Wednesday, November 19

1Finally then, brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more, just as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God;

2for you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus.

3For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality;

4that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor,

5not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God;

6that no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter, because the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also forewarned you and testified.

7For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness.

8Therefore he who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who has also given us His Holy Spirit.

9But concerning brotherly love you have no need that I should write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another;

10and indeed you do so toward all the brethren who are in all Macedonia. But we urge you, brethren, that you increase more and more;

11that you also aspire to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you,

12that you may walk properly toward those who are outside, and that you may lack nothing.

1Then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to Him to hear Him.

2And the Pharisees and scribes complained, saying, 'This Man receives sinners and eats with them.'

3So He spoke this parable to them, saying:

4'What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it?

5And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.

6And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!'

7I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.

8'Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it?

9And when she has found it, she calls her friends and neighbors together, saying, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found the piece which I lost!'

10Likewise, I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.'