Tuesday, September 16, 2031

^5:11But I, brothers, if I still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted? Then the stumbling block of the cross has been removed. ¹²I wish that those who disturb you would cut themselves off. ¹³For you, brothers, were called for freedom. Only don’t use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love be servants to one another. ¹⁴For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, in this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” ¹⁵But if you bite and devour one another, be careful that you don’t consume one another.

¹⁶But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you won’t fulfill the lust of the flesh. ¹⁷For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, that you may not do the things that you desire. ¹⁸But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. ¹⁹Now the deeds of the flesh are obvious, which are: adultery, sexual immorality, uncleanness, lustfulness, ²⁰idolatry, sorcery, hatred, strife, jealousies, outbursts of anger, rivalries, divisions, heresies, ²¹envy, murders, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these; of which I forewarn you, even as I also forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit God’s Kingdom.

^7:5The Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why don’t your disciples walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat their bread with unwashed hands?” ⁶He answered them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. ⁷They worship me in vain, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ ⁸“For you set aside the commandment of God, and hold tightly to the tradition of men—the washing of pitchers and cups, and you do many other such things.”

⁹He said to them, “Full well do you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition. ¹⁰For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother;’ and, ‘He who speaks evil of father or mother, let him be put to death.’ ¹¹But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever profit you might have received from me is Corban,”’” that is to say, given to God, ¹²“then you no longer allow him to do anything for his father or his mother, ¹³making void the word of God by your tradition which you have handed down. You do many things like this.”

¹⁴He called all the multitude to himself and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand. ¹⁵There is nothing from outside of the man that going into him can defile him; but the things which proceed out of the man are those that defile the man. ¹⁶If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear!”