Book of Common Prayer

5 Christ has made us really free. So, stay free! Do not let yourselves be made slaves again.

² I, Paul, say to you again that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ is no help to you at all.

³ Again I say to every man who is circumcised, he must obey all the law.

⁴ Some of you are trying to obey the law, so that God will call you good. If you do this, you have been cut off from Christ. You have lost the blessing of God.

⁵ But we hope to be made right by believing in Christ. The Spirit helps us to do this.

⁶ So if a man belongs to Christ Jesus, it does not matter if he is circumcised or not. He must show by his love that he believes.

⁷ You were doing well. Who stopped you from doing what is right?

⁸ God calls you but he is not the one who made you change your minds.

⁹ Even a little yeast makes all the bread rise.

¹⁰ The Lord makes me sure that you will not think any other way. But the teacher who is troubling your minds will be punished. It does not matter who he is.

¹¹ My brothers, am I still telling people to be circumcised? If I am, why are people still troubling me? If it were true, the cross of Christ, which they do not like, has lost its power.

¹² These teachers are troubling your minds. How I wish they would cut themselves off!

¹³ You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not take that to mean that you can do as you please. But work for each other because you love each other.

¹⁴ This one law is the whole law: `Love your neighbour as you love yourself.'

¹⁵ But if you bite and chew each other, be careful, or you will be killed by each other.

16 The Pharisees and Sadducees came to Jesus. They wanted to test him, so they asked him to show them a sign from the sky.

² He answered them, `In the evening you say, "It will be a nice day tomorrow because the sky is red."

³ In the morning you say, "It will be a stormy day, because the sky is red and there are clouds." You know the meaning of these signs in the sky. But you do not know the meaning of the signs about the time in which we are living.

⁴ People today are wrong. They have gone away from God. They want a sign. No sign will be given them but the sign of Jonah.' Then Jesus went away and left them.

⁵ When the disciples reached the other side of the sea, they found they had forgotten to bring any bread with them.

⁶ Jesus said, `Watch! Do not let the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees spoil you.'

⁷ The disciples said to each other, `He said that because we did not bring any bread.'

⁸ Jesus knew what they were saying. He said to them, `You don't believe very much in me. Why are you saying to each other, "We have no bread".

⁹ Do you not yet understand? When there were five thousand people, there were only five loaves of bread. Do you not remember how many baskets full of pieces you gathered up?

¹⁰ When there were four thousand people, there were only seven loaves. Do you not remember how many baskets full of pieces you gathered up?

¹¹ Why do you not understand that I was not talking about bread? Take care. Do not let the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees spoil you.'

¹² Then they understood that he was not talking about bread. He did not mean that the yeast of bread would spoil them. They understood that he was talking about the things the Pharisees and Sadducees taught.