Friday, November 26

14For you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God which are in Judea in Christ Jesus. For you also suffered the same things from your own countrymen, just as they did from the Judeans,

15who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they do not please God and are contrary to all men,

16forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they may be saved, so as always to fill up the measure of their sins; but wrath has come upon them to the uttermost.

17But we, brethren, having been taken away from you for a short time in presence, not in heart, endeavored more eagerly to see your face with great desire.

18Therefore we wanted to come to you—even I, Paul, time and again—but Satan hindered us.

19For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Is it not even you in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming?

12Therefore He said: 'A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return.

13So he called ten of his servants, delivered to them ten minas, and said to them, 'Do business till I come.'

14But his citizens hated him, and sent a delegation after him, saying, 'We will not have this man to reign over us.'

15'And so it was that when he returned, having received the kingdom, he then commanded these servants, to whom he had given the money, to be called to him, that he might know how much every man had gained by trading.

16Then came the first, saying, 'Master, your mina has earned ten minas.'

17And he said to him, 'Well done, good servant; because you were faithful in a very little, have authority over ten cities.'

18And the second came, saying, 'Master, your mina has earned five minas.'

19Likewise he said to him, 'You also be over five cities.'

20'Then another came, saying, 'Master, here is your mina, which I have kept put away in a handkerchief.

21For I feared you, because you are an austere man. You collect what you did not deposit, and reap what you did not sow.'

22And he said to him, 'Out of your own mouth I will judge you, you wicked servant. You knew that I was an austere man, collecting what I did not deposit and reaping what I did not sow.

23Why then did you not put my money in the bank, that at my coming I might have collected it with interest?'

24'And he said to those who stood by, 'Take the mina from him, and give it to him who has ten minas.'

25(But they said to him, 'Master, he has ten minas.')

26'For I say to you, that to everyone who has will be given; and from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.

27But bring here those enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, and slay them before me.' '

28When He had said this, He went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.