M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

He forbids them to have any respect of persons, but to regard the poor as well as the rich, to be loving and merciful, and not to boast of faith where no deeds are. For it is but a dead faith where good works do not follow.

2 Brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, in respect of persons. ² If there comes into your company a man with a golden ring and in goodly apparel, and there comes in also a poor man in wretched clothing, ³ and you have a respect to him who wears the fine clothing, and say to him, Sit here in a good place, but say to the poor, Stand there, or, Sit here by my footstool, ⁴ are you not partial among yourselves, and have judged after evil thoughts?

⁵ Hearken, my dear beloved brethren. Has not God chosen the poor of this world, who are rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom that he promised to those who love him? ⁶ But you have dishonoured the poor. Are not the rich those who oppress you, and who draw you before judges? ⁷ Do they not speak evil of that good name after which you are named?

⁸ If you fulfil the royal law according to the scripture that says, You shall love your neighbour as yourself – you do well. ⁹ But if you regard one person more than another, you commit sin, and are rebuked by the law as transgressors. ¹⁰ Whoever keeps the whole law, and yet fails in one point, is guilty in all. ¹¹ For he who said: You shall not commit adultery, said also: You shall not kill. Though you commit no adultery, yet if you kill, you are a transgressor of the law.

¹² So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty. ¹³ For there will be judgment merciless to him who shows no mercy. But mercy triumphs over judgment.

¹⁴ What avails it, my brethren, though a person say he has faith, when he has no deeds? Can faith save him? ¹⁵ If a brother or a sister is without proper clothing, or destitute of daily food, ¹⁶ and one of you says to them, Depart in peace; may God send you warmth and food – and notwithstanding, you do not give them those things that are needful to the body, what help is it? ¹⁷ Even so faith, if it has no deeds, is dead in itself.

¹⁸ Yea, and someone might say, You have faith, and I have deeds; show me your faith by your deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. ¹⁹ Do you believe that there is one God? You do well. The devils also believe, and tremble.

²⁰ Will you understand, O vain man, that faith without deeds is dead? ²¹ Was not Abraham our father justified through works when he offered Isaac his son upon the altar? ²² You see that faith operated with his deeds, and through the deeds, the faith was made perfect. ²³ And the scripture was fulfilled that says: Abraham believed God, and it was reputed to him for righteousness. And he was called the friend of God.  ²⁴ You see then how by deeds a man is justified, and not by faith only. ²⁵ Likewise also, was not Rahab the harlot justified through works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way?

²⁶ For as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without deeds is dead.

Jesus is led into the wilderness and fasts all the time of his temptation. He overcomes the devil, and goes into Galilee to preach. At Nazareth the Jews despise him. In Capernaum the devils recognize and identify him, he enters Peter’s house and heals his mother-in-law, and does great miracles.

4 Jesus, then full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan, and was carried by the Spirit ² into the wilderness, and was for forty days tempted by the devil. And during those days he ate nothing. And when they were ended, he was afterwards hungered. ³ And the devil said to him, If you are the Son of God, command this stone to be made bread. ⁴ And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written: Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.

⁵ And the devil took him up into a high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world, even in the twinkling of an eye. ⁶ And the devil said to him, All this power I will give you, every whit, and the glory of these kingdoms. For it has been delivered to me, and to whomever I wish, I give it. ⁷ If you therefore will worship me, they shall all be yours.

⁸ Jesus answered him and said, Away from me, Satan! For it is written: You shall honour the Lord your God, and him only serve.

⁹ And the devil carried him to Jerusalem, and set him on a pinnacle of the temple and said to him, If you are the Son of God, cast yourself down from here. ¹⁰ For it is written: He will give his angels charge over you, to keep you, ¹¹ and with their hands they will hold you up so that you do not dash your foot against a stone.

¹² Jesus answered and said to him, It is said: You shall not tempt the Lord your God.

¹³ And as soon as the devil had ended all his temptations, he departed from him for a season.

¹⁴ Jesus returned by the power of the Spirit into Galilee, and there went a renown of him throughout all the region round about. ¹⁵ And he taught in their synagogues, and was commended by all.

¹⁶ And he went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and as his custom was, went into the synagogue on the Sabbath days, and stood up to read. ¹⁷ And there was delivered to him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when he had opened the scroll, he found the place where it was written: ¹⁸ The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me. To preach the gospel to the poor he has sent me, and to heal the broken-hearted; to preach deliverance to the captive, and sight to the blind, and freely to set at liberty those who are bruised, ¹⁹ and to preach the favoured year of the Lord.

²⁰ And he rolled up the scroll and returned it to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. ²¹ And he began and said to them, This day this scripture is fulfilled in your ears.

²² And they all witnessed him, and wondered at the gracious words that proceeded out of his mouth, and said, Is this not Joseph’s son?

²³ And he said to them, You may very well say to me this maxim: Physician, heal thyself; the things that we heard were done in Capernaum, do the same here likewise in your own country.

²⁴ And he said, Truly I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own country. ²⁵ But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when heaven was shut for three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land; ²⁶ but to none of them was Elijah sent save into Sarepta, a city of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. ²⁷ And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and yet none of them was healed except Naaman of Syria.

²⁸ And as many as were in the synagogue, when they heard that, were filled with wrath. ²⁹ And they rose up and thrust him out of the city, and led him even to the edge of the hill on which their town was built, to cast him down headlong. ³⁰ But he went his way even through the midst of them, ³¹ and descended into Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and there taught them on the Sabbath days. ³² And they were astonished at his instruction, for his preaching was with power.

³³ And in the synagogue there was a man who had a spirit of an unclean devil, who cried with a loud voice, saying, ³⁴ Let me alone! What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know you, who you are: even the Holy One of God.

³⁵ And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold your peace and come out of him! And the devil threw the man in the midst of them and came out of him, and did not hurt him.

³⁶ And fear came on them all, and they spoke among themselves, saying, What manner of thing is this? For with authority and power he commands the foul spirits, and they come out. ³⁷ And the news of him spread abroad through all places of the country round about.

³⁸ And he rose up and departed from the synagogue, and entered into Simon’s house. And Simon’s mother-in-law was taken with a great fever, and they made intercession to him for her. ³⁹ And he stood over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her. And immediately she arose and ministered to them.

⁴⁰ When the sun was down, all the people that had sick folk taken with different diseases brought them to him, and he laid his hands on every one of them and healed them. ⁴¹ And devils also came out of many of them, crying out and saying, You are Christ, the Son of God!

But he rebuked the devils, and would not permit them to speak, for they knew that he was Christ.

⁴² As soon as it was day, he departed and went away into an isolated place. And the people sought him out and came to him, and kept him from leaving them. ⁴³ But he said to them, I must preach the kingdom of God to other places also, for that is why I have been sent.

⁴⁴ And he preached in the synagogues of Galilee.