Thursday, January 8, 2026

^1:19So, then, my beloved brothers, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger; ²⁰for the anger of man doesn’t produce the righteousness of God. ²¹Therefore, putting away all filthiness and overflowing of wickedness, receive with humility the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. ²²But be doers of the word, and not only hearers, deluding your own selves. ²³For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man looking at his natural face in a mirror; ²⁴for he sees himself, and goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. ²⁵But he who looks into the perfect law of freedom and continues, not being a hearer who forgets but a doer of the work, this man will be blessed in what he does. ²⁶If anyone among you thinks himself to be religious while he doesn’t bridle his tongue, but deceives his heart, this man’s religion is worthless. ²⁷Pure religion and undefiled before our God and Father is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

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^9:10They kept this saying to themselves, questioning what the “rising from the dead” meant. ¹¹They asked him, saying, “Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?” ¹²He said to them, “Elijah indeed comes first, and restores all things. How is it written about the Son of Man, that he should suffer many things and be despised? ¹³But I tell you that Elijah has come, and they have also done to him whatever they wanted to, even as it is written about him.” ¹⁴Coming to the disciples, he saw a great multitude around them, and scribes questioning them. ¹⁵Immediately all the multitude, when they saw him, were greatly amazed, and running to him, greeted him. ¹⁶He asked the scribes, “What are you asking them?”

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^2:11For both he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one, for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brothers, ¹²saying, “I will declare your name to my brothers. Among the congregation I will sing your praise.” ¹³Again, “I will put my trust in him.” Again, “Behold, here I am with the children whom God has given me.” ¹⁴Since then the children have shared in flesh and blood, he also himself in the same way partook of the same, that through death he might bring to nothing him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, ¹⁵and might deliver all of them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. ¹⁶For most certainly, he doesn’t give help to angels, but he gives help to the offspring of Abraham. ¹⁷Therefore he was obligated in all things to be made like his brothers, that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make atonement for the sins of the people. ¹⁸For in that he himself has suffered being tempted, he is able to help those who are tempted.

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^2:13Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, “Arise and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and stay there until I tell you, for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him.” ¹⁴He arose and took the young child and his mother by night and departed into Egypt, ¹⁵and was there until the death of Herod, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, “Out of Egypt I called my son.” ¹⁶Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked by the wise men, was exceedingly angry, and sent out and killed all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all the surrounding countryside, from two years old and under, according to the exact time which he had learned from the wise men. ¹⁷Then that which was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled, saying, ¹⁸“A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children; she wouldn’t be comforted, because they are no more.” ¹⁹But when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying, ²⁰“Arise and take the young child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel, for those who sought the young child’s life are dead.” ²¹He arose and took the young child and his mother, and came into the land of Israel. ²²But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in the place of his father, Herod, he was afraid to go there. Being warned in a dream, he withdrew into the region of Galilee, ²³and came and lived in a city called Nazareth; that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through the prophets that he will be called a Nazarene.

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