Book of Common Prayer

He labours to draw them away from circumcision. He shows them the battle between the Spirit and the flesh, and the fruits of them both.

5 Stand fast therefore in the liberty whereby Christ has made us free, and do not wrap yourselves again in a yoke of bondage. ² Behold, I Paul say to you that if you are circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing at all. ³ I testify again to every man who gets circumcised that he is bound to keep the whole law. ⁴ You are gone quite from Christ, as many of you as would be justified by the law, and are fallen from grace. ⁵ We look for and hope in the Spirit to be justified through faith. ⁶ For in Jesus Christ neither is circumcision worth anything, nor yet uncircumcision, but faith, which by love is mighty in operation.

⁷ You were running well. Who got in your way, that you should not follow the truth? ⁸ This counsel is not of him who called you. ⁹ A little leaven does leaven the whole lump of dough.

¹⁰ I am confident of you in the Lord, that you will not be otherwise minded. He who troubles you will bear his judgment, whoever he is. ¹¹ Brethren, if I still preach circumcision, why do I then yet suffer persecution? For then the offence that the cross gives is put away. ¹² I would to God they were separated from you, those who trouble you.

¹³ Brethren, you were called into liberty – only let not your liberty be an occasion for the flesh, but in love serve one another. ¹⁴ For all the law is fulfilled in one word, which is this: You shall love your neighbour as yourself. ¹⁵ If you bite and devour one another, take heed lest you be consumed by one another.

The Pharisees seek a sign. Jesus warns his disciples of the Pharisees’ doctrine. Peter’s confession. The keys of heaven. The faithful must bear their cross after Christ.

16 Then the Pharisees and Sadducees came and tempted Jesus, asking him to show them some sign from heaven. ² He answered and said to them, At evening you say the weather will be fair, and that because the sky is red; ³ and in the morning you say it will be bad weather today, and that because the sky is cloudy and red. O ye hypocrites, you can discern the aspect of the sky, and can you not discern the signs of the times? ⁴ The froward and adulterous nation seeks a sign, but no other sign shall be given to them than the sign of the prophet Jonah.

So he left them, and departed.

⁵ And when his disciples had come to the other side of the water, they had forgotten to take bread with them. ⁶ Then Jesus said to them, Take heed, and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. ⁷ And they thought in themselves, saying, It is because we have brought no bread with us.

⁸ When Jesus understood this, he said to them, O ye of little faith, why are your minds cumbered because you have brought no bread? ⁹ Do you not yet perceive? Nor remember those five loaves when there were 5,000 men, and how many baskets you took up? ¹⁰ Nor the seven loaves when there were 4,000, and how many baskets you took up? ¹¹ Why do you not perceive then that I was not speaking to you about bread when I said to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees?

¹² Then they understood that he was not telling them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.