Gospel according to Luke 6

¹ Now one sabbath he happened to be taking a walk through the cornfields, and his disciples were picking ears of corn, rubbing them in their hands and eating them.

² Some of the Pharisees said, ‘Why are you doing something that is forbidden on the sabbath day?’

³ Jesus answered them, ‘So you have not read what David did when he and his followers were hungry

⁴ how he went into the house of God, took the loaves of offering and ate them and gave them to his followers, loaves which only the priests are allowed to eat?’

⁵ And he said to them, ‘The Son of Man is master of the sabbath’.

⁶ Now on another sabbath he went into the synagogue and began to teach, and a man was there whose right hand was withered.

⁷ The scribes and the Pharisees were watching him to see if he would cure a man on the sabbath, hoping to find something to use against him.

⁸ But he knew their thoughts; and he said to the man with the withered hand, ‘Stand up! Come out into the middle.’ And he came out and stood there.

⁹ Then Jesus said to them, ‘I put it to you: is it against the law on the sabbath to do good, or to do evil; to save life, or to destroy it?’

¹⁰ Then he looked round at them all and said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand’. He did so, and his hand was better.

¹¹ But they were furious, and began to discuss the best way of dealing with Jesus.

¹² Now it was about this time that he went out into the hills to pray; and he spent the whole night in prayer to God.

¹³ When day came he summoned his disciples and picked out twelve of them; he called them ‘apostles’:

¹⁴ Simon whom he called Peter, and his brother Andrew; James, John, Philip, Bartholomew,

¹⁵ Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Simon called the Zealot,

¹⁶ Judas son of James[*a], and Judas Iscariot who became a traitor.

¹⁷ He then came down with them and stopped at a piece of level ground where there was a large gathering of his disciples with a great crowd of people from all parts of Judaea and from Jerusalem and from the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon

¹⁸ who had come to hear him and to be cured of their diseases. People tormented by unclean spirits were also cured,

¹⁹ and everyone in the crowd was trying to touch him because power came out of him that cured them all.

²⁰ Then fixing his eyes on his disciples he said: ‘How happy are you who are poor: yours is the kingdom of God.

²¹ Happy you who are hungry now: you shall be satisfied. Happy you who weep now: you shall laugh.

²² Happy are you when people hate you, drive you out, abuse you, denounce your name as criminal, on account of the Son of Man.

²³ Rejoice when that day comes and dance for joy, for then your reward will be great in heaven. This was the way their ancestors treated the prophets.

²⁴ ‘But alas for you who are rich: you are having your consolation now.

²⁵ Alas for you who have your fill now: you shall go hungry. Alas for you who laugh now: you shall mourn and weep.

²⁶ Alas for you when the world speaks well of you! This was the way their ancestors treated the false prophets.’

²⁷ ‘But I say this to you who are listening: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,

²⁸ bless those who curse you, pray for those who treat you badly.

²⁹ To the man who slaps you on one cheek, present the other cheek too; to the man who takes your cloak from you, do not refuse your tunic.

³⁰ Give to everyone who asks you, and do not ask for your property back from the man who robs you.

³¹ Treat others as you would like them to treat you.

³² If you love those who love you, what thanks can you expect? Even sinners love those who love them.

³³ And if you do good to those who do good to you, what thanks can you expect? For even sinners do that much.

³⁴ And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what thanks can you expect? Even sinners lend to sinners to get back the same amount.

³⁵ Instead, love your enemies and do good, and lend without any hope of return. You will have a great reward, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.

³⁶ ‘Be compassionate as your Father is compassionate.

³⁷ Do not judge, and you will not be judged yourselves; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned yourselves; grant pardon, and you will be pardoned.

³⁸ Give, and there will be gifts for you: a full measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, will be poured into your lap; because the amount you measure out is the amount you will be given back.’

³⁹ He also told a parable to them, ‘Can one blind man guide another? Surely both will fall into a pit?

⁴⁰ The disciple is not superior to his teacher; the fully trained disciple will always be like his teacher.

⁴¹ Why do you observe the splinter in your brother’s eye and never notice the plank in your own?

⁴² How can you say to your brother, “Brother, let me take out the splinter that is in your eye”, when you cannot see the plank in your own? Hypocrite! Take the plank out of your own eye first, and then you will see clearly enough to take out the splinter that is in your brother’s eye.

⁴³ ‘There is no sound tree that produces rotten fruit, nor again a rotten tree that produces sound fruit.

⁴⁴ For every tree can be told by its own fruit: people do not pick figs from thorns, nor gather grapes from brambles.

⁴⁵ A good man draws what is good from the store of goodness in his heart; a bad man draws what is bad from the store of badness. For a man’s words flow out of what fills his heart.

⁴⁶ ‘Why do you call me, “Lord, Lord” and not do what I say?

⁴⁷ ‘Everyone who comes to me and listens to my words and acts on them-I will show you what he is like.

⁴⁸ He is like the man who when he built his house dug, and dug deep, and laid the foundations on rock; when the river was in flood it bore down on that house but could not shake it, it was so well built.

⁴⁹ But the one who listens and does nothing is like the man who built his house on soil, with no foundations: as soon as the river bore down on it, it collapsed; and what a ruin that house became!’