you say, ‘I have not done anything wrong, so the Lord cannot really be angry with me any more.’ But, watch out! ¹  I will bring down judgment on you because you say, ‘I have not committed any sin.’

“You have surely noticed what these people are saying, haven’t you? They are saying, ¹  ‘The Lord has rejected the two families of Israel and Judah ²  that he chose.’ So they have little regard that my people will ever again be a nation. ³ 

Then you will know that I am the Lord, whose statutes you have not followed and whose regulations you have not carried out. Instead you have behaved according to the regulations of the nations around you!’”

When ¹  Jesus heard this he was amazed and said to those who followed him, “I tell you the truth, ²  I have not found such faith in anyone in Israel!

And about five o’clock that afternoon ¹  he went out and found others standing around, and said to them, ‘Why are you standing here all day without work?’

Now as for the dead being raised, ¹  have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, ²  how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the ³  God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? ⁴ 

When Jesus heard this, he was amazed ¹  at him. He turned and said to the crowd that followed him, “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith!” ² 

So ¹  he said to the worker who tended the vineyard, ‘For ²  three years ³  now, I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and each time I inspect it ⁴  I find none. Cut ⁵  it down! Why ⁶  should it continue to deplete ⁷  the soil?’

I tell you, in the same way there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner ¹  who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people ²  who have no need to repent. ³ 

Jesus said to him, ¹  “Because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You will see greater things than these.” ² 

Yet ¹  you do not know him, but I know him. If I were to say that I do not know him, ²  I would be a liar like you. But I do know him, and I obey ³  his teaching. ⁴ 

But we do not know how he is now able to see, nor do we know who caused him to see. ¹  Ask him, he is a mature adult. ²  He will speak for himself.”

He answered, ¹  “I told you already and you didn’t listen. ²  Why do you want to hear it ³  again? You people ⁴  don’t want to become his disciples too, do you?”

Jesus replied, “You would have no authority ¹  over me at all, unless it was given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you ²  is guilty of greater sin.” ³ 

Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are the people ¹  who have not seen and yet have believed.” ² 

and said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” ¹  They replied, ²  “No, we have not even ³  heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”

But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me has not been in vain. In fact, I worked harder than all of them – yet not I, but the grace of God with me.

With regard to our brother Apollos: I strongly encouraged him to visit you with the other brothers, ¹  but it was simply not his intention to come now. ²  He will come when he has the opportunity.

I urged Titus to visit you ¹  and I sent our ²  brother along with him. Titus did not take advantage of you, did he? ³  Did we not conduct ourselves in the same spirit? Did we not behave in the same way? ⁴ 

I said before when I was present the second time and now, though absent, I say again to those who sinned previously and to all the rest, that if I come again, I will not spare anyone, ¹