looking back

⁶²Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow, and then looks back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”

¹³Brothers, I do not consider that I have already attained this. Instead, I do one thing: forgetting those things that are behind, and extending myself toward those things that are ahead,

²⁶And his wife, looking behind herself, was turned into a statue of salt.

¹⁸You need not call to mind the past, nor consider the things of antiquity. ¹⁹Behold, I am accomplishing new things. And presently, they will spring forth. With certainty, you will know them. I will make a way in the desert, and rivers in an impassible place.

⁵⁹Then he said to another, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father.” ⁶⁰And Jesus said to him: “Let the dead bury their dead. But you go and announce the kingdom of God.” ⁶¹And another said: “I will follow you, Lord. But permit me first to explain this to those of my house.”

¹⁰Do not be quickly moved to anger. For anger resides in the sinews of the foolish.

²¹For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of justice than, after acknowledging it, to turn away from that holy commandment which was handed on to them. ²²For the truth of the proverb has happened to them: The dog has returned to his own vomit, and the washed sow has returned to her wallowing in the mud.

²³For if anyone is a listener of the Word, but not also a doer, he is comparable to a man gazing into a mirror upon the face that he was born with; ²⁴and after considering himself, he went away and promptly forgot what he had seen. ²⁵But he who gazes upon the perfect law of liberty, and who remains in it, is not a forgetful hearer, but instead a doer of the work. He shall be blessed in what he does.

¹⁷So if anyone is a new creature in Christ, what is old has passed away. Behold, all things have been made new.

³²Remember Lot’s wife.

¹¹For I know the thoughts that I think over you, says the Lord: thoughts of peace and not of affliction, so that I may give you patience and an end.

¹⁴I pursue the destination, the prize of the heavenly calling of God in Christ Jesus.

¹In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word. ²He was with God in the beginning. ³All things were made through Him, and nothing that was made was made without Him. ⁴Life was in Him, and Life was the light of men. ⁵And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. ⁶There was a man sent by God, whose name was John.

²And do not choose to be conformed to this age, but instead choose to be reformed in the newness of your mind, so that you may demonstrate what is the will of God: what is good, and what is well-pleasing, and what is perfect.

¹²Let no one despise your youth, but be an example among the faithful in word, in behavior, in charity, in faith, in chastity.