Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

The true God and the false gods

⁸ However, at that stage you didn’t know God, and so you were enslaved to beings that, in their proper nature, are not gods. ⁹ But now that you’ve come to know God—or, better, to be known by God—how can you turn back again to that weak and poverty-stricken line-up of elements that you want to serve all over again? ¹⁰ You are observing days, and months, and seasons, and years! ¹¹ I am afraid for you; perhaps my hard work with you is all going to be wasted.

Paul’s appeal to his children

¹² Become like me!—because I became like you, my dear family. This is my plea to you. You didn’t wrong me: ¹³ no, you know that it was through bodily weakness that I announced the gospel to you in the first place. ¹⁴ You didn’t despise or scorn me, even though my condition was quite a test for you, but you welcomed me as if I were God’s angel, as if I were the Messiah, Jesus! ¹⁵ What’s happened to the blessing you had then? Yes, I can testify that you would have torn out your eyes, if you’d been able to, and given them to me. ¹⁶ So have I become your enemy by telling you the truth?

¹⁷ The other lot are eager for you, but it’s not in a good cause. They want to shut you out, so that you will then be eager for them. ¹⁸ Well, it’s always good to be eager in a good cause, and not only when I’m there with you. ¹⁹ My children—I seem to be in labor with you all over again, until the Messiah is fully formed in you! ²⁰ I wish I were there with you right now, and could change my tone of voice. I really am at a loss about you.