What did Jesus say about Spiritual Poverty?

¹ “To the angel of the assembly in Ephesus write: “He who holds the seven stars in his right hand, he who walks among the seven golden lamp stands says these things:

² “I know your works, and your toil and perseverance, and that you can’t tolerate evil men, and have tested those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and found them false.

³ You have perseverance and have endured for my name’s sake, and have not grown weary.

⁴ But I have this against you, that you left your first love.

⁵ Remember therefore from where you have fallen, and repent and do the first works; or else I am coming to you swiftly, and will move your lamp stand out of its place, unless you repent.

⁶ But this you have, that you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.

⁷ He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies. To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of my God.

³ “Most certainly I tell you, unless one is born anew, he can’t see God’s Kingdom.”

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⁵ “Most certainly I tell you, unless one is born of water and Spirit, he can’t enter into God’s Kingdom.

⁶ That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

⁷ Don’t marvel that I said to you, ‘You must all be born anew.’

⁸ The wind blows where it wants to, and you hear its sound, but don’t know where it comes from and where it is going. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

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¹⁰ “Are you the teacher of Israel, and don’t understand these things?

¹¹ Most certainly I tell you, we speak that which we know and testify of that which we have seen, and you don’t receive our witness.

¹² If I told you earthly things and you don’t believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?

¹³ No one has ascended into heaven but he who descended out of heaven, the Son of Man, who is in heaven.

¹⁴ As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,

¹⁵ that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

¹⁶ For God so loved the world, that he gave his only born Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

¹⁷ For God didn’t send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through him.

¹⁸ He who believes in him is not judged. He who doesn’t believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only born Son of God.

¹⁹ This is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light, for their works were evil.

²⁰ For everyone who does evil hates the light and doesn’t come to the light, lest his works would be exposed.

²¹ But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his works may be revealed, that they have been done in God.”

⁷ “Give me a drink.”

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¹⁰ “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”

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¹³ “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again,

¹⁴ but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never thirst again; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”

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¹⁶ “Go, call your husband, and come here.”

¹⁷ “You said well, ‘I have no husband,’

¹⁸ for you have had five husbands; and he whom you now have is not your husband. This you have said truly.”

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²¹ “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.

²² You worship that which you don’t know. We worship that which we know; for salvation is from the Jews.

²³ But the hour comes, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such to be his worshipers.

²⁴ God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

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²⁶ “I am he, the one who speaks to you.”

³¹ “If you remain in my word, then you are truly my disciples.

³² You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”

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³⁴ “Most certainly I tell you, everyone who commits sin is the bondservant of sin.

³⁵ A bondservant doesn’t live in the house forever. A son remains forever.

³⁶ If therefore the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.

³⁷ I know that you are Abraham’s offspring, yet you seek to kill me, because my word finds no place in you.

³⁸ I say the things which I have seen with my Father; and you also do the things which you have seen with your father.”

³² “Most certainly, I tell you, it wasn’t Moses who gave you the bread out of heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread out of heaven.

³³ For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven and gives life to the world.”

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³⁵ “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will not be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

³⁶ But I told you that you have seen me, and yet you don’t believe.

³⁷ All those whom the Father gives me will come to me. He who comes to me I will in no way throw out.

³⁸ For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.

³⁹ This is the will of my Father who sent me, that of all he has given to me I should lose nothing, but should raise him up at the last day.

⁴⁰ This is the will of the one who sent me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him should have eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”

¹ “Then the Kingdom of Heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom.

² Five of them were foolish, and five were wise.

³ Those who were foolish, when they took their lamps, took no oil with them,

⁴ but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.

⁵ Now while the bridegroom delayed, they all slumbered and slept.

⁶ But at midnight there was a cry, ‘Behold! The bridegroom is coming! Come out to meet him!’

⁷ Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps.

⁸ The foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’

⁹ But the wise answered, saying, ‘What if there isn’t enough for us and you? You go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves.’

