Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

The Lord an Abundant Helper.

The Sin of Partiality

2 My fellow believers, do not practice your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of partiality [toward people—show no favoritism, no prejudice, no snobbery]. ² For if a man comes into your ^[a]meeting place ^[b]wearing a gold ring and ^[c]fine clothes, and a poor man in dirty clothes also comes in, ³ and you pay special attention to the one who wears the ^[d]fine clothes, and say to him, “You sit here in this good seat,” and you tell the poor man, “You stand over there, or sit down [on the floor] by my footstool,” ⁴ have you not discriminated among yourselves, and become judges with wrong motives? ⁵ Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters: has not God chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and [as believers to be] heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him? ⁶ But you [in contrast] have dishonored the poor man. Is it not the rich who oppress and exploit you, and personally drag you into the courts of law? ⁷ Do they not blaspheme the ^[e]precious name [of Christ] by which you are called?

⁸ If, however, you are [really] fulfilling the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself [that is, if you have an unselfish concern for others and do things for their benefit]” you are doing well.^{(A) 9} But if you show partiality [prejudice, favoritism], you are committing sin and are convicted by the Law as offenders. ¹⁰ For whoever keeps the whole Law but stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of [breaking] all of it.

¹¹ For He who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery, but you murder, you have become ^[a]guilty of transgressing the [entire] Law.^{(A) 12} Speak and act [consistently] as people who are going to be judged by the law of liberty [that moral law that frees obedient Christians from the bondage of sin]. ¹³ For judgment will be merciless to one who has shown no mercy; but [to the one who has shown mercy] mercy triumphs [victoriously] over judgment.

Faith and Works

¹⁴ What is the benefit, my fellow believers, if someone claims to have faith but has no [good] works [as evidence]? Can that [kind of] faith save him? [No, a mere claim of faith is not sufficient—genuine faith produces good works.] ¹⁵ If a brother or sister is without [adequate] clothing and lacks [enough] food for each day, ¹⁶ and one of you says to them, “Go in peace [with my blessing], [keep] warm and feed yourselves,” but he does not give them the necessities for the body, what good does that do? ¹⁷ So too, faith, if it does not have works [to back it up], is by itself dead [inoperative and ineffective].

The Syrophoenician Woman

²⁴ Jesus got up and left there and went to the region of Tyre [and Sidon, the coastal area of Phoenicia]. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know about it; but it was impossible for Him to be hidden [from the public].^{(A) 25} Instead, after hearing about Him, a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately came and fell at His feet. ²⁶ Now the woman was a Gentile (Greek), a ^[a]Syrophoenician by nationality. And she kept pleading with Him to drive the demon out of her daughter. ²⁷ He was saying to her, “First let the children [of Israel] be fed, for it is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the ^[b]pet dogs (non-Jews).” ²⁸ But she replied, “Yes, Lord, but even the pet dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” ²⁹ And He said to her, “Because of this answer [reflecting your humility and faith], go [knowing that your request is granted]; the demon has left your daughter [permanently].” ³⁰ And returning to her home, she found the child lying on the couch [relaxed and resting], the demon having gone.

³¹ Soon after this Jesus left the region of Tyre, and passed through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, through the region of Decapolis [the ten Hellenistic cities]. ³² They brought to Him a man who was deaf and had difficulty speaking, and they begged Jesus to place His hand on him. ³³ Jesus, taking him aside by himself, away from the crowd, put His fingers into the man’s ears, and after spitting, He touched the man’s tongue [with the saliva]; ³⁴ and looking up to heaven, He sighed deeply and said to the man, “Ephphatha,” which [in Aramaic] means, “^[c]Be opened and released!” ³⁵ And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he began speaking plainly. ³⁶ Jesus commanded them not to tell anyone; but the more He ordered them, the more widely they continued to proclaim it. ³⁷ They were thoroughly astounded and completely overwhelmed, saying, “He has done everything well! He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak!”