Luke 6:35-49

³⁵Instead, love your enemies! Do good things for them! Lend to them, and do not expect them to pay anything back! If you do that, God will give you a big reward. And you will be acting like his children should. Remember that God is kind to people who are not grateful and to people who are wicked, and he expects you to be like that too.

³⁶Act mercifully toward others, just like your Father in heaven acts mercifully toward you.”

³⁷“Do not say how sinfully others have acted, and then God will not say how sinfully you have acted. Do not condemn others, and then he will not condemn you DOU. Forgive others for the evil things that they have done to you, and then God will forgive you.

³⁸Give good things to others, and then God will give good things to you. It will be as though MET God is putting things in a basket for you. He will give you a full amount, pressed down in the basket, which he will shake so that he can put more in, and it will spill over the sides! Remember that the way you act toward others will be the way that God will act toward you!”

³⁹He also told his disciples this parable to show them that they should be like him, and not be like the Jewish religious leaders: “◄You certainly would not expect a blind man to lead another blind man./Would you expect a blind man to lead another blind man?► RHQ If he tried to do that, ◄they would both probably fall into a hole!/wouldn't they both probably fall into a hole?► RHQ I am your teacher, and you disciples should be like me.

⁴⁰A disciple should not expect to be better known than his teacher. But if a student is fully trained {if someone fully trains a student}, the student can become like his teacher MET. So you should be content to be like me.

⁴¹◄Why do you notice someone else's small faults?/None of you should be concerned about someone else's small faults MET, RHQ.► That would be like noticing a speck in that person's eye. But you should be concerned about your own big faults. They are like planks in your own eye, which you do not notice.

⁴²◄You (sg) should not say, ‘Friend, let me take out that speck in your eye!’ when you do not notice the log in your own eye!/Why do you say, ‘Friend, let me take out that speck in your eye!’ when you do not notice the log in your own eye?► RHQ If you do that, you are a hypocrite! You should first stop committing your own sins. That will be like removing the plank from your own eye. Then, as a result, you will have the spiritual insight you need to help others get rid of the faults that are like specks in their eyes.”

⁴³“ People are like trees MET. Healthy trees do not bear bad fruit (OR, bear only good fruit), and unhealthy trees do not bear good fruit.

⁴⁴Just like you can tell if a tree is good or bad by looking at its fruit, you can tell which people are good and which are bad by looking at the way they conduct their lives. For example, because thornbushes cannot produce figs, no one can pick figs from thornbushes. And since bramble bushes cannot produce grapes, no one can pick grapes from bramble bushes.

⁴⁵Similarly, good people will conduct their lives in a good way because they think a lot of good things, and evil people will live in an evil way because they think a lot of evil things. The basic principle is that people speak and act according to all that they think .”

⁴⁶“ Because people should obey what their masters tell them, ◄it is disgraceful that you say that I am your master but you do not do what I tell you!/why do you say that I am your master but you do not do what I tell you?► RHQ

⁴⁷Some people come to me, and hear my messages and obey them. I will tell you what they are like.

⁴⁸They are like a man who dug deep into the ground to prepare to build his house. He made sure that the foundation was on solid ground. Then when there was a flood, the water tried to wash away the house. But the river could not shake the house, because it was built {he built it} on a solid foundation.

⁴⁹But some people hear my messages but do not obey them. They are like a man who built a house on top of the ground without digging a foundation. When the river flooded, the house collapsed immediately and was completely ruined. So it is important for you to obey what I teach you.”