Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

A Song of Ascents.

2 My brothers, don’t hold the faith of our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with partiality. ² For if a man with a gold ring, in fine clothing, comes into your synagogue,^[a] and a poor man in filthy clothing also comes in, ³ and you pay special attention to him who wears the fine clothing and say, “Sit here in a good place;” and you tell the poor man, “Stand there,” or “Sit by my footstool” ⁴ haven’t you shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts? ⁵ Listen, my beloved brothers. Didn’t God choose those who are poor in this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the Kingdom which he promised to those who love him? ⁶ But you have dishonored the poor man. Don’t the rich oppress you and personally drag you before the courts? ⁷ Don’t they blaspheme the honorable name by which you are called?

⁸ However, if you fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,”^(A) you do well. ⁹ But if you show partiality, you commit sin, being convicted by the law as transgressors. ¹⁰ For whoever keeps the whole law, and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all.

¹¹ For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,”^(A) also said, “Do not commit murder.”^(B) Now if you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. ¹² So speak and so do as men who are to be judged by the law of freedom. ¹³ For judgment is without mercy to him who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

¹⁴ What good is it, my brothers, if a man says he has faith, but has no works? Can faith save him? ¹⁵ And if a brother or sister is naked and in lack of daily food, ¹⁶ and one of you tells them, “Go in peace. Be warmed and filled;” yet you didn’t give them the things the body needs, what good is it? ¹⁷ Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead in itself.

²⁴ From there he arose and went away into the borders of Tyre and Sidon. He entered into a house and didn’t want anyone to know it, but he couldn’t escape notice. ²⁵ For a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit, having heard of him, came and fell down at his feet. ²⁶ Now the woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by race. She begged him that he would cast the demon out of her daughter. ²⁷ But Jesus said to her, “Let the children be filled first, for it is not appropriate 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 He said to her, “For this saying, go your way. The demon has gone out of your daughter.”

³⁰ She went away to her house, and found the child having been laid on the bed, with the demon gone out.

³¹ Again he departed from the borders of Tyre and Sidon, and came to the sea of Galilee through the middle of the region of Decapolis. ³² They brought to him one who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech. They begged him to lay his hand on him. ³³ He took him aside from the multitude privately and put his fingers into his ears; and he spat and touched his tongue. ³⁴ Looking up to heaven, he sighed, and said to him, “Ephphatha!” that is, “Be opened!” ³⁵ Immediately his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was released, and he spoke clearly. ³⁶ He commanded them that they should tell no one, but the more he commanded them, so much the more widely they proclaimed it. ³⁷ They were astonished beyond measure, saying, “He has done all things well. He makes even the deaf hear and the mute speak!”