“I ¹  am sending you out like sheep surrounded by wolves, ²  so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.

If ¹  he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. If ²  he refuses to listen to the church, treat him like ³  a Gentile ⁴  or a tax collector. ⁵ 

Therefore pay attention to what they tell you and do it. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they teach. ¹ 

“So when you see the abomination of desolation ¹  – spoken about by Daniel the prophet – standing in the holy place (let the reader understand),

Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ ¹  or ‘There he is!’ do not believe him.

Stay awake and pray that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

Then ¹  if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ ²  or ‘Look, there he is!’ do not believe him.

Stay alert, then, because you do not know when the owner of the house will return – whether during evening, at midnight, when the rooster crows, or at dawn –

Then ¹  he rolled up ²  the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fixed on ³  him.

After ¹  this, Jesus ²  went out and saw a tax collector ³  named Levi ⁴  sitting at the tax booth. ⁵  “Follow me,” ⁶  he said to him.

Why ¹  do you see the speck ²  in your brother’s eye, but fail to see ³  the beam of wood ⁴  in your own?

In fact, even the hairs on your head are all numbered. Do not be afraid; ¹  you are more valuable than many sparrows.

But the worker ¹  answered him, ‘Sir, leave it alone this year too, until I dig around it and put fertilizer ²  on it.

“Exert every effort ¹  to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to.

And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by how you use worldly wealth, ¹  so that when it runs out you will be welcomed ²  into the eternal homes. ³ 

He ¹  replied to him, ‘If they do not respond to ²  Moses and the prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’” ³ 

While the people were listening to these things, Jesus ¹  proceeded to tell a parable, because he was near to Jerusalem, ²  and because they thought ³  that the kingdom of God ⁴  was going to ⁵  appear immediately.

But stay alert at all times, ¹  praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that must ²  happen, and to stand before the Son of Man.”

“Simon, ¹  Simon, pay attention! ²  Satan has demanded to have you all, ³  to sift you like wheat, ⁴ 

Then a slave girl, ¹  seeing him as he sat in the firelight, stared at him and said, “This man was with him too!”