Jesus took up this question and said, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead.
Now by chance a priest was going down the same road, but when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.
So too, when a Levite came to that spot and saw him, he passed by on the other side.
But when a Samaritan on a journey came upon him, he looked at him and had compassion.
He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him.
. . .
One day an expert in the law stood up to test Him. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
“What is written in the Law?” Jesus replied. “How do you read it?”
He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’ and ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
“You have answered correctly,” Jesus said. “Do this and you will live.”
But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
. . .
He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’ and ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
When Jesus saw the crowds, He went up on the mountain and sat down. His disciples came to Him,
and He began to teach them, saying:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
. . .
And surely I will require the life of any man or beast by whose hand your lifeblood is shed. I will demand an accounting from anyone who takes the life of his fellow man:
Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man his blood will be shed; for in His own image God has made mankind.
You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor’ and ‘Hate your enemy.’
But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Do not even tax collectors do the same?
And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even Gentiles do the same?
. . .
For he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not carry the sword in vain. He is God’s servant, an agent of retribution to the wrongdoer.
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for instruction, for conviction, for correction, and for training in righteousness,
so that the man of God may be complete, fully equipped for every good work.
“Put your sword back in its place,” Jesus said to him. “For all who draw the sword will die by the sword.
Are you not aware that I can call on My Father, and He will at once put at My disposal more than twelve legions of angels?
But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen this way?”
You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye and tooth for tooth.’
But I tell you not to resist an evil person. If someone slaps you on your right cheek, turn to him the other also;
Because you did not serve the LORD your God with joy and gladness of heart in all your abundance,
you will serve your enemies the LORD will send against you in famine, thirst, nakedness, and destitution. He will place an iron yoke on your neck until He has destroyed you.
The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Take care of him,’ he said, ‘and on my return I will repay you for any additional expense.’
One day in a place where Jesus had just finished praying, one of His disciples requested, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”
So Jesus told them, “When you pray, say: ‘Father, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread.
And forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation.’”
Then Jesus said to them, “Suppose one of you goes to his friend at midnight and says, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread,
. . .
And when the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they themselves gathered together.
One of them, an expert in the law, tested Him with a question:
“Teacher, which commandment is the greatest in the Law?”
Jesus declared, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’
This is the first and greatest commandment.
. . .
After this, the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of Him to every town and place He was about to visit.
And He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest.
Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves.
Carry no purse or bag or sandals. Do not greet anyone along the road.
Whatever house you enter, begin by saying, ‘Peace to this house.’
. . .
Then Jesus called the Twelve together and gave them power and authority over all demons, and power to cure diseases.
And He sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.
“Take nothing for the journey,” He told them, “no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no second tunic.
Whatever house you enter, stay there until you leave that area.
If anyone does not welcome you, shake the dust off your feet when you leave that town, as a testimony against them.”
. . .
Now one of the scribes had come up and heard their debate. Noticing how well Jesus had answered them, he asked Him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?”
Jesus replied, “This is the most important: ‘Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’
The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.”
Now one of the scribes had come up and heard their debate. Noticing how well Jesus had answered them, he asked Him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?”
Jesus replied, “This is the most important: ‘Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’
The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.”
“Right, Teacher,” the scribe replied. “You have stated correctly that God is One and there is no other but Him,
. . .
For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that everyone who believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.
For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.
If you encounter your enemy’s stray ox or donkey, you must return it to him.
If you see the donkey of one who hates you fallen under its load, do not leave it there; you must help him with it.
“Call out if you please, but who will answer? To which of the holy ones will you turn?
For resentment kills a fool, and envy slays the simple.
I have seen a fool taking root, but suddenly his house was cursed.
His sons are far from safety, crushed in court without a defender.
The hungry consume his harvest, taking it even from the thorns, and the thirsty pant after his wealth.
. . .
These are the nations that the LORD left to test all the Israelites who had not known any of the wars in Canaan,
if only to teach warfare to the subsequent generations of Israel, especially to those who had not known it formerly:
the five rulers of the Philistines, all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivites who lived in the mountains of Lebanon from Mount Baal-hermon to Lebo-hamath.
These nations were left to test the Israelites, to find out whether they would keep the commandments of the LORD, which He had given their fathers through Moses.
Thus the Israelites continued to live among the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.
. . .
In the fourth year of King Darius, the word of the LORD came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, the month of Chislev.
Now the people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regem-melech, along with their men, to plead before the LORD
by asking the priests of the house of the LORD of Hosts, as well as the prophets, “Should I weep and fast in the fifth month, as I have done these many years?”
Then the word of the LORD of Hosts came to me, saying,
“Ask all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months for these seventy years, was it really for Me that you fasted?
. . .
What good is it, my brothers, if someone claims to have faith, but has no deeds? Can such faith save him?
Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food.
If one of you tells him, “Go in peace; stay warm and well fed,” but does not provide for his physical needs, what good is that?
So too, faith by itself, if it does not result in action, is dead.
So the LORD his God delivered Ahaz into the hand of the king of Aram, who attacked him and took many captives to Damascus. Ahaz was also delivered into the hand of the king of Israel, who struck him with great force.
