Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

The weak and the strong

14 Welcome someone who is weak in faith, but not in order to have disputes on difficult points. ² One person believes it is all right to eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. ³ The one who eats should not despise the one who doesn’t, and the one who doesn’t should not condemn the one who does—because God has welcomed them.

⁴ Who do you think you are to judge someone else’s servants? They stand or fall before their own master. And stand they will, because the master can make them stand.

⁵ One person reckons one day more important than another. Someone else regards all days as equally important. Each person must make up their own mind. ⁶ The one who celebrates the day does so in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, does so in honor of the Lord, and gives thanks to God; the one who does not eat abstains in honor of the Lord, and gives thanks to God.

The final judgment is the only one that counts

⁷ We none of us live to ourselves; we none of us die to ourselves. ⁸ If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, then, whether we live or whether we die, we belong to the Lord. ⁹ That is why the Messiah died and came back to life, so that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.

¹⁰ You, then: why do you condemn your fellow Christian? Or you: why do you despise a fellow Christian? We must all appear before the judgment seat of God, ¹¹ as the Bible says:

¹² So then, we must each give an account of ourselves to God.

The challenge of forgiveness

²¹ Then Peter came to Jesus.

“Master,” he said, “how many times must I forgive my brother when he sins against me? As many as seven times?”

²² “I wouldn’t say seven times,” replied Jesus. “Why not—seventy times seven?

²³ “So, you see,” he went on, “the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle up accounts with his servants. ²⁴ As he was beginning to sort it all out, one man was brought before him who owed ten thousand talents. ²⁵ He had no means of paying it back, so the master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and everything he possessed, and payment to be made.

²⁶ “So the servant fell down and prostrated himself before the master.

“ ‘Be patient with me,’ he said, ‘and I’ll pay you everything!’

²⁷ “The master was very sorry for the servant, and let him off. He forgave him the loan.

²⁸ “But that servant went out and found one of his fellow-servants, who owed him a hundred dinars. He seized him and began to throttle him. ‘Pay me back what you owe me!’ he said.

²⁹ “The colleague fell down and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I’ll pay you!’

³⁰ “But he refused, and went and threw him into prison until he could pay the debt.

³¹ “So when his fellow-servants saw what had happened, they were very upset. They went and informed their master about the whole affair. ³² Then his master summoned him.

“ ‘You’re a scoundrel of a servant!’ he said to him. ‘I let you off the whole debt, because you begged me to. ³³ Shouldn’t you have taken pity on your colleague, like I took pity on you?’

³⁴ “His master was angry, and handed him over to the torturers, until he had paid the whole debt. ³⁵ And that’s what my heavenly father will do to you, unless each of you forgives your brother or sister from your heart.”