Book of Common Prayer

The coming of faith

²³ Before this faithfulness arrived, we were kept under guard by the law, in close confinement until the coming faithfulness should be revealed. ²⁴ Thus the law was like a babysitter for us, looking after us until the coming of the Messiah, so that we might be given covenant membership on the basis of faithfulness.

²⁵ But now that faithfulness has come, we are no longer under the rule of the babysitter. ²⁶ For you are all children of God, through faith, in the Messiah, Jesus.

²⁷ You see, every one of you who has been baptized into the Messiah has put on the Messiah. ²⁸ There is no longer Jew or Greek; there is no longer slave or free; there is no “male and female”; you are all one in the Messiah, Jesus.

²⁹ And, if you belong to the Messiah, you are Abraham’s family. You stand to inherit the promise.

The son and the spirit

4 Let me put it like this. As long as the heir is a child, he is no different from a slave—even if, in fact, he is master of everything! ² He is kept under guardians and stewards until the time set by his father.

³ Well, it’s like that with us. When we were children, we were kept in “slavery” under the “elements of the world.” ⁴ But when the fullness of time arrived, God sent out his son, born of a woman, born under the law, ⁵ so that he might redeem those under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.

⁶ And, because you are sons, God sent out the spirit of his son into our hearts, calling out “Abba, Father!” ⁷ So you are no longer a slave, but a son! And, if you’re a son, you are an heir, through God.

The true God and the false gods

⁸ However, at that stage you didn’t know God, and so you were enslaved to beings that, in their proper nature, are not gods. ⁹ But now that you’ve come to know God—or, better, to be known by God—how can you turn back again to that weak and poverty-stricken line-up of elements that you want to serve all over again? ¹⁰ You are observing days, and months, and seasons, and years! ¹¹ I am afraid for you; perhaps my hard work with you is all going to be wasted.

Discussions of clean and unclean

15 At that time some Pharisees and scribes came from Jerusalem to Jesus. They had a question for him.

² “Why,” they said, “do your disciples go against the tradition of the elders? They don’t wash their hands when they eat their food!”

³ “Why,” Jesus replied, “do you go against the command of God because of your tradition? ⁴ What God said was ‘Honor your father and mother’ and ‘If anyone speaks evil of father or mother, they must certainly die.’ ⁵ But you say, ‘If anyone says to father or mother, “What you might have gained from me is given to God,” ⁶ they don’t need to honor their father anymore.’ As a result, you make God’s word null and void because of your tradition.

⁷ “You play-actors! Isaiah had the right words for you in his prophecy:

The parable of clean and unclean

¹⁰ Then Jesus called the crowd, and said to them, “Listen and understand. ¹¹ What makes someone unclean isn’t what goes into the mouth. It’s what comes out of the mouth that makes someone unclean.”

¹² Then the disciples came to Jesus.

“Do you know,” they said, “that the Pharisees were horrified when they heard what you said?”

¹³ “Every plant that my heavenly father hasn’t planted,” replied Jesus, “will be plucked up by the roots. ¹⁴ Let them be. They are blind guides. But if one blind person guides another, both of them will fall into a pit.”

¹⁵ Peter spoke up. “Explain the riddle to us,” he said.

¹⁶ “Are you still slow on the uptake as well?” replied Jesus. ¹⁷ “Don’t you understand that whatever goes into the mouth travels on into the stomach and goes out into the drain? ¹⁸ But what comes out of the mouth begins in the heart, and that’s what makes someone unclean. ¹⁹ Out of the heart, you see, come evil plots, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, and blasphemy. ²⁰ These are the things that make someone unclean. But eating with unwashed hands doesn’t make a person unclean.”