Day 23
Matthew 23
23:1 Then Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to his disciples,
23:2 saying, "The scribes and the Pharisees sat on Moses' seat.
23:3 All things therefore whatever they tell you to observe, observe and do, but don't do their works; for they say, and don't do.
23:4 For they bind heavy burdens that are grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not lift a finger to help them.
23:5 But all their works they do to be seen by men. They make their phylacteries{phylacteries (tefillin in Hebrew) are small leather pouches that some Jewish men wear on their forehead and arm in prayer. They are used to carry a small scroll with some Scripture in it. See Deuteronomy 6:8.} broad, enlarge the fringes{or, tassels} of their garments,
23:6 and love the place of honor at feasts, the best seats in the synagogues,
23:7 the salutations in the marketplaces, and to be called 'Rabbi, Rabbi' by men.
23:8 But don't you be called 'Rabbi,' for one is your teacher, the Christ, and all of you are brothers.
23:9 Call no man on the earth your father, for one is your Father, he who is in heaven.
23:10 Neither be called masters, for one is your master, the Christ.
23:11 But he who is greatest among you will be your servant.
23:12 Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
23:13 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows' houses, and as a pretense you make long prayers. Therefore you will receive greater condemnation.
23:14 "But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against men; for you don't enter in yourselves, neither do you allow those who are entering in to enter.{Some Greek manuscripts reverse the order of verses 13 and 14, and some omit verse 13, numbering verse 14 as 13.}
23:15 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel around by sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much of a son of Gehenna{or, Hell} as yourselves.
23:16 "Woe to you, you blind guides, who say, 'Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is obligated.'
23:17 You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifies the gold?
23:18 'Whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gift that is on it, he is obligated?'
23:19 You blind fools! For which is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifies the gift?
23:20 He therefore who swears by the altar, swears by it, and by everything on it.
23:21 He who swears by the temple, swears by it, and by him who was living in it.
23:22 He who swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God, and by him who sits on it.
23:23 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cumin,{ cumin is an aromatic seed from Cuminum cyminum, resembling caraway in flavor and appearance. It is used as a spice.} and have left undone the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy, and faith. But you ought to have done these, and not to have left the other undone.
23:24 You blind guides, who strain out a gnat, and swallow a camel!
23:25 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and unrighteousness.{TR reads "self-indulgence" instead of "unrighteousness"}
23:26 You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the platter, that its outside may become clean also.
23:27 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitened tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but inwardly are full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.
23:28 Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
23:29 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets, and decorate the tombs of the righteous,
23:30 and say, 'If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we wouldn't have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.'
23:31 Therefore you testify to yourselves that you are children of those who killed the prophets.
23:32 Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers.
23:33 You serpents, you offspring of vipers, how will you escape the judgment of Gehenna{or, Hell}?
23:34 Therefore, behold, I send to you prophets, wise men, and scribes. Some of them you will kill and crucify; and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city;
23:35 that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zachariah son of Barachiah, whom you killed between the sanctuary and the altar.
23:36 Most certainly I tell you, all these things will come upon this generation.
23:37 "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets, and stones those who are sent to her! How often I would have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not!
23:38 Behold, your house is left to you desolate.
23:39 For I tell you, you will not see me from now on, until you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!'"{Psalm 118:26}
1 Corinthians 1
1:1 Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes,
1:2 to the assembly of God which is at Corinth; those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place, both theirs and ours:
1:3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
1:4 I always thank my God concerning you, for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus;
1:5 that in everything you were enriched in him, in all speech and all knowledge;
1:6 even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you:
1:7 so that you come behind in no gift; waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ;
1:8 who will also confirm you until the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
1:9 God is faithful, through whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.
1:10 Now I beg you, brothers,{The word for "brothers" here and where context allows may also be correctly translated "brothers and sisters" or "siblings."} through the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfected together in the same mind and in the same judgment.
1:11 For it has been reported to me concerning you, my brothers, by those who are from Chloe's household, that there are contentions among you.
1:12 Now I mean this, that each one of you says, "I follow Paul," "I follow Apollos," "I follow Cephas," and, "I follow Christ."
1:13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized into the name of Paul?
1:14 I thank God that I baptized none of you, except Crispus and Gaius,
1:15 so that no one should say that I had baptized you into my own name.
1:16 (I also baptized the household of Stephanas; besides them, I don't know whether I baptized any other.)
1:17 For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the Good News--not in wisdom of words, so that the cross of Christ wouldn't be made void.
1:18 For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are dying, but to us who are saved it is the power of God.
1:19 For it is written, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, I will bring the discernment of the discerning to nothing."{Isaiah 29:14}
1:20 Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the lawyer of this world? Hasn't God made foolish the wisdom of this world?
1:21 For seeing that in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom didn't know God, it was God's good pleasure through the foolishness of the preaching to save those who believe.
1:22 For Jews ask for signs, Greeks seek after wisdom,
1:23 but we preach Christ crucified; a stumbling block to Jews, and foolishness to Greeks,
1:24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.
1:25 Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
1:26 For you see your calling, brothers, that not many are wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, and not many noble;
1:27 but God chose the foolish things of the world that he might put to shame those who are wise. God chose the weak things of the world, that he might put to shame the things that are strong;
1:28 and God chose the lowly things of the world, and the things that are despised, and the things that are not, that he might bring to nothing the things that are:
1:29 that no flesh should boast before God.
1:30 But of him, you are in Christ Jesus, who was made to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption:
1:31 that, according as it is written, "He who boasts, let him boast in the Lord."{Jeremiah 9:24}
1 Corinthians 2
2:1 When I came to you, brothers, I didn't come with excellence of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God.
2:2 For I determined not to know anything among you, except Jesus Christ, and him crucified.
2:3 I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling.
2:4 My speech and my preaching were not in persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,
2:5 that your faith wouldn't stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
2:6 We speak wisdom, however, among those who are full grown; yet a wisdom not of this world, nor of the rulers of this world, who are coming to nothing.
2:7 But we speak God's wisdom in a mystery, the wisdom that has been hidden, which God foreordained before the worlds for our glory,
2:8 which none of the rulers of this world has known. For had they known it, they wouldn't have crucified the Lord of glory.
2:9 But as it is written, "Things which an eye didn't see, and an ear didn't hear, which didn't enter into the heart of man, these God has prepared for those who love him."{Isaiah 64:4}
2:10 But to us, God revealed them through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.
2:11 For who among men knows the things of a man, except the spirit of the man, which is in him? Even so, no one knows the things of God, except God's Spirit.
2:12 But we received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God, that we might know the things that were freely given to us by God.
2:13 Which things also we speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual things.
2:14 Now the natural man doesn't receive the things of God's Spirit, for they are foolishness to him, and he can't know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
2:15 But he who is spiritual discerns all things, and he himself is judged by no one.
2:16 "For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he should instruct him?" But we have Christ's mind.
