Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

The Security of God’s People

A Song of Ascents.

Warning against Partiality

2 My brethren, show no partiality as you hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. ² For if a man with gold rings and in fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, ³ and you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, “Have a seat here, please,” while you say to the poor man, “Stand there,” or, “Sit at my feet,” ⁴ have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts? ⁵ Listen, my beloved brethren. Has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which he has promised to those who love him? ⁶ But you have dishonored the poor man. Is it not the rich who oppress you, is it not they who drag you into court? ⁷ Is it not they who blaspheme that honorable name by which you are called?^[a]

⁸ If you really fulfil the royal law, according to the scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you do well. ⁹ But if you show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors. ¹⁰ For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.^[b]

¹¹ For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” said also, “Do not kill.” If you do not commit adultery but do kill, you have become a transgressor of the law. ¹² So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. ¹³ For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy; yet mercy triumphs over judgment.

Faith without Works Is Dead

¹⁴ What does it profit, my brethren, if a man says he has faith but has not works? Can his faith save him?^{[a] 15} If a brother or sister is ill-clad and in lack of daily food, ¹⁶ and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what does it profit? ¹⁷ So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.

The Syrophoenician Woman’s Faith

²⁴ And from there he arose and went away to the region of Tyre and Sidon.^[a] And he entered a house, and would not have any one know it; yet he could not be hid. ²⁵ But immediately a woman, whose little daughter was possessed by an unclean spirit, heard of him, and came and fell down at his feet. ²⁶ Now the woman was a Greek, a Syrophoeni′cian by birth. And she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. ²⁷ And he said to her, “Let the children first be fed, for it is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” ²⁸ But she answered him, “Yes, Lord; yet even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” ²⁹ And he said to her, “For this saying you may go your way; the demon has left your daughter.” ³⁰ And she went home, and found the child lying in bed, and the demon gone.

Jesus Cures a Deaf Man

³¹ Then he returned from the region of Tyre, and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, through the region of the Decap′olis. ³² And they brought to him a man who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech; and they besought him to lay his hand upon him. ³³ And taking him aside from the multitude privately, he put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue; ³⁴ and looking up to heaven, he sighed, and said to him, “Eph′phatha,” that is, “Be opened.” ³⁵ And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. ³⁶ And he charged them to tell no one; but the more he charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. ³⁷ And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, “He has done all things well; he even makes the deaf hear and the dumb speak.”