"Why do you call me, 'Lord, Lord,' and yet don't do what I tell you?

"Once there was a man who went out to sow grain. As he scattered the seed in the field, some of it fell along the path, where it was stepped on, and the birds ate it up.

Some of the seed fell among thorn bushes, which grew up with the plants and choked them.

Now, his own people hated him, and so they sent messengers after him to say, 'We don't want this man to be our king.'

Now, as for those enemies of mine who did not want me to be their king, bring them here and kill them in my presence!' "

"We refuse to listen to what you have told us in the name of the LORD.

We will do everything that we said we would. We will offer sacrifices to our goddess, the Queen of Heaven, and we will pour out wine offerings to her, just as we and our ancestors, our king and our leaders, used to do in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. Then we had plenty of food, we were prosperous, and had no troubles.

So my people crowd in to hear what you have to say, but they don't do what you tell them to do. Loving words are on their lips, but they continue their greedy ways.

'I don't want to,' he answered, but later he changed his mind and went.

Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. 'Yes, sir,' he answered, but he did not go.

So you must obey and follow everything they tell you to do; do not, however, imitate their actions, because they don't practice what they preach.

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.

Do not deceive yourselves by just listening to his word; instead, put it into practice.

They take a good look at themselves and then go away and at once forget what they look like.

Do any of you think you are religious? If you do not control your tongue, your religion is worthless and you deceive yourself.

So it is with faith: if it is alone and includes no actions, then it is dead.

Do you believe that there is only one God? Good! The demons also believe---and tremble with fear.

How was our ancestor Abraham put right with God? It was through his actions, when he offered his son Isaac on the altar.

And the scripture came true that said, "Abraham believed God, and because of his faith God accepted him as righteous." And so Abraham was called God's friend.

It was the same with the prostitute Rahab. She was put right with God through her actions, by welcoming the Israelite spies and helping them to escape by a different road.

For this very reason do your best to add goodness to your faith; to your goodness add knowledge;

to your godliness add Christian affection; and to your Christian affection add love.

But if you do not have them, you are so shortsighted that you cannot see and have forgotten that you have been purified from your past sins.

If we obey God's commands, then we are sure that we know him.

If we say that we know him, but do not obey his commands, we are liars and there is no truth in us.

The seeds that fell on rocky ground stand for those who receive the message gladly as soon as they hear it.

The seeds that fell among thorn bushes stand for those who hear the message; but the worries about this life and the love for riches choke the message, and they don't bear fruit.

Many will give up their faith at that time; they will betray one another and hate one another.

I know that after I leave, fierce wolves will come among you, and they will not spare the flock.

Many times I had them punished in the synagogues and tried to make them deny their faith. I was so furious with them that I even went to foreign cities to persecute them.

That is why I had to send Timothy. I could not bear it any longer, so I sent him to find out about your faith. Surely it could not be that the Devil had tempted you and all our work had been for nothing!

Be honest and you will be safe. If you are dishonest, you will suddenly fall.

Yet I will not punish them for this, because you yourselves go off with temple prostitutes, and together with them you offer pagan sacrifices. As the proverb says, 'A people without sense will be ruined.'

"When an evil spirit goes out of a person, it travels over dry country looking for a place to rest. If it can't find one,

Then it goes out and brings along seven other spirits even worse than itself, and they come and live there. So when it is all over, that person is in worse shape than at the beginning. This is what will happen to the evil people of this day."

But it does not sink deep into them, and they don't last long. So when trouble or persecution comes because of the message, they give up at once.

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.

I assure you that on the Judgment Day God will show more mercy to Sodom than to that town!

God will show more mercy on the Judgment Day to Tyre and Sidon than to you.

Jesus said to his disciples, "Whoever listens to you listens to me; whoever rejects you rejects me; and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me."

"When an evil spirit goes out of a person, it travels over dry country looking for a place to rest. If it can't find one, it says to itself, 'I will go back to my house.'

Then it goes out and brings seven other spirits even worse than itself, and they come and live there. So when it is all over, that person is in worse shape than at the beginning."

"The servant who knows what his master wants him to do, but does not get himself ready and do it, will be punished with a heavy whipping.

For there is no longer any sacrifice that will take away sins if we purposely go on sinning after the truth has been made known to us.

Anyone who disobeys the Law of Moses is put to death without any mercy when judged guilty from the evidence of two or more witnesses.

If people have escaped from the corrupting forces of the world through their knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and then are again caught and conquered by them, such people are in worse condition at the end than they were at the beginning.