< Luke 6 >
1 Now it happened on a second-first Sabbath that He was passing through the grain fields, and His disciples began to pick and eat the heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands.
2 But some of the Pharisees said to them, “Why are you doing that which is not lawful to do on the Sabbath?”
3 So in answer to them Jesus said: “Have you not even read this, what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him:
4 how he went into the house of God, took and ate the showbread, and even gave it to those with him—that which only the priests are allowed to eat?”
5 Then He said to them, “The Son of the Man is Lord even of the Sabbath!”
6 Now it happened on a different Sabbath that He entered the synagogue and began to teach. Well there was a man there whose right hand was shriveled;
7 so the scribes and the Pharisees started watching, to see if He would heal on the Sabbath, so that they might find an accusation against Him.
8 But He knew their thoughts and said to the man with the shriveled hand, “Get up and stand in the center.” So he got up and stood.
9 Then Jesus said to them: “I will ask you something: Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?”
10 And when He had looked around at them all, He said to him, “Stretch out your hand!” So he did that, and his hand was restored, as sound as the other.
11 But they were filled with rage, and began to discuss with one another what they might do to Jesus.
12 Now it happened in those days that He went out to the mountain to pray, and He continued all night in prayer to God.
13 When it was day He called His disciples, and from them He chose twelve, whom He also named apostles:
14 Simon (whom He also named Peter) and Andrew his brother, James and John, Phillip and Bartholomew,
15 Matthew and Thomas, James (the son of Alphaeus) and Simon (the one called ‘Zealot’),
16 Judas of James and Judas Iscariot (who also became ‘traitor’).
17 Then He came down with them and stood on a level place, with a crowd of His disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem, also from the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear Him and to be healed of their diseases,
18 as well as those who were being harassed by unclean spirits—and they were being healed!
19 So the whole crowd kept trying to touch Him, because power was going out from Him and was healing all.
20 Then He raised His eyes toward His disciples and said: “Blessed are you poor, because the Kingdom of God is yours.
21 Blessed are you who hunger now, because you will be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, because you will laugh.
22 Blessed are you whenever men hate you, and whenever they exclude you and heap insults on you and trash your name as ‘malignant’, for the Son of the Man's sake.
23 Rejoice in that day and skip about! Because your reward really is great in Heaven; for that is how their fathers treated the prophets.
24 “But woe to you who are rich! because you have already received your comfort.
25 Woe to you who are full! because you will go hungry. Woe to you who are presently laughing! because you will mourn and weep.
26 Woe, when all men speak well of you; for that is how their fathers treated the false prophets!
27 “Further, to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you;
28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.
29 To him who strikes you on the cheek, offer also the other; and from him who takes away your cloak, do not withhold the tunic as well.
30 Give to everyone who asks of you; and from him who takes away your things, do not demand them back.
31 Yes, like you want people to treat you, that is just how you must treat them.
32 Also, if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ love those who love them.
33 And if you do good to those doing good to you, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ do the same.
34 And if you lend to those from whom you expect to get it back, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ lend to ‘sinners’, to receive an equal value back.
35 “So, love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing back; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; because He is kind toward the ungrateful and wicked.
36 So be compassionate, even as your Father is compassionate.
37 “Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.
38 Give and it will be given to you: a good measure—pressed down and shaken together and running over—will they deposit in your lap. Because with the same measure that you use it will be measured back to you.”
39 Then He told them a parable: “Can a blind man guide a blind man? Will they not both fall into a ditch?
40 A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher.
41 Why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not consider the plank that is in your own eye?
42 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me remove the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the plank that is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck that is in your brother's eye.
43 “Now no good tree produces rotten fruit, nor does a rotten tree produce good fruit
44 —each tree is known by its own fruit: people do not gather figs from thorn bushes, nor do they pick a bunch of grapes from a bramble.
45 The good man produces the good out of the good treasure in his heart, and the malignant man produces the malignant out of the malignant treasure in his heart; because his mouth speaks out of the abundance of the heart.
46 “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord’, and not do what I say?
47 Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them—I will show you who he is like:
48 he is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on the bedrock. When a flood occurred, the torrent burst upon that house but could not shake it, because it was founded on the bedrock.
49 But he who heard and did nothing is like a man who built his house on the ground without a foundation, against which the torrent burst, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great.”
