Prophet Obadiah; Ven. Barlaam and Joasaph; Our Holy Father Philaret, Metropolitan of Moscow (1867)

For you, brothers, became imitators of the assemblies of God which are in Judea in Christ Jesus; for you also suffered the same things from your own countrymen, even as they did from the Jews ¹⁵who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and drove us out, and don’t please God, and are contrary to all men, ¹⁶forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they may be saved, to fill up their sins always. But wrath has come on them to the uttermost.

¹⁷But we, brothers, being bereaved of you for a short season in presence, not in heart, tried even harder to see your face with great desire, ¹⁸because we wanted to come to you—indeed, I, Paul, once and again—but Satan hindered us. ¹⁹For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Isn’t it even you, before our Lord Jesus at his coming? ²⁰For you are our glory and our joy.

He said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men, but God knows your hearts. For that which is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.

¹⁶“The law and the prophets were until John. From that time the Good News of God’s Kingdom is preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it. ¹⁷But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tiny stroke of a pen in the law to fall.

¹⁸“Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery. He who marries one who is divorced from a husband commits adultery.

¹He said to the disciples, “It is impossible that no occasions of stumbling should come, but woe to him through whom they come! ²It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea, rather than that he should cause one of these little ones to stumble. ³Be careful. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him. If he repents, forgive him. ⁴If he sins against you seven times in the day, and seven times returns, saying, ‘I repent,’ you shall forgive him.”