Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee

Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, to Philemon, our beloved fellow worker, ²to the beloved Apphia, to Archippus our fellow soldier, and to the assembly in your house: ³Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

⁴I thank my God always, making mention of you in my prayers, ⁵hearing of your love and of the faith which you have toward the Lord Jesus and toward all the saints, ⁶that the fellowship of your faith may become effective in the knowledge of every good thing which is in us in Christ Jesus. ⁷For we have much joy and comfort in your love, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you, brother.

⁸Therefore though I have all boldness in Christ to command you that which is appropriate, ⁹yet for love’s sake I rather appeal to you, being such a one as Paul, the aged, but also a prisoner of Jesus Christ. ¹⁰I appeal to you for my child Onesimus, whom I have become the father of in my chains, ¹¹who once was useless to you, but now is useful to you and to me. ¹²I am sending him back. Therefore receive him, that is, my own heart, ¹³whom I desired to keep with me, that on your behalf he might serve me in my chains for the Good News. ¹⁴But I was willing to do nothing without your consent, that your goodness would not be as of necessity, but of free will. ¹⁵For perhaps he was therefore separated from you for a while that you would have him forever, ¹⁶no longer as a slave, but more than a slave, a beloved brother—especially to me, but how much rather to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.

¹⁷If then you count me a partner, receive him as you would receive me. ¹⁸But if he has wronged you at all or owes you anything, put that to my account. ¹⁹I, Paul, write this with my own hand: I will repay it (not to mention to you that you owe to me even your own self besides). ²⁰Yes, brother, let me have joy from you in the Lord. Refresh my heart in the Lord.

²¹Having confidence in your obedience, I write to you, knowing that you will do even beyond what I say.

²²Also, prepare a guest room for me, for I hope that through your prayers I will be restored to you.

²³Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, greets you, ²⁴as do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my fellow workers.

²⁵The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen.

“Two men went up into the temple to pray; one was a Pharisee, and the other was a tax collector. ¹¹The Pharisee stood and prayed by himself like this: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of men: extortionists, unrighteous, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. ¹²I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I get.’ ¹³But the tax collector, standing far away, wouldn’t even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his chest, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ ¹⁴I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.”