Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

⁶ So, then, just as you received Messiah Jesus the Lord, you must continue your journey in him. ⁷ You must put down healthy roots in him, being built up brick by brick in him, and established strongly in the faith, just as you were taught, with overflowing thankfulness.

Beware of deceivers

⁸ Watch out that nobody uses philosophy and hollow trickery to take you captive! These are in line with human tradition, and with the “elements of the world”—not with the Messiah. ⁹ In him, you see, all the full measure of divinity has taken up bodily residence. ¹⁰ What’s more, you are fulfilled in him, since he’s the head of all rule and authority.

¹¹ In him, indeed, you were circumcised with a special, new type of circumcision. It isn’t something that human hands can do. It is the Messiah’s version of circumcision, and it happens when you put off the “body of flesh”: ¹² when you’re buried with him in baptism, and indeed also raised with him, through faith in the power of the God who raised him from the dead.

The law and the cross

¹³ In the same way, though you were dead in legal offenses, and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive together with Jesus, forgiving us all our offenses. ¹⁴ He blotted out the handwriting that was against us, opposing us with its legal demands. He took it right out of the way, by nailing it to the cross. ¹⁵ He stripped the rulers and authorities of their armor, and displayed them contemptuously to public view, celebrating his triumph over them in him.

¹⁶ So don’t let anyone pass judgment on you in a question of food or drink, or in the matter of festivals, new moons or sabbaths. ¹⁷ These things are a shadow cast by the coming reality—and the body that casts the shadow belongs to the Messiah! ¹⁸ Don’t let anyone rule you out of order by trying to force you into a kind of fake humility, or into worshiping angels. Such people will go on and on about visions they’ve had; they get puffed up without good reason by merely human thinking, ¹⁹ and they don’t keep hold of the Head. It’s from him that the whole body grows with the growth God gives it, as it’s nourished and held together by its various ligaments and joints.

The Lord’s Prayer

11 Once Jesus was praying in a particular place. When he had finished, one of his disciples approached him.

“Teach us to pray, Master,” he said, “just like John taught his disciples.”

² “When you pray,” replied Jesus, “this is what to say:

“Father, may your name be honored; may your kingdom come; ³ give us each day our daily bread; ⁴ and forgive us our sins, since we too forgive all our debtors; and don’t put us to the test.

⁵ “Suppose one of you has a friend,” he said, “and you go to him in the middle of the night and say, ‘My dear friend, lend me three loaves of bread! ⁶ A friend of mine is on a journey and has arrived at my house, and I have nothing to put in front of him!’ ⁷ He will answer from inside his house, ‘Don’t make life difficult for me! The door is already shut, and my children and I are all in bed! I can’t get up and give you anything.’ ⁸ Let me tell you, even if he won’t get up and give you anything just because you’re his friend, because of your shameless persistence he will get up and give you whatever you need.

⁹ “So this is my word to you: ask and it will be given you; search and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you. ¹⁰ You see, everyone who asks receives! Everyone who searches finds! Everyone who knocks has the door opened for them! ¹¹ If your son asks you for a fish, is there a father among you who will give him a snake? ¹² Or if he asks for an egg, will you give him a scorpion? ¹³ So if you, evil as you are, know how to give good presents to your children, how much more will your heavenly father give the holy spirit to those who ask him!”