Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Beware of divisions!
10 Now I must appeal to you, my brothers and sisters, through the name of Messiah Jesus our Lord, that you should all be in agreement, and that there should be no divisions among you. Instead, you should be fully equipped with the same mind and the same opinion.
11 You see, my dear family, Chloe’s people have put me in the picture about you—about the fact that you are having quarrels. 12 What I’m talking about is this. Each one of you is saying, “I’m with Paul!” “I’m with Apollos!” “I’m with Cephas!” “I’m with the Messiah!”
13 Well! Has the Messiah been cut up into pieces? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized into Paul’s name?! 14 I’m grateful to God that I didn’t baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius, 15 so that none of you could say that you were baptized into my name. 16 (All right, I did baptize Stephanas and his household as well. Apart from that, I don’t know if I baptized anybody else.) 17 This is the point, you see: the Messiah didn’t send me to baptize; he sent me to announce the gospel! Not with words of wisdom, either, otherwise the Messiah’s cross would lose its power.
God’s folly
18 The word of the cross, you see, is madness to people who are being destroyed. But to us—those who are being saved—it is God’s power.
Announcing the kingdom
12 When Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he went off to Galilee. 13 He left Nazareth, and went to live at Capernaum, a small town by the sea in the region of Zebulon and Naphtali. 14 This happened so that the word spoken through Isaiah the prophet might come true:
15 The land of Zebulon and the land of Naphtali,
the road by the sea, beyond the Jordan,
Galilee, land of the nations:
16 the people who sat in the dark saw a great light;
light dawned on those who sat in the shadowy land of death.
17 From that time on Jesus began to make his proclamation.
“Repent!” he would say. “The kingdom of heaven is arriving!”
Jesus calls the disciples
18 As Jesus was walking beside the sea of Galilee he saw two brothers, Simon (also called Peter) and Andrew his brother. They were fishermen, and were casting nets into the sea.
19 “Follow me!” said Jesus. “I’ll make you fish for people!”
20 Straight away they abandoned their nets and followed him.
21 He went on further, and saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother. They were in the boat, mending their nets, with Zebedee their father. He called them. 22 At once they left the boat, and their father, and followed him.
23 He went on through the whole of Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, healing every disease and every illness among the people.
Scripture quotations from The New Testament for Everyone are copyright © Nicholas Thomas Wright 2011, 2018, 2019.