Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Bearing one another’s burdens

6 My dear family, if someone is found out in some trespass, then you—the “spiritual” ones!—should set such a person right, in a spirit of gentleness. Watch out for yourselves: you too may be tested. ² Carry each other’s burdens; that’s the way to fulfill the Messiah’s law. ³ If you think you’re something when you are not, you deceive yourself. ⁴ Every one of you should test your own work, and then you will have a reason to boast of yourself, not of somebody else. ⁵ Each of you, you see, will have to carry your own load.

Practical support in the church

⁶ If someone is being taught the word, they should share with the teacher all the good things they have.

⁷ Don’t be misled; God won’t have people turning their noses up at him. What you sow is what you’ll reap. ⁸ Yes: if you sow in the field of your flesh you will harvest decay from your flesh, but if you sow in the field of the spirit you will harvest eternal life from the spirit. ⁹ Don’t lose your enthusiasm for behaving properly. You’ll bring in the harvest at the proper time, if you don’t become weary. ¹⁰ So, then, while we have the chance, let’s do good to everyone, and particularly to the household of the faith.

Boasting in the cross

¹¹ Look at the large-size letters I’m writing to you in my own hand. ¹² It’s the people who want to make a fine showing in the flesh who are trying to force you into getting circumcised—for this purpose only, that they may avoid persecution for the Messiah’s cross. ¹³ You see, even the circumcised ones don’t keep the law; rather, they want you to be circumcised, so that they may boast about your flesh.

¹⁴ As for me, God forbid that I should boast—except in the cross of our Lord Jesus the Messiah, through whom the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. ¹⁵ Circumcision, you see, is nothing; neither is uncircumcision! What matters is new creation. ¹⁶ Peace and mercy on everyone who lines up by that standard—yes, on God’s Israel.

Jesus sends out the seventy

10 After this the master commissioned seventy others, and sent them ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he was intending to come.

² “There’s a great harvest out there,” he said to them, “but there aren’t many workers. So plead with the harvest-master to send out workers for the harvest.

³ “Off you go now. Remember, I’m sending you out like lambs among wolves. ⁴ Take no money-bag, no pack, no sandals—and don’t stop to pass the time with anyone on the road. ⁵ Whenever you go into a house, first say, ‘Peace on this house.’ ⁶ If a child of peace lives there, your peace will rest on them; but if not, it will return to you.

⁷ “Stay in the same house, and eat and drink what they provide. The worker deserves to be paid, you see. Don’t go from house to house. ⁸ If you go into a town and they welcome you, eat what is provided, ⁹ heal the sick who are there, and say to them, ‘God’s kingdom has come close to you.’ ¹⁰ But if you go into a town and they don’t welcome you, go out into the streets of the town and say, ¹¹ ‘Here is the very dust of your town clinging to our feet—and we’re wiping it off in front of your eyes!

¹⁶ “Anyone who hears you, hears me; anyone who rejects you, rejects me; and anyone who rejects me, rejects the one who sent me.”

The celebration of Jesus

¹⁷ The seventy came back exhilarated.

“Master,” they said, “even the demons obey us in your name!”

¹⁸ “I saw the satan fall like lightning from heaven,” he replied. ¹⁹ “Look: I’ve given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions, and over every power of the enemy. Nothing will ever be able to harm you. ²⁰ But—don’t celebrate having spirits under your authority. Celebrate this, that your names are written in heaven.”