Matthew 23:13-22

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. 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. 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 a son of Gehenna as yourselves. 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.’ ¹⁷ You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifies the gold? ¹⁸ ‘Whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gift that is on it, he is obligated?’ ¹⁹ You blind fools! For which is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifies the gift? ²⁰ He therefore who swears by the altar, swears by it, and by everything on it. ²¹ He who swears by the temple, swears by it, and by him who has been living in it. ²² He who swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God, and by him who sits on it.

2 Corinthians 2:4-15

⁴ For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote to you with many tears, not that you should be made sorry, but that you might know the love that I have so abundantly for you. ⁵ But if any has caused sorrow, he has caused sorrow, not to me, but in part (that I not press too heavily) to you all. ⁶ This punishment which was inflicted by the many is sufficient for such a one; ⁷ so that on the contrary you should rather forgive him and comfort him, lest by any means such a one should be swallowed up with his excessive sorrow. ⁸ Therefore I beg you to confirm your love toward him. ⁹ For to this end I also wrote, that I might know the proof of you, whether you are obedient in all things. ¹⁰ Now I also forgive whomever you forgive anything. For if indeed I have forgiven anything, I have forgiven that one for your sakes in the presence of Christ, ¹¹ that no advantage may be gained over us by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his schemes. ¹² Now when I came to Troas for the Good News of Christ, and when a door was opened to me in the Lord, ¹³ I had no relief for my spirit, because I didn’t find Titus, my brother, but taking my leave of them, I went out into Macedonia. ¹⁴ Now thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and reveals through us the sweet aroma of his knowledge in every place. ¹⁵ For we are a sweet aroma of Christ to God, in those who are saved, and in those who perish;