Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Chapter 22

Reflections on the Human Condition^[a]

Practical Counsels^[a]

Psalm 125^[a]

God, Protector of His People

¹ A song of ascents.

Chapter 2

Rich and Poor in the Christian Assembly.^{[a] 1} My brethren, since you are believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, you must never practice favoritism. ² Suppose a man wearing a gold ring and expensive clothes comes into your assembly as well as a poor man dressed in shabby clothes. ³ If you lavish special attention on the one wearing the expensive clothes and say, “Please sit in this good seat,” while to the poor man you say, “Stand over there,” or “Sit on the floor at my feet,” ⁴ have you not shown favoritism among yourselves and judged by wrongful standards?

⁵ Listen to me, my beloved brethren. Did not God choose those who are poor^[b] in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he promised to those who love him? ⁶ But you have humiliated the poor man. Furthermore, is it not the rich who oppress you? Are they not the ones who drag you into court? ⁷ Is it not they who blaspheme the noble name that was invoked over you?

⁸ You will be doing well if you truly observe the sovereign law enjoined in Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” ⁹ However, if you show partiality, you are committing a sin and stand convicted by the law as lawbreakers. ¹⁰ For whoever observes the whole Law but trips up on a single point is held guilty of breaking all of it.

¹¹ The one who said, “You shall not commit adultery,” also said, “You shall not kill.” Now if you do not commit adultery but you do kill, you have become a lawbreaker. ¹² Therefore, always speak and act as those who will be judged by the law of freedom. ¹³ For judgment will be without mercy to the one who has not shown mercy, but mercy triumphs over judgment.

¹⁴ True Faith Is Proved by Works.^[a] What good is it, my brethren, if someone claims to have faith but does not have good works? Can such faith save him? ^15 [b]Suppose a brother or sister is naked and lacks his or her daily food. ¹⁶ If one of you says to such a person, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat well,” but does not take care of that person’s physical needs, what is the good of that? ¹⁷ In the same way, faith by itself is dead if it does not have works.

²⁴ The Faith of a Gentile Woman.^[a] He moved on from that place to the region of Tyre. He went into a house and did not want anyone to know he was there, but he was not able to avoid being recognized. ²⁵ Almost immediately, a woman whose daughter was possessed by an unclean spirit heard about him and hastened to fall down at his feet. ²⁶ The woman was a Gentile of Syrophoenician origin, and she begged him to drive the demon out of her daughter.

²⁷ Jesus said to her, “Let the children be fed first. For it is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” ²⁸ She replied, “Yes, Lord; but even the dogs under the table eat the scraps from the children.” ²⁹ Then Jesus said to her, “For saying this, you may go. The demon has gone out of your daughter.” ³⁰ And when she returned home, she found the child lying in bed and the demon gone.

³¹ Jesus Heals a Deaf Man.^[b] Returning from the region of Tyre, Jesus traveled by way of Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, and into the region of the Decapolis. ³² Thereupon people brought to him a deaf man who had a speech impediment and begged him to lay his hand on him. ³³ He took him aside, away from the crowd, and put his fingers into the man’s ears and, spitting, touched his tongue. ³⁴ Then, looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha!” which means, “Be opened!” ³⁵ At once, the man’s ears were opened, his tongue was loosened, and he spoke properly.

³⁶ Then he ordered them not to tell anyone, but the more he ordered them not to do so, the more widely they proclaimed it. ³⁷ Their astonishment was beyond measure. “He has done all things well,” they said. “He even makes the deaf able to hear and the mute able to speak.”