Wednesday, July 13, 2033

^15:7Therefore accept one another, even as Christ also accepted you, to the glory of God. ⁸Now I say that Christ has been made a servant of the circumcision for the truth of God, that he might confirm the promises given to the fathers, ⁹and that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written, “Therefore I will give praise to you among the Gentiles and sing to your name.” ¹⁰Again he says, “Rejoice, you Gentiles, with his people.” ¹¹Again, “Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles! Let all the peoples praise him.”

¹²Again, Isaiah says, “There will be the root of Jesse, he who arises to rule over the Gentiles; in him the Gentiles will hope.” ¹³Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope in the power of the Holy Spirit. ¹⁴I myself am also persuaded about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish others. ¹⁵But I write the more boldly to you in part as reminding you, because of the grace that was given to me by God, ¹⁶that I should be a servant of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, serving as a priest of the Good News of God, that the offering up of the Gentiles might be made acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

^12:38Then certain of the scribes and Pharisees answered, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.” ³⁹But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, but no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet. ⁴⁰For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the huge fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. ⁴¹The men of Nineveh will stand up in the judgment with this generation and will condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, someone greater than Jonah is here.

⁴²The Queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with this generation and will condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and behold, someone greater than Solomon is here. ⁴³“When an unclean spirit has gone out of a man, he passes through waterless places seeking rest, and doesn’t find it. ⁴⁴Then he says, ‘I will return into my house from which I came;’ and when he has come back, he finds it empty, swept, and put in order.

⁴⁵Then he goes and takes with himself seven other spirits more evil than he is, and they enter in and dwell there. The last state of that man becomes worse than the first. Even so will it be also to this evil generation.”

^15:7Therefore accept one another, even as Christ also accepted you, to the glory of God. ⁸Now I say that Christ has been made a servant of the circumcision for the truth of God, that he might confirm the promises given to the fathers, ⁹and that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written, “Therefore I will give praise to you among the Gentiles and sing to your name.” ¹⁰Again he says, “Rejoice, you Gentiles, with his people.” ¹¹Again, “Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles! Let all the peoples praise him.”

¹²Again, Isaiah says, “There will be the root of Jesse, he who arises to rule over the Gentiles; in him the Gentiles will hope.” ¹³Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope in the power of the Holy Spirit. ¹⁴I myself am also persuaded about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish others. ¹⁵But I write the more boldly to you in part as reminding you, because of the grace that was given to me by God, ¹⁶that I should be a servant of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, serving as a priest of the Good News of God, that the offering up of the Gentiles might be made acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

^4:9For I think that God has displayed us, the apostles, last of all, like men sentenced to death. For we are made a spectacle to the world, both to angels and men. ¹⁰We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You have honor, but we have dishonor. ¹¹Even to this present hour we hunger, thirst, are naked, are beaten, and have no certain dwelling place. ¹²We toil, working with our own hands. When people curse us, we bless. Being persecuted, we endure.

¹³Being defamed, we entreat. We are made as the filth of the world, the dirt wiped off by all, even until now. ¹⁴I don’t write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children. ¹⁵For though you have ten thousand tutors in Christ, you don’t have many fathers. For in Christ Jesus, I became your father through the Good News. ¹⁶I beg you therefore, be imitators of me.

^12:38Then certain of the scribes and Pharisees answered, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.” ³⁹But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, but no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet. ⁴⁰For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the huge fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. ⁴¹The men of Nineveh will stand up in the judgment with this generation and will condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, someone greater than Jonah is here.

⁴²The Queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with this generation and will condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and behold, someone greater than Solomon is here. ⁴³“When an unclean spirit has gone out of a man, he passes through waterless places seeking rest, and doesn’t find it. ⁴⁴Then he says, ‘I will return into my house from which I came;’ and when he has come back, he finds it empty, swept, and put in order.

⁴⁵Then he goes and takes with himself seven other spirits more evil than he is, and they enter in and dwell there. The last state of that man becomes worse than the first. Even so will it be also to this evil generation.”

^3:13He went up into the mountain and called to himself those whom he wanted, and they went to him. ¹⁴He appointed twelve, that they might be with him, and that he might send them out to preach ¹⁵and to have authority to heal sicknesses and to cast out demons: ¹⁶Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter); ¹⁷James the son of Zebedee; and John, the brother of James, (whom he called Boanerges, which means, Sons of Thunder); ¹⁸Andrew; Philip; Bartholomew; Matthew; Thomas; James, the son of Alphaeus; Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot; ¹⁹and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him. Then he came into a house.