But other people are like seeds sown in good soil. They hear the message, accept it, and bear fruit: some thirty, some sixty, and some one hundred."

The LORD says, "Shout as loud as you can! Tell my people Israel about their sins!

My message is like a fire and like a hammer that breaks rocks in pieces.

But some seeds fell in good soil, and the plants bore grain: some had one hundred grains, others sixty, and others thirty."

And the seeds sown in the good soil stand for those who hear the message and understand it: they bear fruit, some as much as one hundred, others sixty, and others thirty."

And some seeds fell in good soil; the plants grew and bore grain, one hundred grains each." And Jesus concluded, "Listen, then, if you have ears!"

The seeds that fell in good soil stand for those who hear the message and retain it in a good and obedient heart, and they persist until they bear fruit.

Some, however, did receive him and believed in him; so he gave them the right to become God's children.

They did not become God's children by natural means, that is, by being born as the children of a human father; God himself was their Father.

This is how the judgment works: the light has come into the world, but people love the darkness rather than the light, because their deeds are evil.

But those who do what is true come to the light in order that the light may show that what they did was in obedience to God.

Whoever is willing to do what God wants will know whether what I teach comes from God or whether I speak on my own authority.

"I am the vine, and you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will bear much fruit; for you can do nothing without me.

The people there were more open-minded than the people in Thessalonica. They listened to the message with great eagerness, and every day they studied the Scriptures to see if what Paul said was really true.

The gospel keeps bringing blessings and is spreading throughout the world, just as it has among you ever since the day you first heard about the grace of God and came to know it as it really is.

Now, God has offered us the promise that we may receive that rest he spoke about. Let us take care, then, that none of you will be found to have failed to receive that promised rest.

For we have heard the Good News, just as they did. They heard the message, but it did them no good, because when they heard it, they did not accept it with faith.

Remember this, my dear friends! Everyone must be quick to listen, but slow to speak and slow to become angry.

So get rid of every filthy habit and all wicked conduct. Submit to God and accept the word that he plants in your hearts, which is able to save you.

Rid yourselves, then, of all evil; no more lying or hypocrisy or jealousy or insulting language.

As the scripture says, "You have found out for yourselves how kind the Lord is."

Isaac sowed crops in that land, and that year he harvested a hundred times as much as he had sown, because the LORD blessed him.

Your lives will be filled with the truly good qualities which only Jesus Christ can produce, for the glory and praise of God.