15th Sunday of Matthew

See with what large letters I write to you with my own hand. ¹²As many as desire to make a good impression in the flesh compel you to be circumcised, just so they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. ¹³For even they who receive circumcision don’t keep the law themselves, but they desire to have you circumcised, so that they may boast in your flesh. ¹⁴But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. ¹⁵For in Christ Jesus neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. ¹⁶As many as walk by this rule, peace and mercy be on them, and on God’s Israel.

¹⁷From now on, let no one cause me any trouble, for I bear the marks of the Lord Jesus branded on my body.

¹⁸The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers. Amen.

One of them, a lawyer, asked him a question, testing him. ³⁶“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law?”

³⁷Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ ³⁸This is the first and great commandment. ³⁹A second likewise is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ ⁴⁰The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”

⁴¹Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question,

⁴²saying, “What do you think of the Christ? Whose son is he?” They said to him, “Of David.”

⁴³He said to them, “How then does David in the Spirit call him Lord, saying, ⁴⁴‘The Lord said to my Lord, sit on my right hand, until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet’?

⁴⁵“If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?”

⁴⁶No one was able to answer him a word, neither did any man dare ask him any more questions from that day forward.