Scripture Readings

Monday, September 2, 2013

Matthew 23:13-22 (Gospel)

13
But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.
14
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. Therefore you will receive greater condemnation.
15
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.
16
Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is obliged to perform it.’
17
Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that sanctifies the gold?
18
And, ‘Whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gift that is on it, he is obliged to perform it.’
19
Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift?
20
Therefore he who swears by the altar, swears by it and by all things on it.
21
He who swears by the temple, swears by it and by Him who dwells in it.
22
And he who swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God and by Him who sits on it.