Those who do not take up their cross and follow in my steps are not fit to be my disciples.

Then Jesus called the crowd and his disciples to him. "If any of you want to come with me," he told them, "you must forget yourself, carry your cross, and follow me.

Jesus looked straight at him with love and said, "You need only one thing. Go and sell all you have and give the money to the poor, and you will have riches in heaven; then come and follow me."

And he said to them all, "If you want to come with me, you must forget yourself, take up your cross every day, and follow me.

Will you gain anything if you win the whole world but are yourself lost or defeated? Of course not!

I assure you that there are some here who will not die until they have seen the Kingdom of God."

Those who do not carry their own cross and come after me cannot be my disciples.

They strengthened the believers and encouraged them to remain true to the faith. "We must pass through many troubles to enter the Kingdom of God," they taught.

And now I am happy about my sufferings for you, for by means of my physical sufferings I am helping to complete what still remains of Christ's sufferings on behalf of his body, the church.

so that none of you should turn back because of these persecutions. You yourselves know that such persecutions are part of God's will for us.

Everyone who wants to live a godly life in union with Christ Jesus will be persecuted;

It was faith that made Moses, when he had grown up, refuse to be called the son of the king's daughter.

He reckoned that to suffer scorn for the Messiah was worth far more than all the treasures of Egypt, for he kept his eyes on the future reward.

As they were going out, they met a man from Cyrene named Simon, and the soldiers forced him to carry Jesus' cross.

On the way they met a man named Simon, who was coming into the city from the country, and the soldiers forced him to carry Jesus' cross. (Simon was from Cyrene and was the father of Alexander and Rufus.)

The soldiers led Jesus away, and as they were going, they met a man from Cyrene named Simon who was coming into the city from the country. They seized him, put the cross on him, and made him carry it behind Jesus.

He went out, carrying his cross, and came to "The Place of the Skull," as it is called. (In Hebrew it is called "Golgotha.")

Since Christ suffered physically, you too must strengthen yourselves with the same way of thinking that he had; because whoever suffers physically is no longer involved with sin.

From now on, then, you must live the rest of your earthly lives controlled by God's will and not by human desires.