The Living Bible (299 page)

Matthew
7

“Don’t criticize, and then you won’t be criticized.
²
 
For others will treat you as you treat them.
³
 
And why worry about a speck in the eye of a brother when you have a board in your own?
⁴
 
Should you say, ‘Friend, let me help you get that speck out of your eye,’ when you can’t even see because of the board in your own?
⁵
 
Hypocrite! First get rid of the board. Then you can see to help your brother.

    
⁶
 
“Don’t give holy things to depraved men. Don’t give pearls to swine! They will trample the pearls and turn and attack you.

    
⁷
 
“Ask, and you will be given what you ask for. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened.
⁸
 
For everyone who asks, receives. Anyone who seeks, finds. If only you will knock, the door will open.
⁹
 
If a child asks his father for a loaf of bread, will he be given a stone instead?
¹⁰
 
If he asks for fish, will he be given a poisonous snake? Of course not!
¹¹
 
And if you hard-hearted, sinful men know how to give good gifts to your children, won’t your Father in heaven even more certainly give good gifts to those who ask him for them?

    
¹²
 
“Do for others what you want them to do for you. This is the teaching of the laws of Moses in a nutshell.
*

    
¹³
 
“Heaven can be entered only through the narrow gate! The highway to hell
*
is broad, and its gate is wide enough for all the multitudes who choose its easy way.
¹⁴
 
But the Gateway to Life is small, and the road is narrow, and only a few ever find it.

    
¹⁵
 
“Beware of false teachers who come disguised as harmless sheep, but are wolves and will tear you apart.
¹⁶
 
You can detect them by the way they act, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit. You need never confuse grapevines with thorn bushes or figs with thistles.
¹⁷
 
Different kinds of fruit trees can quickly be identified by examining their fruit.
¹⁸
 
A variety that produces delicious fruit never produces an inedible kind. And a tree producing an inedible kind can’t produce what is good.
¹⁹
 
So the trees having the inedible fruit are chopped down and thrown on the fire.
²⁰
 
Yes, the way to identify a tree or a person
*
is by the kind of fruit produced.

    
²¹
 
“Not all who sound religious are really godly people. They may refer to me as ‘Lord,’ but still won’t get to heaven. For the decisive question is whether they obey my Father in heaven.
²²
 
At the Judgment
*
many will tell me, ‘Lord, Lord, we told others about you and used your name to cast out demons and to do many other great miracles.’
²³
 
But I will reply, ‘You have never been mine.
*
Go away, for your deeds are evil.’

    
²⁴
 
“All who listen to my instructions and follow them are wise, like a man who builds his house on solid rock.
²⁵
 
Though the rain comes in torrents, and the floods rise and the storm winds beat against his house, it won’t collapse, for it is built on rock.

    
²⁶
 
“But those who hear my instructions and ignore them are foolish, like a man who builds his house on sand.
²⁷
 
For when the rains and floods come, and storm winds beat against his house, it will fall with a mighty crash.”
²⁸
 The crowds were amazed at Jesus’ sermons,
²⁹
 for he taught as one who had great authority, and not as their Jewish leaders.
*

Matthew
8

Large crowds followed Jesus as he came down the hillside.

    
²
 
Look! A leper is approaching. He kneels before him, worshiping. “Sir,” the leper pleads, “if you want to, you can heal me.”

    
³
 
Jesus touches the man.
“I want to,”
he says.
“Be healed.”
And instantly the leprosy disappears.

    
⁴
 
Then Jesus says to him,
“Don’t stop to talk to anyone;
*
go right over to the priest to be examined; and take with you the offering required by Moses’ law for lepers who are healed—a public testimony of your cure.”

    
^5-6
 When Jesus arrived in Capernaum, a Roman army captain came and pled with him to come to his home and heal his servant boy who was in bed paralyzed and racked with pain.

    
⁷
 
“Yes,”
Jesus said,
“I will come and heal him.”

    
^8-9
 Then the officer said, “Sir, I am not worthy to have you in my home; and it isn’t necessary for you to come.
*
If you will only stand here and say, ‘Be healed,’ my servant will get well! I know, because I am under the authority of my superior officers and I have authority over my soldiers, and I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my slave boy, ‘Do this or that,’ and he does it. And I know you have authority to tell his sickness to go—and it will go!”

    
¹⁰
 Jesus stood there amazed! Turning to the crowd he said,
“I haven’t seen faith like this in all the land of Israel!
¹¹
 
And I tell you this, that many Gentiles like this Roman officer,
*
shall come from all over the world and sit down in the Kingdom of Heaven with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
¹²
 
And many an Israelite—those for whom the Kingdom was prepared—shall be cast into outer darkness, into the place of weeping and torment.”

    
¹³
 Then Jesus said to the Roman officer,
“Go on home. What you have believed has happened!”
And the boy was healed that same hour!

    
¹⁴
 When Jesus arrived at Peter’s house, Peter’s mother-in-law was in bed with a high fever.
¹⁵
 But when Jesus touched her hand, the fever left her; and she got up and prepared a meal for them!
*

    
¹⁶
 That evening several demon-possessed people were brought to Jesus; and when he spoke a single word, all the demons fled; and all the sick were healed.
¹⁷
 This fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, “He took our sicknesses and bore our diseases.”
*

    
¹⁸
 When Jesus noticed how large the crowd was growing, he instructed his disciples to get ready to cross to the other side of the lake.

    
¹⁹
 Just then
*
one of the Jewish religious teachers
*
said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you no matter where you go!”

    
²⁰
 But Jesus said,
“Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but I, the Messiah,
*
have no home of my own—no place to lay my head.”

    
²¹
 Another of his disciples said, “Sir, when my father is dead, then I will follow you.”
*

    
²²
 But Jesus told him,
“Follow me
now!
*
Let those who are spiritually dead
*
care for their own dead.”

    
²³
 Then he got into a boat and started across the lake with his disciples.
²⁴
 Suddenly a terrible storm came up, with waves higher than the boat. But Jesus was asleep.

    
²⁵
 The disciples went to him and wakened him, shouting, “Lord, save us! We’re sinking!”

    
²⁶
 But Jesus answered,
“O you men of little faith! Why are you so frightened?”
Then he stood up and rebuked the wind and waves, and the storm subsided and all was calm.
²⁷
 The disciples just sat there, awed! “Who is this,” they asked themselves, “that even the winds and the sea obey him?”

    
²⁸
 When they arrived on the other side of the lake, in the country of the Gadarenes, two men with demons in them met him. They lived in a cemetery and were so dangerous that no one could go through that area.

    
²⁹
 They began screaming at him, “What do you want with us, O Son of God? You have no right to torment us yet.”
*

    
³⁰
 A herd of pigs was feeding in the distance,
³¹
 so the demons begged, “If you cast us out, send us into that herd of pigs.”

    
³²
 
“All right,”
Jesus told them.
“Begone.”

    
And they came out of the men and entered the pigs, and the whole herd rushed over a cliff and drowned in the water below.
³³
 The herdsmen fled to the nearest city with the story of what had happened,
³⁴
 and the entire population came rushing out to see Jesus and begged him to go away and leave them alone.