M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Humility and danger
18 At that time the disciples came to Jesus.
“So, then,” they said, “who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”
2 Jesus called a child and stood her in the middle of them.
3 “I’m telling you the truth,” he said. “Unless you turn inside out and become like children, you will never, ever, get into the kingdom of heaven. 4 So if any of you make yourselves humble like this child, you will be great in the kingdom of heaven. 5 And if anyone welcomes one such child in my name, they welcome me.
6 “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to trip up,” he went on, “it would be better for them to have a huge millstone hung around their neck and be drowned far out in the deep sea. 7 It’s a terrible thing for the world that people will be made to stumble. Obstacles are bound to appear and trip people up, but it will be terrible for the person who makes them come.”
More about the “little ones”
8 “But if your hand or your foot causes you to trip up,” Jesus continued, “cut it off and throw it away. It’s better to enter into life crippled or lame than to go into eternal fire with both hands and both feet! 9 And if your eye causes you to trip up, pull it out and throw it away. Going into life with one eye is better than going into hell with two!
10 “Take care not to despise one of these little ones. I tell you this: in heaven, their angels are always gazing on the face of my father who lives there.
12 “How does it seem to you? If someone has a hundred sheep and one of them wanders off and goes missing, what will he do? He’ll leave the ninety-nine on the hillside and go off after the one that’s missing, won’t he? 13 And when, eventually, he finds it, I’ll tell you the truth: he will celebrate over that one more than over the ninety-nine who didn’t go missing! 14 It’s the same with your father in heaven. The last thing he wants is for a single one of these little ones to be lost.”
Reconciliation and prayer in the community
15 “If another disciple sins against you,” Jesus continued, “go and have it out, just between the two of you alone. If they listen to you, you’ve won back a brother or sister. 16 But if they won’t listen, you should take with you one or two others, so that ‘everything may be established from the mouth of two or three witnesses.’ 17 If they won’t listen to them, tell it to the assembly. And if they won’t listen to the assembly, you should treat such a person like you would a Gentile or a tax-collector. 18 I’m telling you the truth: whatever you tie up on earth will have been tied up in heaven; and whatever you untie on earth will have been untied in heaven.
19 “Again, let me tell you the truth: if two of you come to an agreement on earth about any matter that you want to ask, it will be done for you by my father in heaven. 20 Yes: where two or three come together in my name, I’ll be there amongst them.”
The challenge of forgiveness
21 Then Peter came to Jesus.
“Master,” he said, “how many times must I forgive my brother when he sins against me? As many as seven times?”
22 “I wouldn’t say seven times,” replied Jesus. “Why not—seventy times seven?
23 “So, you see,” he went on, “the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle up accounts with his servants. 24 As he was beginning to sort it all out, one man was brought before him who owed ten thousand talents. 25 He had no means of paying it back, so the master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and everything he possessed, and payment to be made.
26 “So the servant fell down and prostrated himself before the master.
“ ‘Be patient with me,’ he said, ‘and I’ll pay you everything!’
27 “The master was very sorry for the servant, and let him off. He forgave him the loan.
28 “But that servant went out and found one of his fellow-servants, who owed him a hundred dinars. He seized him and began to throttle him. ‘Pay me back what you owe me!’ he said.
29 “The colleague fell down and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I’ll pay you!’
30 “But he refused, and went and threw him into prison until he could pay the debt.
31 “So when his fellow-servants saw what had happened, they were very upset. They went and informed their master about the whole affair. 32 Then his master summoned him.
“ ‘You’re a scoundrel of a servant!’ he said to him. ‘I let you off the whole debt, because you begged me to. 33 Shouldn’t you have taken pity on your colleague, like I took pity on you?’
34 “His master was angry, and handed him over to the torturers, until he had paid the whole debt. 35 And that’s what my heavenly father will do to you, unless each of you forgives your brother or sister from your heart.”
A year in Corinth
18 After this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. 2 There he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently arrived from Italy with Priscilla his wife, due to Claudius’s edict banishing all Jews from Rome. Paul paid them a visit 3 and, because they were in the same business, he stayed with them and worked. They were, by trade, tentmakers.
4 Paul argued every sabbath in the synagogue, and persuaded both Jews and Greeks. 5 When Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul was putting great energy into the task of bearing forthright witness to the Jews that the Messiah really was Jesus. 6 When they opposed him, and blasphemed, he shook out his clothes.
“Your blood be on your own heads!” he said. “I am innocent. From now on I shall go to the Gentiles.”
7 He moved on from the synagogue, and went into the house of a man named Titius Justus, a godfearer who lived opposite the synagogue. 8 But Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Lord, with all his household, and many of the Corinthians heard about it, came to faith, and were baptized.
9 The Lord spoke to Paul by night in a vision.
“Don’t be afraid,” he said. “Speak on, and don’t be silent, 10 because I am with you, and nobody will be able to lay a finger on you to harm you. There are many of my people in this city.”
11 He stayed there eighteen months, teaching the word of God among them.
Christianity declared legal in Achaea
12 When Gallio was proconsul of Achaea, the Jews made a concerted attack on Paul, and led him to the official tribunal.
13 “This man,” they said, “is teaching people to worship God in illegal ways.”
14 Paul was getting ready to speak when Gallio intervened.
“Look here, you Jews,” he said to them. “If this was a matter of serious wrongdoing or some wicked villainy, I would receive your plea in the proper way. 15 But if this is a dispute about words, names and laws within your own customs, you can sort it out among yourselves. I don’t intend to be a judge in such matters.”
16 Then he dismissed them from the tribunal. 17 But the crowd seized Sosthenes, the ruler of the synagogue, and beat him right there in front of the tribunal. Gallio, however, totally ignored this.
Apollos in Ephesus and Corinth
18 Paul stayed on for several more days with the Christians, and then said his farewells and sailed away to Syria, taking Priscilla and Aquila with him. In Cenchreae he had his hair cut off, since he was under a vow. 19 When they arrived at Ephesus he left them there, while he himself went into the synagogue and disputed with the Jews. 20 When they asked him to stay with them for a longer time, he refused, 21 and took his leave.
“I will come back to you again,” he said, “if that’s God’s will.”
So he left Ephesus, 22 and went to Caesarea. Then he went up to Jerusalem, greeted the church, and went back to Antioch. 23 When he had spent some time there, he went off again and traveled from one place to another throughout the region of Galatia and Phrygia, encouraging all the disciples.
24 Now there arrived in Ephesus a Jew named Apollos, who came from Alexandria. He was an eloquent man, and powerful when it came to expounding scripture. 25 He had received instruction in the Way of the Lord. He was an enthusiastic speaker, and taught the things about Jesus accurately, even though he only knew the baptism of John. 26 He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him to one side and expounded the Way of God to him more accurately.
27 He wanted to go across to Achaea. The Christians in Ephesus, by way of encouragement, wrote letters to the church there to welcome him. On his arrival, his work made a considerable impact, through God’s grace, on the believers, 28 since he openly and powerfully refuted the Jews by demonstrating from the scriptures that the Messiah really was Jesus.
Scripture quotations from The New Testament for Everyone are copyright © Nicholas Thomas Wright 2011, 2018, 2019.