Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

¹⁵ “Instead, he will raise up for you a prophet like me, an Israeli, a man to whom you must listen and whom you must obey. ¹⁶ For this is what you yourselves begged of God at Mount Horeb. There at the foot of the mountain you begged that you might not have to listen to the terrifying voice of God again, or see the awesome fire on the mountain, lest you die.

¹⁷ “‘All right,’ the Lord said to me, ‘I will do as they have requested. ¹⁸ I will raise up from among them a prophet, an Israeli like you. I will tell him what to say, and he shall be my spokesman to the people. ¹⁹ I will personally deal with anyone who will not listen to him and heed his messages from me. ²⁰ But any prophet who falsely claims that his message is from me shall die. And any prophet who claims to give a message from other gods must die.’

111 ^1-2 Hallelujah! I want to express publicly before his people my heartfelt thanks to God for his mighty miracles. All who are thankful should ponder them with me. ³ For his miracles demonstrate his honor, majesty, and eternal goodness.

⁴ Who can forget the wonders he performs—deeds of mercy and of grace? ⁵ He gives food to those who trust him; he never forgets his promises. ⁶ He has shown his great power to his people by giving them the land of Israel, though it was the home of many nations living there. ⁷ All he does is just and good, and all his laws are right, ⁸ for they are formed from truth and goodness and stand firm forever. ⁹ He has paid a full ransom for his people; now they are always free to come to Jehovah (what a holy, awe-inspiring name that is).

¹⁰ How can men be wise? The only way to begin is by reverence for God. For growth in wisdom comes from obeying his laws. Praise his name forever.

8 Next is your question about eating food that has been sacrificed to idols. On this question everyone feels that only his answer is the right one! But although being a “know-it-all” makes us feel important, what is really needed to build the church is love. ² If anyone thinks he knows all the answers, he is just showing his ignorance. ³ But the person who truly loves God is the one who is open to God’s knowledge.

⁴ So now, what about it? Should we eat meat that has been sacrificed to idols? Well, we all know that an idol is not really a god, and that there is only one God, and no other. ⁵ According to some people, there are a great many gods, both in heaven and on earth. ⁶ But we know that there is only one God, the Father, who created all things^[a] and made us to be his own; and one Lord Jesus Christ, who made everything and gives us life.

⁷ However, some Christians don’t realize this. All their lives they have been used to thinking of idols as alive, and have believed that food offered to the idols is really being offered to actual gods. So when they eat such food it bothers them and hurts their tender consciences. ⁸ Just remember that God doesn’t care whether we eat it or not. We are no worse off if we don’t eat it, and no better off if we do. ⁹ But be careful not to use your freedom to eat it, lest you cause some Christian brother to sin whose conscience^[b] is weaker than yours.

¹⁰ You see, this is what may happen: Someone who thinks it is wrong to eat this food will see you eating at a temple restaurant, for you know there is no harm in it. Then he will become bold enough to do it too, although all the time he still feels it is wrong. ¹¹ So because you “know it is all right to do it,” you will be responsible for causing great spiritual damage to a brother with a tender conscience for whom Christ died. ¹² And it is a sin against Christ to sin against your brother by encouraging him to do something he thinks is wrong. ¹³ So if eating meat offered to idols is going to make my brother sin, I’ll not eat any of it as long as I live because I don’t want to do this to him.

²¹ Jesus and his companions now arrived at the town of Capernaum and on Saturday morning went into the Jewish place of worship—the synagogue—where he preached. ²² The congregation was surprised at his sermon because he spoke as an authority and didn’t try to prove his points by quoting others—quite unlike what they were used to hearing!^[a]

²³ A man possessed by a demon was present and began shouting, ²⁴ “Why are you bothering us, Jesus of Nazareth—have you come to destroy us demons? I know who you are—the holy Son of God!”

²⁵ Jesus curtly commanded the demon to say no more and to come out of the man. ²⁶ At that the evil spirit screamed and convulsed the man violently and left him. ²⁷ Amazement gripped the audience and they began discussing what had happened.

“What sort of new religion is this?” they asked excitedly. “Why, even evil spirits obey his orders!”

²⁸ The news of what he had done spread quickly through that entire area of Galilee.