Fast-Free Day
Gospel Reading
Matthew 23:23-28
²³ “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cumin, 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. ²⁴ You blind guides, who strain out a gnat, and swallow a camel! 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. ²⁶ You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the platter, that its outside may become clean also. 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. ²⁸ Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
Epistle Reading
2 Corinthians 2:14-3:3
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; ¹⁶ to the one a stench from death to death; to the other a sweet aroma from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? ¹⁷ For we are not as so many, peddling the word of God. But as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God, we speak in Christ. ¹ Are we beginning again to commend ourselves? Or do we need, as do some, letters of commendation to you or from you? ² You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men; ³ being revealed that you are a letter of Christ, served by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tablets of stone, but in tablets that are hearts of flesh.