Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

2 My brothers, you believe in our Lord, the wonderful Jesus Christ. So you must not think one man is better than another.

² A man comes in to your church meeting. He has a gold ring and wears fine clothes. A poor man also comes in. He wears old clothes.

³ You look at the man who wears fine clothes. And you say to him, `Sit here on this good chair.' But you say to the poor man, `Stand over there,' or you say, `Sit on the floor by my feet.'

⁴ If you do these things, you think some people are better than others. You are wrong when you judge people this way.

⁵ Listen, my dear brothers. God has chosen people who are poor in this world. They believe very much. They will have a place in the kingdom which he has promised to give to those who love him.

⁶ But you made the poor man ashamed. Is it not the rich people who trouble you? Are not they the ones who take you to court?

⁷ Are not they the ones who say wrong things about the good name you have?

⁸ The holy writings say, `Love your neighbour as you love yourself.' If you obey this law of your King you do well.

⁹ But if you think one man is better than another, that is wrong. The law says you are a bad person.

¹⁰ Anyone who obeys the law, but then breaks one of the laws, has broken all the laws.

¹¹ God made the law, `Do not use sex wrongly.' God also made the law, `Do not kill'. If you do not have wrong sex, but you kill, you have broken the law.

¹² There is a law that makes people free. It is the law of showing kindness. Always talk and live like men who will be judged by that law.

¹³ When God judges, he will not be kind to a person who has not been kind. It is better to be kind than it is to judge people.

¹⁴ My brothers, perhaps a man says, `I believe.' What good is that if he does not do anything? Can just believing save him?

¹⁵ Perhaps a brother or a sister needs clothes and has no food.

¹⁶ Perhaps one of you says to them, `God bless you. Be warm. Eat all you want.' But what good is that if you do not give them what they need for their bodies?

¹⁷ Believing is like that. If it does not do anything it is no good. Belief by itself is dead.

²⁴ Right away a woman heard of him. She came and kneeled down before him. Her daughter had a bad spirit in her.

²⁵ The woman was not a Jew and had been born in the country of Phoenicia in Syria. She begged Jesus to drive the bad spirit out of her daughter.

²⁶ But Jesus said to her, `We will give the children all they want to eat first. It is not right to take the children's food and give it to the little dogs.'

²⁷ She answered, `Yes, Sir. But even the little dogs under the table eat food that falls from the children's table.'

²⁸ Jesus said to her, `Because you have said this, you may go home. The bad spirit has gone out of your daughter.'

²⁹ When she came to her house, she found that the bad spirit had left. Her daughter was lying on the bed.

³⁰ Jesus went away from Tyre and Sidon and came to the sea of Galilee. He passed through the country of the Ten Towns.

³¹ The people brought a man to Jesus who could not hear and could not talk well. They begged Jesus to put his hand on him.

³² So Jesus took him away alone. He put his fingers in the man's ears. Then he spat and touched the man's tongue.

³³ He looked up to heaven and sighed. He said, `Ephphatha!' That means, `Be opened!'

³⁴ Right away the man's ears were opened and his tongue was made free. He could talk well.

³⁵ Jesus said, `Do not tell anyone.' But the more he told them not to tell, the more they told it everywhere.

³⁶ The people were very much surprised. They said, `He has done everything well. The people who could not hear can hear. The people who could not talk can talk.'