Martyrs Menodora, Metrodora, Nymphodora; Poulcheria the Empress

Now we, brothers, as Isaac was, are children of promise. ²⁹But as then, he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is now. ³⁰However, what does the Scripture say? “Throw out the servant and her son, for the son of the servant will not inherit with the son of the free woman.” ³¹So then, brothers, we are not children of a servant, but of the free woman.

¹Stand firm therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and don’t be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.

²Behold, I, Paul, tell you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will profit you nothing. ³Yes, I testify again to every man who receives circumcision that he is a debtor to do the whole law. ⁴You are alienated from Christ, you who desire to be justified by the law. You have fallen away from grace. ⁵For we through the Spirit, by faith wait for the hope of righteousness. ⁶For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision amounts to anything, but faith working through love.

⁷You were running well! Who interfered with you that you should not obey the truth? ⁸This persuasion is not from him who calls you. ⁹A little yeast grows through the whole lump. ¹⁰I have confidence toward you in the Lord that you will think no other way. But he who troubles you will bear his judgment, whoever he is.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only born Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. ¹⁷For God didn’t send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through him. ¹⁸He who believes in him is not judged. He who doesn’t believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only born Son of God. ¹⁹This is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light, for their works were evil. ²⁰For everyone who does evil hates the light and doesn’t come to the light, lest his works would be exposed. ²¹But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his works may be revealed, that they have been done in God.”