^(F1)a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and not finding any, it then says, 'I will return to my house from which I came.'

"And when it comes, it finds it swept and put in order.

"Then it goes and brings along seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they come in and live there; and the last condition of that person becomes worse than the first."

While ^(F1)Jesus was saying these things, one of the women in the crowd raised her voice and said to Him, "^(C1)Blessed is the womb that carried You, and the breasts at which You nursed!"

But He said, "On the contrary, blessed are ^(C1)those who hear the word of God and follow it."

Now as the crowds were increasing, He began to say, "^(C1)This generation is a wicked generation; it ^(C2)demands a ^(F1)sign, and so no ^(F1)sign will be given to it except the ^(F1)sign of Jonah.

"For just as ^(C1)Jonah became a ^(F1)sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation.

"The ^(C1)Queen of the South will rise up with the men of this generation at the judgment and condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to listen to the wisdom of Solomon; and behold, something greater than Solomon is here.

"The men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation at the judgment and condemn it, because ^(C1)they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.

"^(C1)No one lights a lamp and puts it away in a cellar nor under a basket, but on the lampstand, so that those who enter may see the light.

"^(C1)Your eye is the lamp of your body; when your eye is ^(F1)clear, your whole body also is full of light; but when it is ^(F2)bad, your body also is full of darkness.

"So watch out that the light in you is not darkness.

"Therefore if your whole body is full of light, without any dark part, it will be wholly illuminated, as when the lamp illuminates you with its light."

Now when He had spoken, a Pharisee ^(*)asked Him to have lunch with him; and He went in and reclined at the table.

When the Pharisee saw this, he was surprised that Jesus had not first ^(F1)(C1)ceremonially washed before the ^(F2)meal.

But ^(C1)the Lord said to him, "Now ^(C2)you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and of the dish; but your inside is full of greed and wickedness.

"^(C1)You foolish ones, did He who made the outside not make the inside also?

"But ^(C1)give that which is within as a charitable gift, and ^(F1)then all things are ^(C2)clean for you.

"^(C1)But woe to you Pharisees! For you ^(C2)pay tithes of mint, rue, and every kind of garden herb, and yet you ^(F1)ignore justice and the love of God; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others.

"Woe to you Pharisees! For you ^(C1)love the seat of honor in the synagogues and personal greetings in the marketplaces.

"^(C1)Woe to you! For you are like ^(F1)unseen tombs, and the people who walk over them are unaware of it."

One of the ^(F1)(C1)lawyers ^(*)said to Him in reply, "Teacher, when You say these things, You insult us too."

But He said, "Woe to you ^(C1)lawyers as well! For ^(C2)you load people with burdens that are hard to bear, ^(F1)while you yourselves will not even ^(F2)touch the burdens with one of your fingers.

"^(C1)Woe to you! For you build the ^(F1)tombs of the prophets, and it was your fathers who killed them.

"So you are witnesses and you approve of the deeds of your fathers; because it was they who killed them, and you build their ^(F1)tombs.

"For this reason also, ^(C1)the wisdom of God said, '^(C2)I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they will kill, and some they will ^(F1)persecute,

so that the blood of all the prophets, shed ^(C1)since the foundation of the world, may be charged ^(F1)against this generation,

from ^(C1)the blood of Abel to ^(C2)the blood of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the house of God; yes, I tell you, it shall be charged ^(F1)against this generation.'

"Woe to you ^(F1)(C1)lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge; ^(C2)you yourselves did not enter, and you hindered those who were entering."

When He left that place, the scribes and the Pharisees began to be very hostile and to interrogate Him about many subjects,

^(C1)plotting against Him ^(C2)to catch ^(F1)Him in something He might say.

Under these circumstances, after ^(F1)so many thousands of ^(F2)people had gathered together that they were stepping on one another, He began saying to His disciples first of all, "^(C1)Beware of the ^(F3)leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.

"^(C1)But there is nothing covered up that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known.

"Accordingly, whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have ^(F1)whispered in the inner rooms will be proclaimed on ^(C1)the housetops.

"Now I say to you, ^(C1)My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do.

"But I will warn you whom to fear: ^(C1)fear the One who, after He has killed someone, has the power to throw that person into ^(F1)(C2)hell; yes, I tell you, fear ^(F2)Him!

"Are ^(C1)five sparrows not sold for two ^(F1)assaria? And yet not one of them has gone unnoticed in the sight of God.

"^(C1)But even the hairs of your head are all counted. ^(F1)Do not fear; you are more valuable than a great number of sparrows.

"Now I say to you, everyone who ^(C1)confesses Me before people, the Son of Man will also confess him before the angels of God;

but ^(C1)the one who denies Me before people will be denied ^(C2)before the angels of God.

"^(C1)And everyone who ^(F1)speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but the one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him.

"Now when they bring you before ^(C1)the synagogues and the officials and the authorities, do not ^(C2)worry about how or what you are to speak in your defense, or what you are to say;

for ^(C1)the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say."

