Jesus said to them, "Come with me, and I will teach you to catch people."

Jesus said to them, "Come with me, and I will teach you to catch people."

The same was true of Simon's partners, James and John, the sons of Zebedee. Jesus said to Simon, "Don't be afraid; from now on you will be catching people."

When the plants grew and the heads of grain began to form, then the weeds showed up.

'It was some enemy who did this,' he answered. 'Do you want us to go and pull up the weeds?' they asked him.

Let the wheat and the weeds both grow together until harvest. Then I will tell the harvest workers to pull up the weeds first, tie them in bundles and burn them, and then to gather in the wheat and put it in my barn.' "

Now go to the main streets and invite to the feast as many people as you find.'

So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, good and bad alike; and the wedding hall was filled with people.

"At that time the Kingdom of heaven will be like this. Once there were ten young women who took their oil lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom.

The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any extra oil with them,

The servant went back and told all this to his master. The master was furious and said to his servant, 'Hurry out to the streets and alleys of the town, and bring back the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.'

So the master said to the servant, 'Go out to the country roads and lanes and make people come in, so that my house will be full.

He breaks off every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and he prunes every branch that does bear fruit, so that it will be clean and bear more fruit.

Those who do not remain in me are thrown out like a branch and dry up; such branches are gathered up and thrown into the fire, where they are burned.

But there was a man named Ananias, who with his wife Sapphira sold some property that belonged to them.

Peter said to him, "Ananias, why did you let Satan take control of you and make you lie to the Holy Spirit by keeping part of the money you received for the property?

As soon as Ananias heard this, he fell down dead; and all who heard about it were terrified.

About three hours later his wife, not knowing what had happened, came in.

So Peter said to her, "Why did you and your husband decide to put the Lord's Spirit to the test? The men who buried your husband are at the door right now, and they will carry you out too!"

Simon saw that the Spirit had been given to the believers when the apostles placed their hands on them. So he offered money to Peter and John,

But Peter answered him, "May you and your money go to hell, for thinking that you can buy God's gift with money!

Repent, then, of this evil plan of yours, and pray to the Lord that he will forgive you for thinking such a thing as this.

The time will come when some men from your own group will tell lies to lead the believers away after them.

Now, it is actually being said that there is sexual immorality among you so terrible that not even the heathen would be guilty of it. I am told that a man is sleeping with his stepmother!

And even though I am far away from you in body, still I am there with you in spirit; and as though I were there with you, I have in the name of our Lord Jesus already passed judgment on the man who has done this terrible thing. As you meet together, and I meet with you in my spirit, by the power of our Lord Jesus present with us,

you are to hand this man over to Satan for his body to be destroyed, so that his spirit may be saved in the Day of the Lord.

I want you to remember, my friends, what happened to our ancestors who followed Moses. They were all under the protection of the cloud, and all passed safely through the Red Sea.

All ate the same spiritual bread

But even then God was not pleased with most of them, and so their dead bodies were scattered over the desert.

nor to worship idols, as some of them did. As the scripture says, "The people sat down to a feast which turned into an orgy of drinking and sex."

We must not put the Lord to the test, as some of them did---and they were killed by snakes.

All these things happened to them as examples for others, and they were written down as a warning for us. For we live at a time when the end is about to come.

(No doubt there must be divisions among you so that the ones who are in the right may be clearly seen.)

Those men are not true apostles---they are false apostles, who lie about their work and disguise themselves to look like real apostles of Christ.

So it is no great thing if his servants disguise themselves to look like servants of righteousness. In the end they will get exactly what their actions deserve.

I am afraid that when I get there I will find you different from what I would like you to be and you will find me different from what you would like me to be. I am afraid that I will find quarreling and jealousy, hot tempers and selfishness, insults and gossip, pride and disorder.

I am afraid that the next time I come my God will humiliate me in your presence, and I shall weep over many who sinned in the past and have not repented of the immoral things they have done---their lust and their sexual sins.

although some wanted it done. Pretending to be believers, these men slipped into our group as spies, in order to find out about the freedom we have through our union with Christ Jesus. They wanted to make slaves of us,

People will be selfish, greedy, boastful, and conceited; they will be insulting, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, and irreligious;

they will be treacherous, reckless, and swollen with pride; they will love pleasure rather than God;

The time will come when people will not listen to sound doctrine, but will follow their own desires and will collect for themselves more and more teachers who will tell them what they are itching to hear.

They will turn away from listening to the truth and give their attention to legends.

He must hold firmly to the message which can be trusted and which agrees with the doctrine. In this way he will be able to encourage others with the true teaching and also to show the error of those who are opposed to it.

It is necessary to stop their talk, because they are upsetting whole families by teaching what they should not, and all for the shameful purpose of making money.

False prophets appeared in the past among the people, and in the same way false teachers will appear among you. They will bring in destructive, untrue doctrines, and will deny the Master who redeemed them, and so they will bring upon themselves sudden destruction.

In their greed these false teachers will make a profit out of telling you made-up stories. For a long time now their Judge has been ready, and their Destroyer has been wide awake!

and they will be paid with suffering for the suffering they have caused. Pleasure for them is to do anything in broad daylight that will satisfy their bodily appetites; they are a shame and a disgrace as they join you in your meals, all the while enjoying their deceitful ways!

They have left the straight path and have lost their way; they have followed the path taken by Balaam son of Beor, who loved the money he would get for doing wrong

These people are like dried-up springs, like clouds blown along by a storm; God has reserved a place for them in the deepest darkness.

They promise them freedom while they themselves are slaves of destructive habits---for we are slaves of anything that has conquered us.

It would have been much better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than to know it and then turn away from the sacred command that was given them.

My children, the end is near! You were told that the Enemy of Christ would come; and now many enemies of Christ have already appeared, and so we know that the end is near.

These people really did not belong to our fellowship, and that is why they left us; if they had belonged to our fellowship, they would have stayed with us. But they left so that it might be clear that none of them really belonged to us.

My dear friends, do not believe all who claim to have the Spirit, but test them to find out if the spirit they have comes from God. For many false prophets have gone out everywhere.

But anyone who denies this about Jesus does not have the Spirit from God. The spirit that he has is from the Enemy of Christ; you heard that it would come, and now it is here in the world already.

Those false prophets speak about matters of the world, and the world listens to them because they belong to the world.

For some godless people have slipped in unnoticed among us, persons who distort the message about the grace of our God in order to excuse their immoral ways, and who reject Jesus Christ, our only Master and Lord. Long ago the Scriptures predicted the condemnation they have received.

For even though you know all this, I want to remind you of how the Lord once rescued the people of Israel from Egypt, but afterward destroyed those who did not believe.

"To the angel of the church in Sardis write: "This is the message from the one who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know what you are doing; I know that you have the reputation of being alive, even though you are dead!

I know what you have done; I know that you are neither cold nor hot. How I wish you were either one or the other!

You say, 'I am rich and well off; I have all I need.' But you do not know how miserable and pitiful you are! You are poor, naked, and blind.