| 1Then Jesus told them a parable about the need to pray at all times and not lose heart. 2He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. 3There was also a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ 4For a while he would not do so, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, 5yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not wear me out by continually coming to me.’ ” 6Then the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. 7And will not God surely bring about justice to his chosen ones who cry out to him day and night, while also being patient with them? 8I tell you that he will bring about justice for them quickly. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” 9He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and who regarded others with contempt: 10“Two men went up to the temple to pray. One was a Pharisee and the other was a tax collector. 11The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed like this: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people: swindlers, unrighteous, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12I fast twice a week, and I give tithes of all that I get.’ 13But the tax collector stood at a distance and would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ 14I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.” |
