Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh.13 For if you live according to the flesh, you shall die: but if by the Spirit you mortify the deeds of the flesh, you shall live.14 For whosoever are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.15 For you have not received the spirit of bondage again in fear; but you have received the spirit of adoption of sons, whereby we cry: Abba (Father).†16 For the Spirit himself giveth testimony to our spirit, that we are the sons of God.†17 And if sons, heirs also; heirs indeed of God, and joint heirs with Christ: yet so, if we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified with him.
I give you these instructions, beloved, assured that ye also hold the same opinions [as I do]. But I guard you beforehand from those beasts in the shape of men, whom you must not only not receive, but, if it be possible, not even meet with; only you must pray to God for them, if by any means they may be brought to repentance, which, however, will be very difficult. Yet Jesus Christ, who is our true life, has the power of [effecting] this. But if these things were done by our Lord only in appearance, then am I also only in appearance bound. And why have I also surrendered myself to death, to fire, to the sword, to the wild beasts? But, [in fact, ] he who is near to the sword is near to God; he that is among the wild beasts is in company with God; provided only he be so m the name of Jesus Christ. I undergo all these things that I may suffer together with Him, He who became a perfect man inwardly strengthening me.
Responsorial Psalm — Psalm 68:2 and 4, 6-7ab, 20-21
Ps 67:2-2
Let God arise, and let his enemies be scattered: and let them that hate him flee from before his face.4 And let the just feast, and rejoice before God: and be delighted with gladness.6 Who is the father of orphans, and the judge of widows. God in his holy place:7 God who maketh men of one manner to dwell in a house: Who bringeth out them that were bound in strength; in like manner them that provoke, that dwell in sepulchres.20 Blessed be the Lord day by day: the God of our salvation will make our journey prosperous to us.21 Our God is the God of salvation: and of the Lord, of the Lord are the issues from death.
Again, Aeschylus the tragedian, setting forth the power of God, does not shrink from calling him the Highest, in these words:Place God apart from mortals; and think not
That he is, like yourself, corporeal.
You know him not. Now he appears as fire,
Dread force; as water now; and now as gloom;
And in the beasts is dimly shadowed forth,
In wind, and cloud, in lightning, thunder, rain;
And minister to him the seas and rocks,
Each fountain and the water's floods and streams.
The mountains tremble, and the earth, the vast
Abyss of sea, and towering height of hills,
When on them looks the Sovereign's awful eye:
Almighty is the glory of the Most High God.
Does he not seem to you to paraphrase that text, "At the presence of the Lord the earth trembles"?
And he was teaching in their synagogue on their sabbath.11 And behold there was a woman, who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years: and she was bowed together, neither could she look upwards at all.†12 Whom when Jesus saw, he called her unto him, and said to her: Woman, thou art delivered from thy infirmity.13 And he laid his hands upon her, and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God.†14 And the ruler of the synagogue (being angry that Jesus had healed on the sabbath) answering, said to the multitude: Six days there are wherein you ought to work. In them therefore come, and be healed; and not on the sabbath day.15 And the Lord answering him, said: Ye hypocrites, doth not every one of you, on the sabbath day, loose his ox or his ass from the manger, and lead them to water?†16 And ought not this daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day?17 And when he said these things, all his adversaries were ashamed: and all the people rejoiced for all the things that were gloriously done by him.
(Hom. 9. in Hex.) Because the head of the brutes is bent down towards the ground and looks upon the earth, but the head of man was made erect towards the heaven, his eyes tending upward. For it becomes us to seek what is above, and with our sight to pierce beyond earthly things.
(Basil. Hom. 1. de Jej.) The hypocrite is one who on the stage assumes a different character from his own. So also in this life some men carry one thing in their heart, and shew another on the surface to the world.
About CSB. A personal translation of the New Testament, rendered directly from the public-domain Greek in a literary style — not a scholarly critical edition, and not for liturgical or doctrinal authority. It is one reader's work, offered for enjoyment; where it matters, weigh it against an established translation. (Placeholder text — final wording to come.)