¹⁰ While they went away to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding feast, and the door was shut.

¹¹ Afterward the other virgins also came, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us.’

¹² But he answered, ‘Most certainly I tell you, I don’t know you.’

¹³ Watch therefore, for you don’t know the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.

¹¹ “A certain man had two sons.

¹² The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of your property.’ So he divided his livelihood between them.

¹³ Not many days after, the younger son gathered all of this together and traveled into a far country. There he wasted his property with riotous living.

¹⁴ When he had spent all of it, there arose a severe famine in that country, and he began to be in need.

¹⁵ He went and joined himself to one of the citizens of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed pigs.

¹⁶ He wanted to fill his belly with the pods that the pigs ate, but no one gave him any.

¹⁷ But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough to spare, and I’m dying with hunger!

¹⁸ I will get up and go to my father, and will tell him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight.

¹⁹ I am no more worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of your hired servants.”’

²⁰ “He arose and came to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was moved with compassion, and ran, fell on his neck, and kissed him.

²¹ The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’

²² “But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet.

²³ Bring the fattened calf, kill it, and let’s eat and celebrate;

²⁴ for this, my son, was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found.’ Then they began to celebrate.

²⁵ “Now his elder son was in the field. As he came near to the house, he heard music and dancing.

²⁶ He called one of the servants to him and asked what was going on.

²⁷ He said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and healthy.’

²⁸ But he was angry and would not go in. Therefore his father came out and begged him.

²⁹ But he answered his father, ‘Behold, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed a commandment of yours, but you never gave me a goat, that I might celebrate with my friends.

³⁰ But when this your son came, who has devoured your living with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him.’

³¹ “He said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.

³² But it was appropriate to celebrate and be glad, for this, your brother, was dead, and is alive again. He was lost, and is found.’”

³⁹ “Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the platter, but your inward part is full of extortion and wickedness.

⁴⁰ You foolish ones, didn’t he who made the outside make the inside also?

⁴¹ But give for gifts to the needy those things which are within, and behold, all things will be clean to you.

⁴² But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and every herb, but you bypass justice and God’s love. You ought to have done these, and not to have left the other undone.

⁴³ Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the best seats in the synagogues and the greetings in the marketplaces.

⁴⁴ Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like hidden graves, and the men who walk over them don’t know it.”

⁴⁶ “Woe to you lawyers also! For you load men with burdens that are difficult to carry, and you yourselves won’t even lift one finger to help carry those burdens.

⁴⁷ Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets, and your fathers killed them.

⁴⁸ So you testify and consent to the works of your fathers. For they killed them, and you build their tombs.

⁴⁹ Therefore also the wisdom of God said, ‘I will send to them prophets and apostles; and some of them they will kill and persecute,

⁵⁰ that the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation,

⁵¹ from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zachariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary.’ Yes, I tell you, it will be required of this generation.

⁵² Woe to you lawyers! For you took away the key of knowledge. You didn’t enter in yourselves, and those who were entering in, you hindered.”

¹⁶ “Woe to you, you blind guides, who say, ‘Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is obligated.’

¹⁷ You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that sanctifies the gold?

¹⁸ And, ‘Whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gift that is on it, he is obligated.’

¹⁹ You blind fools! For which is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifies the gift?

²⁰ He therefore who swears by the altar, swears by it and by everything on it.

²¹ He who swears by the temple, swears by it and by him who has been living in it.

²² He who swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God and by him who sits on it.

⁴ “This sickness is not to death, but for the glory of God, that God’s Son may be glorified by it.”

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⁷ “Let’s go into Judea again.”

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⁹ “Aren’t there twelve hours of daylight? If a man walks in the day, he doesn’t stumble, because he sees the light of this world.

¹⁰ But if a man walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light isn’t in him.”

¹¹ “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going so that I may awake him out of sleep.”

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¹⁴ “Lazarus is dead.

¹⁵ I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, so that you may believe. Nevertheless, let’s go to him.”