Luke 11
Jesus' Teaching on Prayer
It happened, that when
he finished praying in a certain place, one of his disciples said to him,
"Lord, teach us to pray, just as John also taught his disciples."
He said to them, "When you pray, say,
'Our Father in heaven,
may your name be kept holy.
May your Kingdom come.
May your will be done on Earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us day by day
our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins,
for we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us.
Bring us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.'"
He said to them, "Which of you, if you go to a friend at midnight, and tell
him, 'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, for a friend of mine has come to
me from a journey, and I have nothing to set before him,' and he from within will answer
and say, 'Don't bother me. The door is now shut, and my children are with
me in bed. I can't get up and give it to you'? I tell you, although he will not
rise and give it to him because he is his friend, yet because of his
persistence, he will get up and give him as many as he needs.
"I tell you, keep asking,
and it will be given you. Keep seeking, and you will find. Keep knocking,
and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives.
He who seeks finds. To him who knocks it will be opened.
"Which of you fathers, if
your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish,
he won't give him a snake instead of a fish, will he? Or if he asks for an egg, he
won't give him a scorpion, will he? If you then, being evil, know
how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly
Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?"
Jesus and Beelzebub
He was casting out a
demon, and it was mute. It happened, when the demon had gone out, the mute
man spoke; and the multitudes marveled. But some of them said, "He
casts out demons by Beelzebul, the prince of the demons." Others, testing him, sought from
him a sign from heaven. But he, knowing their thoughts,
said to them, "Every kingdom divided against itself
is brought to desolation. A house divided against itself falls. If Satan also is divided against
himself, how will his kingdom stand? For you say that I cast out demons by
Beelzebul. But if I cast
out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your children cast them out? Therefore
will they be your judges. But if I by the finger of God
cast out demons, then the Kingdom of God has come to you.
"When the strong man, fully
armed, guards his own dwelling, his goods are safe. But when someone stronger
attacks him and overcomes him, he takes from him his whole armor in which
he trusted, and divides his spoils.
"He that is not with me is
against me. He who doesn't gather with me scatters. The unclean spirit, when he has
gone out of the man, passes through dry places, seeking rest, and finding
none, he says, 'I will turn back to my house from which I came out.'
When he returns, he
finds it swept and put in order. Then he goes, and takes seven
other spirits more evil than himself, and they enter in and dwell there.
The last state of that man becomes worse than the first."
It came to pass, as
he said these things, a certain woman out of the multitude lifted up her
voice, and said to him, "Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the
breasts which nursed you!"
But he said, "On the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word of
God, and keep it."
The Sign of Jonah
When the multitudes
were gathering together to him, he began to say, "This is an evil generation. It seeks after a sign. No sign will
be given to it but the sign of Jonah, the prophet. For even as Jonah became a sign
to the Ninevites, so will also the Son of Man be to this generation.
The Queen of the South
will rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation, and will
condemn them: for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom
of Solomon; and behold, one greater than Solomon is here. The men of Nineveh will stand up
in the judgment with this generation, and will condemn it: for they
repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, one greater than Jonah is
here.
The Lamp of the Body
"No one, when he has lit a
lamp, puts it in a cellar or under a basket, but on a stand, that those
who come in may see the light. The lamp of the body is the eye.
Therefore when your eye is good, your whole body is also full of light;
but when it is evil, your body also is full of darkness. Therefore see whether the light
that is in you isn't darkness. If therefore your whole body is
full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly full of light, as
when the lamp with its bright shining gives you light."
Six Woes
Now as he spoke, a
certain Pharisee asked him to dine with him. He went in, and sat at the
table. When the Pharisee
saw it, he marveled that he had not first washed himself before dinner.
The Lord said to him,
"Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and
of the platter, but your inward part is full of extortion and wickedness.
You foolish ones, didn't
he who made the outside make the inside also? But give for gifts to the needy
those things which are within, and behold, all things will be clean to
you. But woe to you
Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and every herb, but you bypass
justice and the love of God. You ought to have done these, and not to have
left the other undone. Woe to you Pharisees! For you
love the best seats in the synagogues, and the greetings in the
marketplaces. Woe to
you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like hidden graves,
and the men who walk over them don't know it."
One of the lawyers
answered him, "Teacher, in saying this you insult us also."
He said, "Woe to you lawyers also! For you load men with burdens
that are difficult to carry, and you yourselves won't even lift one finger
to help carry those burdens. Woe to you! For you build the
tombs of the prophets, and your fathers killed them. So you testify and consent to
the works of your fathers. For they killed them, and you build their
tombs. Therefore also
the wisdom of God said, 'I will send to them prophets and apostles; and
some of them they will kill and persecute, that the blood of all the
prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required
of this generation; from
the blood of Abel to the blood of Zachariah, who perished between the
altar and the sanctuary.' Yes, I tell you, it will be required of this
generation. Woe to you
lawyers! For you took away the key of knowledge. You didn't enter in
yourselves, and those who were entering in, you hindered."
As he said these
things to them, the scribes and the Pharisees began to be terribly angry,
and to draw many things out of him; lying in wait for him, and
seeking to catch him in something he might say, that they might accuse him.
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