For in one day Pekah son of Remaliah killed 120,000 valiant men in Judah. This happened because they had forsaken the LORD, the God of their fathers.
Zichri, a mighty man of Ephraim, killed Maaseiah the son of the king, Azrikam the governor of the palace, and Elkanah the second to the king.
Then the Israelites took 200,000 captives from their kinsmen—women, sons, and daughters. They also carried off a great deal of plunder and brought it to Samaria.
But a prophet of the LORD named Oded was there, and he went out to meet the army that returned to Samaria. “Look,” he said to them, “because of His wrath against Judah, the LORD, the God of your fathers, has delivered them into your hand. But you have slaughtered them in a rage that reaches up to heaven.
. . .
Then the king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim and settled them in the towns of Samaria to replace the Israelites. They took possession of Samaria and lived in its towns.
From the sole of your foot to the top of your head, there is no soundness—only wounds and welts and festering sores neither cleansed nor bandaged nor soothed with oil.
Once again, Jesus spoke to them in parables:
“The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son.
He sent his servants to call those he had invited to the banquet, but they refused to come.
Again, he sent other servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner. My oxen and fattened cattle have been killed, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’
But they paid no attention and went away, one to his field, another to his business.
. . .
So then, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do likewise will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever practices and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
One day an expert in the law stood up to test Him. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
“What is written in the Law?” Jesus replied. “How do you read it?”
He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’ and ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
“You have answered correctly,” Jesus said. “Do this and you will live.”
But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”
“The one who showed him mercy,” replied the expert in the law. Then Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”
While Jesus was on His way to Jerusalem, He was passing between Samaria and Galilee.
As He entered one of the villages, He was met by ten lepers. They stood at a distance
and raised their voices, shouting, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!”
When Jesus saw them, He said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they were on their way, they were cleansed.
When one of them saw that he was healed, he came back, praising God in a loud voice.
. . .
As the day of His ascension approached, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem.
He sent messengers on ahead, who went into a village of the Samaritans to make arrangements for Him.
But the people there refused to welcome Him, because He was heading for Jerusalem.
When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, “Lord, do You want us to call down fire from heaven to consume them?”
But Jesus turned and rebuked them.
. . .
“You must not make idols for yourselves or set up a carved image or sacred pillar; you must not place a sculpted stone in your land to bow down to it. For I am the LORD your God.
You must keep My Sabbaths and have reverence for My sanctuary. I am the LORD.
If you follow My statutes and carefully keep My commandments,
I will give you rains in their season, and the land will yield its produce, and the trees of the field will bear their fruit.
Your threshing will continue until the grape harvest, and the grape harvest will continue until sowing time; you will have your fill of food to eat and will dwell securely in your land.
. . .
It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is intolerable even among pagans: A man has his father’s wife.
And you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have been stricken with grief and have removed from your fellowship the man who did this?
Although I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit, and I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did this, just as if I were present.
When you are assembled in the name of our Lord Jesus and I am with you in spirit, along with the power of the Lord Jesus,
hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the Day of the Lord.
. . .
So on the day of battle not a sword or spear could be found in the hands of the troops with Saul and Jonathan; only Saul and his son Jonathan had weapons.
And a garrison of the Philistines had gone out to the pass at Michmash.
Instruct those who are rich in the present age not to be conceited and not to put their hope in the uncertainty of wealth, but in God, who richly provides all things for us to enjoy.
Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, and to be generous and ready to share,
treasuring up for themselves a firm foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.
O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you. Avoid irreverent, empty chatter and the opposing arguments of so-called “knowledge,”
which some have professed and thus swerved away from the faith. Grace be with you all.
Asa’s son Jehoshaphat reigned in his place, and he strengthened himself against Israel.
He stationed troops in every fortified city of Judah and put garrisons in the land of Judah and in the cities of Ephraim that his father Asa had captured.
Now the LORD was with Jehoshaphat because he walked in the earlier ways of his father David. He did not seek out the Baals,
but he sought the God of his father and walked by His commandments rather than the practices of Israel.
So the LORD established the kingdom in his hand, and all Judah brought him tribute, so that he had an abundance of riches and honor.
. . .
As soon as night had fallen, the brothers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. On arriving there, they went into the Jewish synagogue.
Now the Bereans were more noble-minded than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if these teachings were true.
So He said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is prized among men is detestable before God.
If your brother sins against you, go and confront him privately. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over.
But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’
If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, regard him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.
And when the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they themselves gathered together.
One of them, an expert in the law, tested Him with a question:
“Teacher, which commandment is the greatest in the Law?”
Jesus declared, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’
This is the first and greatest commandment.
. . .
Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
After fasting forty days and forty nights, He was hungry.
The tempter came to Him and said, “If You are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”
But Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
Then the devil took Him to the holy city and set Him on the pinnacle of the temple.
. . .
And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to depart into hell.
before his associates and the army of Samaria, saying, “What are these feeble Jews doing? Can they restore the wall by themselves? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they complete it in a day? Can they bring these burnt stones back to life from the mounds of rubble?”
This is the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants what must soon come to pass. He made it known by sending His angel to His servant John,