Friday, 25 June 2027

Fast-Free Day

Gospel Reading

Matthew 5:33-41

³³ “Again you have heard that it was said to them of old time, ‘You shall not make false vows, but shall perform to the Lord your vows,’ ³⁴ but I tell you, don’t swear at all: neither by heaven, for it is the throne of God; ³⁵ nor by the earth, for it is the footstool of his feet; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. ³⁶ Neither shall you swear by your head, for you can’t make one hair white or black. ³⁷ But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes’ and your ‘No’ be ‘No.’ Whatever is more than these is of the evil one. ³⁸ “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.’ ³⁹ But I tell you, don’t resist him who is evil; but whoever strikes you on your right cheek, turn to him the other also. ⁴⁰ If anyone sues you to take away your coat, let him have your cloak also. ⁴¹ Whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two.


Epistle Reading

Romans 2:14-29

¹⁴ (for when Gentiles who don’t have the law do by nature the things of the law, these, not having the law, are a law to themselves, ¹⁵ in that they show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience testifying with them, and their thoughts among themselves accusing or else excusing them) ¹⁶ in the day when God will judge the secrets of men, according to my Good News, by Jesus Christ. ¹⁷ Indeed you bear the name of a Jew, and rest on the law, and glory in God, ¹⁸ and know his will, and approve the things that are excellent, being instructed out of the law, ¹⁹ and are confident that you yourself are a guide of the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, ²⁰ a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of babies, having in the law the form of knowledge and of the truth. ²¹ You therefore who teach another, don’t you teach yourself? You who preach that a man shouldn’t steal, do you steal? ²² You who say a man shouldn’t commit adultery. Do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? ²³ You who glory in the law, do you dishonor God by disobeying the law? ²⁴ For “the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you,” just as it is written. ²⁵ For circumcision indeed profits, if you are a doer of the law, but if you are a transgressor of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. ²⁶ If therefore the uncircumcised keep the ordinances of the law, won’t his uncircumcision be accounted as circumcision? ²⁷ Won’t the uncircumcision which is by nature, if it fulfills the law, judge you, who with the letter and circumcision are a transgressor of the law? ²⁸ For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh; ²⁹ but he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit not in the letter; whose praise is not from men, but from God.