Now someone ^(F1)in the crowd said to Him, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me."

But He said to him, "^(F1)(C1)You there—who appointed Me a judge or arbitrator over the two of you?"

But He said to them, "^(C1)Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed; for not even when one is affluent does his life consist of his possessions."

And He told them a parable, saying, "The land of a rich man was very productive.

"And he began thinking to himself, saying, 'What shall I do, since I have no place to store my crops?'

"And he said, 'This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and I will store all my grain and my goods there.

'And I will say to ^(F1)myself, "^(C1)You have many goods stored up for many years to come; relax, eat, drink, and enjoy yourself!"'

"But God said to him, '^(C1)You fool! This very night ^(F1)(C2)your soul is demanded of you; and ^(C3)as for all that you have prepared, who will own it now?'

"Such is the one who ^(C1)stores up treasure for himself, and is not rich in relation to God."

And He said to His disciples, "^(C1)For this reason I tell you, ^(F1)do not worry about your ^(F2)life, as to what you are to eat; nor for your body, as to what you are to wear.

"For life is more than food, and the body is more than clothing.

"Consider the ^(C1)ravens, that they neither sow nor reap; they have no storeroom nor ^(C2)barn, and yet God feeds them; how much more valuable you are than the birds!

"And which of you by worrying can add a ^(F1)(C1)day to his ^(F2)life's span?

"Therefore if you cannot do even a very little thing, why do you worry about the other things?

"Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither labor nor ^(F1)spin; but I tell you, not even ^(C1)Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these.

"Now if God so clothes the grass in the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, how much more will He clothe you? ^(C1)You of little faith!

"And do not ^(F1)seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, and do not ^(C1)keep worrying.

"For ^(F1)all these things are what the nations of the world ^(F2)eagerly seek; and your Father knows that you need these things.

"But ^(F1)seek His kingdom, and ^(C1)these things will be ^(F2)provided to you.

"^(F1)(C1)Do not be afraid, ^(C2)little flock, because ^(C3)your Father has chosen to give you the kingdom.

"^(C1)Sell your possessions and give to charity; make yourselves money belts that do not wear out, ^(C2)an inexhaustible treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near nor does a moth destroy.

"For ^(C1)where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

"^(F1)(C1)Be prepared, and keep your ^(C2)lamps lit.

"You are also to be like people who are waiting for their master when he returns from the wedding feast, so that they may immediately open the door for him when he comes and knocks.

"Blessed are those slaves whom the master will find ^(C1)on the alert when he comes; truly I say to you, that ^(C2)he will ^(F1)prepare himself to serve, and have them recline at the table, and he will come up and serve them.

"^(C1)Whether he comes in the ^(F1)second watch, or even in the ^(F2)third, and finds them so, blessed are those slaves.

"^(C1)But ^(F1)be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have allowed his house to be ^(C2)broken into.

"^(C1)You too, be ready; because the Son of Man is coming at an hour that you do not think He will."

Peter said, "Lord, are You telling this parable to us, or ^(C1)to everyone else as well?"

And ^(C1)the Lord said, "^(C2)Who then is the faithful and sensible ^(C3)steward, whom his master will put in charge of his servants, to give them their rations at the proper time?

"Blessed is that ^(C1)slave whom his ^(F1)master finds so doing when he comes.

"Truly I say to you that he will put him in charge of all his possessions.

"But if that slave says in his heart, 'My master will take a long time to come,' and he begins to beat the other slaves, both men and women, and to eat and drink and get drunk;

then the master of that slave will come on a day that he does not expect, and at an hour that he does not know, and will ^(F1)cut him in two, and assign ^(F2)him a place with the unbelievers.

"And that slave who knew his master's will and did not get ready or act in accordance with his will, will ^(C1)receive many blows,

but the one who did not ^(C1)know it, and committed acts deserving of ^(F1)a beating, will receive only a few blows. ^(C2)From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more.

"I ^(F1)have come to cast fire upon the earth; and ^(F2)how I wish it were already kindled!

"But I have a ^(C1)baptism ^(F1)to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is accomplished!

"^(C1)Do you think that I came to provide peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division;

for from now on five members in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three.

"They will be divided, ^(C1)father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law."

And He was also saying to the crowds, "^(C1)Whenever you see a cloud rising ^(F1)in the west, you immediately say, 'A shower is coming,' and so it turns out.

"And whenever you feel a ^(F1)south wind blowing, you say, 'It will be a ^(C1)hot day,' and it turns out that way.

"You hypocrites! ^(C1)You know how to analyze the appearance of the earth and the sky, but how is it that you do not know how to analyze this present time?

"And ^(C1)why do you not even judge by yourselves what is right?

"For ^(C1)when you are going with your accuser to appear before the magistrate, on the way, make an effort to ^(F1)settle with him, so that he does not drag you before the judge, and the judge hand you over to the officer, and the officer throw you into prison.

"I tell you, you will not get out of there until you have paid up ^(F1)the very last ^(F2)(C1)lepton."