Matthew 12:45

12:45 Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they go in and live there, so 1  the last state of that person is worse than the first. It will be that way for this evil generation as well!”

Matthew 5:45

5:45 so that you may be like 2  your Father in heaven, since he causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

Matthew 7:11

7:11 If you then, although you are evil, 3  know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts 4  to those who ask him!

Matthew 13:19

13:19 When anyone hears the word about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one 5  comes and snatches what was sown in his heart; 6  this is the seed sown along the path.

Matthew 21:41

21:41 They said to him, “He will utterly destroy those evil men! Then he will lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him his portion at the harvest.”

1 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so” to indicate the concluding point of the story.

2 tn Grk “be sons of your Father in heaven.” Here, however, the focus is not on attaining a relationship (becoming a child of God) but rather on being the kind of person who shares the characteristics of God himself (a frequent meaning of the Semitic idiom “son of”). See L&N 58.26.

3 tn The participle ὄντες (ontes) has been translated concessively.

4 sn The provision of the good gifts is probably a reference to the wisdom and guidance supplied in response to repeated requests. The teaching as a whole stresses not that we get everything we want, but that God gives the good that we need.

5 sn Interestingly, the synoptic parallels each use a different word for Satan here: Mark 4:15 has “Satan,” while Luke 8:12 has “the devil.” This illustrates the fluidity of the gospel tradition in often using synonyms at the same point of the parallel tradition.

6 sn The word of Jesus has the potential to save if it germinates in a person’s heart, something the devil is very much against.