Monday, January 8, 2029

^2:14What good is it, my brothers, if a man says he has faith, but has no works? Can faith save him? ¹⁵And if a brother or sister is naked and in lack of daily food, ¹⁶and one of you tells them, “Go in peace. Be warmed and filled;” yet you didn’t give them the things the body needs, what good is it? ¹⁷Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead in itself. ¹⁸Yes, a man will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without works, and I will show you my faith by my works.

¹⁹You believe that God is one. You do well. The demons also believe—and shudder. ²⁰But do you want to know, vain man, that faith apart from works is dead? ²¹Wasn’t Abraham our father justified by works, in that he offered up Isaac his son on the altar? ²²You see that faith worked with his works, and by works faith was perfected. ²³So the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him as righteousness,” and he was called the friend of God. ²⁴You see then that by works a man is justified, and not only by faith.

²⁵In the same way, wasn’t Rahab the prostitute also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way? ²⁶For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, even so faith apart from works is dead.

^9:42“Whoever will cause one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble, it would be better for him if he were thrown into the sea with a millstone hung around his neck. ⁴³If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed, rather than having your two hands to go into Gehenna, into the unquenchable fire, ⁴⁴‘where their worm doesn’t die, and the fire is not quenched.’ ⁴⁵If your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life lame, rather than having your two feet to be cast into Gehenna, into the fire that will never be quenched— ⁴⁶‘where their worm doesn’t die, and the fire is not quenched.’

⁴⁷If your eye causes you to stumble, throw it out. It is better for you to enter into God’s Kingdom with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into the Gehenna of fire, ⁴⁸‘where their worm doesn’t die, and the fire is not quenched.’ ⁴⁹For everyone will be salted with fire, and every sacrifice will be seasoned with salt. ⁵⁰Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, with what will you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.” ^10:1He arose from there and came into the borders of Judea and beyond the Jordan. Multitudes came together to him again. As he usually did, he was again teaching them.

^1:11But I make known to you, brothers, concerning the Good News which was preached by me, that it is not according to man. ¹²For I didn’t receive it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came to me through revelation of Jesus Christ. ¹³For you have heard of my way of living in time past in the Jews’ religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the assembly of God and ravaged it. ¹⁴I advanced in the Jews’ religion beyond many of my own age among my countrymen, being more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of my fathers.

¹⁵But when it was the good pleasure of God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through his grace, ¹⁶to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I didn’t immediately confer with flesh and blood, ¹⁷nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia. Then I returned to Damascus. ¹⁸Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Peter, and stayed with him fifteen days. ¹⁹But of the other apostles I saw no one except James, the Lord’s brother.

^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.

^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.