Luke 11:4-43

⁴And forgive us our sins, For we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one.”

⁵And He said to them, “Which of you shall have a friend, and go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves;

⁶for a friend has come to me on his journey, and I have nothing to set before him’;

⁷and he will answer from within and say, ‘Do not trouble me; the door has already been shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give to you’?

⁸I say to you, even if he will not get up and give to him, because he is his friend, yet on account of his persistence he will get up and give him as much as he needs.

⁹“So I say to you, ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you.

¹⁰For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.

¹¹And which father among you, if his son asks for bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish?

¹²Or if he asks for an egg, will he give him a scorpion?

¹³If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, by how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”

¹⁴And He was casting out a demon, and it was mute. So it was, when the demon came out, that the mute man spoke; and the crowds marveled.

¹⁵But some of them said, “He casts out demons by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons.”

¹⁶But others, testing Him, were seeking from Him a sign from heaven.

¹⁷But He, knowing their thoughts, said to them: “Every kingdom divided against itself is made desolate, and a house divided against a house falls.

¹⁸And if Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? Because you say that I cast out demons by Beelzebub.

¹⁹And if I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges.

²⁰But if I cast out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

²¹When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his possessions are in peace.

²²But when someone stronger than he comes upon him, he overcomes him, and he takes away his full armor in which he had trusted, and distributes his spoils.

²³He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters.

²⁴“When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest; and not finding any, he says, ‘I will return to my house from where I came out.’

²⁵And coming, he finds it swept and adorned.

²⁶Then he goes and takes along seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they come and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first.”

²⁷And it happened, while He spoke these things, that a certain woman from the crowd raised her voice and said to Him, “Blessed is the womb which bore You, and the breasts which nursed You!”

²⁸But He said, “More than that, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”

²⁹Now as the crowds gathered even more, He began to say, “This generation is evil. It seeks a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah the prophet.

³⁰For just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so also the Son of Man will be to this generation.

³¹The queen of the South shall rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation and shall condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and indeed one greater than Solomon is here.

³²The men of Nineveh shall stand up in the judgment with this generation and shall condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed one greater than Jonah is here.

³³“No one, having lit a lamp, puts it in a secret place or under a basket, but on a lampstand, so that those who come in may see the light.

³⁴The lamp of the body is the eye. Therefore, when your eye is clear, your whole body also is full of light. But when your eye is evil, your body also is dark.

³⁵Therefore take heed that the light which is in you is not darkness.

³⁶Therefore if your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, the whole body will be full of light, as when the bright shining of a lamp gives light to you.”

³⁷And as He spoke, a certain Pharisee asked that He would eat with him. And having entered, He reclined to eat.

³⁸And when the Pharisee saw it, he marveled that He had not first washed before the meal.

³⁹But the Lord said to him, “Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but the inside of you is full of greed and evil.

⁴⁰Fools! Did not He who made the outside also make the inside?

⁴¹Nevertheless give what is inside as alms; and see, all things are clean to you.

⁴²“But woe to you Pharisees! Because you pay a tithe of mint and rue and every vegetable, and you pass over justice and the love of God. These things you ought to have done, and not have neglected the others.

⁴³Woe to you Pharisees! Because you love the first seat in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces.