Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

The Value of a Good Name

The Lord the Strength of His People

A Song of Ascents.

Beware of Personal Favoritism

2 My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, ^(A)the Lord of glory, with ^(B)partiality. ² For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings, in ^[a]fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in ^[b]filthy clothes, ³ and you ^[c]pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him, “You sit here in a good place,” and say to the poor man, “You stand there,” or, “Sit here at my footstool,” ⁴ have you not ^[d]shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?

⁵ Listen, my beloved brethren: ^(C)Has God not chosen the poor of this world to be ^(D)rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom ^(E)which He promised to those who love Him? ⁶ But ^(F)you have dishonored the poor man. Do not the rich oppress you ^(G)and drag you into the courts? ⁷ Do they not blaspheme that noble name by which you are ^(H)called?

⁸ If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, ^(I)“You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you do well; ⁹ but if you ^[e]show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as ^(J)transgressors. ¹⁰ For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet ^(K)stumble in one point, ^(L)he is guilty of all.

¹¹ For He who said, ^(A)“Do not commit adultery,” also said, ^(B)“Do not murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. ¹² So speak and so do as those who will be judged by ^(C)the law of liberty. ¹³ For ^(D)judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown ^(E)no ^(F)mercy. ^(G)Mercy triumphs over judgment.

Faith Without Works Is Dead^(A)

^14 (B)What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? ^15 (C)If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, ¹⁶ and ^(D)one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? ¹⁷ Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

A Gentile Shows Her Faith^(A)

^24 (B)From there He arose and went to the region of Tyre ^[a]and Sidon. And He entered a house and wanted no one to know it, but He could not be ^(C)hidden. ²⁵ For a woman whose young daughter had an unclean spirit heard about Him, and she came and ^(D)fell at His feet. ²⁶ The woman was a ^[b]Greek, a ^[c]Syro-Phoenician by birth, and she kept ^[d]asking Him to cast the demon out of her daughter. ²⁷ But Jesus said to her, “Let the children be filled first, for it is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.”

²⁸ And she answered and said to Him, “Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs under the table eat from the children’s crumbs.”

²⁹ Then He said to her, “For this saying go your way; the demon has gone out of your daughter.”

³⁰ And when she had come to her house, she found the demon gone out, and her daughter lying on the bed.

Jesus Heals a Deaf-Mute^(E)

^31 (F)Again, departing from the region of Tyre and Sidon, He came through the midst of the region of Decapolis to the Sea of Galilee. ³² Then ^(G)they brought to Him one who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech, and they begged Him to put His hand on him. ³³ And He took him aside from the multitude, and put His fingers in his ears, and ^(H)He spat and touched his tongue. ³⁴ Then, ^(I)looking up to heaven, ^(J)He sighed, and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.”

^35 (K)Immediately his ears were opened, and the ^[e]impediment of his tongue was loosed, and he spoke plainly. ³⁶ Then ^(L)He commanded them that they should tell no one; but the more He commanded them, the more widely they proclaimed it. ³⁷ And they were ^(M)astonished beyond measure, saying, “He has done all things well. He ^(N)makes both the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.”