Scripture Reading

¹⁰Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.

¹¹I am become a fool in glorying; ye have compelled me: for I ought to have been commended of you: for in nothing am I behind the very chiefest apostles, though I be nothing.

¹²Truly the signs of an apostle were wrought among you in all patience, in signs, and wonders, and mighty deeds.

¹³For what is it wherein ye were inferior to other churches, except it be that I myself was not burdensome to you? forgive me this wrong.

¹⁴Behold, the third time I am ready to come to you; and I will not be burdensome to you: for I seek not yours, but you: for the children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children.

¹⁵And I will very gladly spend and be spent for you; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved.

¹⁶But be it so, I did not burden you: nevertheless, being crafty, I caught you with guile.

¹⁷Did I make a gain of you by any of them whom I sent unto you?

¹⁸I desired Titus, and with him I sent a brother. Did Titus make a gain of you? walked we not in the same spirit? walked we not in the same steps?

¹⁹Again, think ye that we excuse ourselves unto you? we speak before God in Christ: but we do all things, dearly beloved, for your edifying.

¹⁰And when he was alone, they that were about him with the twelve asked of him the parable.

¹¹And he said unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables:

¹²That seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest at any time they should be converted, and their sins should be forgiven them.

¹³And he said unto them, Know ye not this parable? and how then will ye know all parables?

¹⁴The sower soweth the word.

¹⁵And these are they by the way side, where the word is sown; but when they have heard, Satan cometh immediately, and taketh away the word that was sown in their hearts.

¹⁶And these are they likewise which are sown on stony ground; who, when they have heard the word, immediately receive it with gladness;

¹⁷And have no root in themselves, and so endure but for a time: afterward, when affliction or persecution ariseth for the word’s sake, immediately they are offended.

¹⁸And these are they which are sown among thorns; such as hear the word,

¹⁹And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful.

²⁰And these are they which are sown on good ground; such as hear the word, and receive it, and bring forth fruit, some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some an hundred.

²¹And he said unto them, Is a candle brought to be put under a bushel, or under a bed? and not to be set on a candlestick?

²²For there is nothing hid, which shall not be manifested; neither was any thing kept secret, but that it should come abroad.

²³If any man have ears to hear, let him hear.