Mark 4:33

Therefore, brothers, be more diligent to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never stumble.

Let no man despise your youth; but be an example to those who believe, in word, in your way of life, in love, in spirit, in faith, and in purity.

Therefore also we make it our aim, whether at home or absent, to be well pleasing to him.

For it isn’t he who commends himself who is approved, but whom the Lord commends.

But even as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the Good News, so we speak: not as pleasing men, but God, who tests our hearts.

Yes, I will make every effort that you may always be able to remember these things even after my departure.

for I didn’t shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.

But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by the manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.

who also made us sufficient as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? For if I were still pleasing men, I wouldn’t be a servant of Christ.

In him you also, having heard the word of the truth, the Good News of your salvation—in whom, having also believed, you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,

We exhort you, brothers: Admonish the disorderly; encourage the faint-hearted; support the weak; be patient toward all.

If you instruct the brothers of these things, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, nourished in the words of the faith, and of the good doctrine which you have followed.

Of his own will he gave birth to us by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures.

Therefore, beloved, seeing that you look for these things, be diligent to be found in peace, without defect and blameless in his sight.

Jacob sent messengers in front of him to Esau, his brother, to the land of Seir, the field of Edom.

“I still have many things to tell you, but you can’t bear them now.

“Men of Israel, hear these words! Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved by God to you by mighty works and wonders and signs which God did by him among you, even as you yourselves know,

Greet Apelles, the approved in Christ. Greet those who are of the household of Aristobulus.

We speak wisdom, however, among those who are full grown, yet a wisdom not of this world nor of the rulers of this world who are coming to nothing.

Let’s therefore give diligence to enter into that rest, lest anyone fall after the same example of disobedience.

He spoke to them many things in parables, saying, “Behold, a farmer went out to sow.

When Jesus had finished these parables, he departed from there.

He said to them, “Don’t you understand this parable? How will you understand all of the parables?

The Lord said, “Who then is the faithful and wise steward, whom his lord will set over his household, to give them their portion of food at the right times?

For he who serves Christ in these things is acceptable to God and approved by men.

If you are willing to receive it, this is Elijah, who is to come.

He said to them, “Therefore every scribe who has been made a disciple in the Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who is a householder, who brings out of his treasure new and old things.”

He taught them many things in parables, and told them in his teaching,

Now I pray to God that you do no evil; not that we may appear approved, but that you may do that which is honorable, though we are as reprobate.

in hope of eternal life, which God, who can’t lie, promised before time began;

About him we have many words to say, and hard to interpret, seeing you have become dull of hearing.

He brought him all these, and divided them in the middle, and laid each half opposite the other; but he didn’t divide the birds.

Please let my lord pass over before his servant, and I will lead on gently, according to the pace of the livestock that are before me and according to the pace of the children, until I come to my lord to Seir.”

He has filled them with wisdom of heart to work all kinds of workmanship, of the engraver, of the skillful workman, and of the embroiderer, in blue, in purple, in scarlet, and in fine linen, and of the weaver, even of those who do any workmanship, and of those who make skillful works.

According to all that Yahweh commanded Moses, so the children of Israel did all the work.

Then we turned, and took our journey into the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea, as Yahweh spoke to me; and we encircled Mount Seir many days.

“Yahweh, when you went out of Seir, when you marched out of the field of Edom, the earth trembled, the sky also dropped. Yes, the clouds dropped water.

He said to him, “Go in peace.” So he departed from him a little way.

Now, behold, the children of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir, whom you would not let Israel invade when they came out of the land of Egypt, but they turned away from them, and didn’t destroy them;

I will incline my ear to a proverb. I will solve my riddle on the harp.

I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings of old,

So he was their shepherd according to the integrity of his heart, and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands.

He will feed his flock like a shepherd. He will gather the lambs in his arm, and carry them in his bosom. He will gently lead those who have their young.

For as the earth produces its bud, and as the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring up, so the Lord Yahweh will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations.

“Son of man, tell a riddle, and speak a parable to the house of Israel;

Then I said, “Ah Lord Yahweh! They say of me, ‘Isn’t he a speaker of parables?’ ”

“ ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “Because Moab and Seir say, ‘Behold, the house of Judah is like all the nations;’

In that day they will take up a parable against you, and lament with a doleful lamentation, saying, ‘We are utterly ruined! My people’s possession is divided up. Indeed he takes it from me and assigns our fields to traitors!’ ”

Won’t all these take up a parable against him, and a taunting proverb against him, and say, ‘Woe to him who increases that which is not his, and who enriches himself by extortion! How long?’

No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; for the patch would tear away from the garment, and a worse hole is made.

Jesus answered and spoke to them again in parables, saying,

“Now from the fig tree learn this parable. When its branch has now become tender, and produces its leaves, you know that the summer is near.

He summoned them, and said to them in parables, “How can Satan cast out Satan?

“Listen! Behold, the farmer went out to sow,

He said, “God’s Kingdom is as if a man should cast seed on the earth,

He began to speak to them in parables. “A man planted a vineyard, put a hedge around it, dug a pit for the wine press, built a tower, rented it out to a farmer, and went into another country.

They tried to seize him, but they feared the multitude; for they perceived that he spoke the parable against them. They left him, and went away.

He said, “To you it is given to know the mysteries of God’s Kingdom, but to the rest in parables; that ‘seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.’

Peter said to him, “Lord, are you telling this parable to us, or to everybody?”

I have many things to speak and to judge concerning you. However he who sent me is true; and the things which I heard from him, these I say to the world.”

I have said these things to you while still living with you.

I will no more speak much with you, for the prince of the world comes, and he has nothing in me.

I have spoken these things to you in figures of speech. But the time is coming when I will no more speak to you in figures of speech, but will tell you plainly about the Father.

To these he also showed himself alive after he suffered, by many proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days, and speaking about God’s Kingdom.

Now we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of the weak, and not to please ourselves.

I fed you with milk, not with meat; for you weren’t yet ready. Indeed, you aren’t ready even now,

According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another builds on it. But let each man be careful how he builds on it.

in the word of truth, in the power of God; by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left,

For behold, this same thing, that you were grieved in a godly way, what earnest care it worked in you. Yes, what defense, indignation, fear, longing, zeal, and vengeance! In everything you demonstrated yourselves to be pure in the matter.

But we are bound to always give thanks to God for you, brothers loved by the Lord, because God chose you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief in the truth,

Give diligence to present yourself approved by God, a workman who doesn’t need to be ashamed, properly handling the Word of Truth.

Having many things to write to you, I don’t want to do so with paper and ink, but I hope to come to you, and to speak face to face, that our joy may be made full.