Give the King Your Justice

Of ^(A)Solomon.

¹⁸ On the third day Joseph said to them, “Do this and you will live, ^(A)for I fear God: ¹⁹ if you are honest men, let one of your brothers remain confined where you are in custody, and let the rest go and carry ^(B)grain for the famine of your households, ²⁰ and ^(C)bring your youngest brother to me. So your words will be verified, and you shall not die.” And they did so. ²¹ Then they said to one another, ^(D)“In truth we are guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the distress of his soul, when he begged us and we did not listen. That is why this distress has come upon us.” ²² And Reuben answered them, ^(E)“Did I not tell you not to sin against the boy? But you did not listen. So now ^(F)there comes a reckoning for his blood.” ²³ They did not know that Joseph understood them, for there was an interpreter between them. ²⁴ Then he turned away from them and ^(G)wept. And he returned to them and spoke to them. And he took Simeon from them and bound him before their eyes. ^25 (H)And Joseph gave orders to fill their bags with grain, and to replace every man's money in his sack, and to give them provisions for the journey. This was done for them.

²⁶ Then they loaded their donkeys with their grain and departed. ²⁷ And as ^(I)one of them opened his sack to give his donkey fodder at ^(J)the lodging place, he saw his money in the mouth of his sack. ²⁸ He said to his brothers, “My money has been put back; here it is in the mouth of my sack!” At this their hearts failed them, and they turned trembling to one another, saying, “What is this that God has done to us?”

⁹ I wrote to you in my letter ^(A)not to associate with sexually immoral people— ^10 (B)not at all meaning ^(C)the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, ^(D)since then you would need to go out of the world. ¹¹ But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone ^(E)who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one. ¹² For what have I to do with judging ^(F)outsiders? ^(G)Is it not those inside the church^[a] whom you are to judge? ¹³ God judges^[b] those outside. ^(H)“Purge the evil person from among you.”

Lawsuits Against Believers

6 When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous ^(I)instead of the saints? ² Or do you not know that ^(J)the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? ³ Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life! ⁴ So if you have such cases, ^(K)why do you lay them before those who have no standing in the church? ^5 (L)I say this to your shame. Can it be that there is no one among you wise enough to settle a dispute between the brothers, ⁶ but brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers? ⁷ To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. ^(M)Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? ⁸ But you yourselves wrong and defraud—even ^(N)your own brothers!^[c]

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! Behold, ^(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.”

The Purpose of the Parables

¹⁰ And ^(J)when he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables. ¹¹ And he said to them, ^(K)“To you has been given ^(L)the secret of the kingdom of God, but for ^(M)those outside everything is in parables, ^12 (N)so that

^13 (Q)And he said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? ^14 (R)The sower sows ^(S)the word. ¹⁵ And these are the ones along the path, where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them. ¹⁶ And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it ^(T)with joy. ¹⁷ And they have no root in themselves, but ^(U)endure for a while; then, when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately ^(V)they fall away.^{[a] 18} And others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word, ¹⁹ but ^(W)the cares of ^(X)the world and ^(Y)the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. ²⁰ But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and ^(Z)bear fruit, ^(AA)thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.”