Oh, That My People Would Listen to Me

To the choirmaster: according to ^(A)The Gittith.^[a] Of ^(B)Asaph.

Hearing and Doing the Word

^19 (A)Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person ^(B)be quick to hear, ^(C)slow to speak, ^(D)slow to anger; ²⁰ for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. ²¹ Therefore ^(E)put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with ^(F)meekness the implanted word, ^(G)which is able to save your souls.

²² But be ^(H)doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. ²³ For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. ²⁴ For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. ²⁵ But the one who looks into the perfect law, ^(I)the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, ^(J)he will be blessed in his doing.

²⁶ If anyone thinks he is religious ^(K)and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's ^(L)religion is worthless. ²⁷ Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: ^(M)to visit ^(N)orphans and widows in their affliction, and ^(O)to keep oneself ^(P)unstained from the world.

The Parable of the Sower

4 Again ^(A)he began to teach beside the sea. And a very large crowd gathered about him, ^(B)so that he got into a boat and sat in it on the sea, and the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land. ² And ^(C)he was teaching them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them: ³ “Listen! ^(D)A sower went out to sow. ⁴ And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it. ⁵ Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and immediately it sprang up, since it had no depth of soil. ⁶ And ^(E)when the sun rose, it was scorched, and since it had no root, ^(F)it withered away. ⁷ Other seed fell among ^(G)thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. ⁸ And other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and ^(H)a hundredfold.” ⁹ And he said, ^(I)“He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”