M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

Laws of Justice and Mercy

23 “Do not spread false reports.^(A) Do not help a guilty person by being a malicious witness.^(B)

² “Do not follow the crowd in doing wrong. When you give testimony in a lawsuit, do not pervert justice^(C) by siding with the crowd,^{(D) 3} and do not show favoritism^(E) to a poor person in a lawsuit.

⁴ “If you come across your enemy’s^(F) ox or donkey wandering off, be sure to return it.^{(G) 5} If you see the donkey^(H) of someone who hates you fallen down under its load, do not leave it there; be sure you help them with it.

⁶ “Do not deny justice^(I) to your poor people in their lawsuits. ⁷ Have nothing to do with a false charge^(J) and do not put an innocent^(K) or honest person to death,^(L) for I will not acquit the guilty.^(M)

⁸ “Do not accept a bribe,^(N) for a bribe blinds those who see and twists the words of the innocent.

⁹ “Do not oppress a foreigner;^(O) you yourselves know how it feels to be foreigners, because you were foreigners in Egypt.

Sabbath Laws

¹⁰ “For six years you are to sow your fields and harvest the crops, ¹¹ but during the seventh year let the land lie unplowed and unused.^(P) Then the poor among your people may get food from it, and the wild animals may eat what is left. Do the same with your vineyard and your olive grove.

¹² “Six days do your work,^(Q) but on the seventh day do not work, so that your ox and your donkey may rest, and so that the slave born in your household and the foreigner living among you may be refreshed.^(R)

¹³ “Be careful^(S) to do everything I have said to you. Do not invoke the names of other gods;^(T) do not let them be heard on your lips.^(U)

The Three Annual Festivals

¹⁴ “Three times^(V) a year you are to celebrate a festival to me.

¹⁵ “Celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread;^(W) for seven days eat bread made without yeast, as I commanded you. Do this at the appointed time in the month of Aviv,^(X) for in that month you came out of Egypt.

“No one is to appear before me empty-handed.^(Y)

¹⁶ “Celebrate the Festival of Harvest^(Z) with the firstfruits^(AA) of the crops you sow in your field.

“Celebrate the Festival of Ingathering^(AB) at the end of the year, when you gather in your crops from the field.^(AC)

¹⁷ “Three times^(AD) a year all the men are to appear before the Sovereign Lord.

¹⁸ “Do not offer the blood of a sacrifice to me along with anything containing yeast.^(AE)

“The fat of my festival offerings must not be kept until morning.^(AF)

¹⁹ “Bring the best of the firstfruits^(AG) of your soil to the house of the Lord your God.

“Do not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.^(AH)

God’s Angel to Prepare the Way

²⁰ “See, I am sending an angel^(AI) ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared.^{(AJ) 21} Pay attention to him and listen^(AK) to what he says. Do not rebel against him; he will not forgive^(AL) your rebellion,^(AM) since my Name^(AN) is in him. ²² If you listen carefully to what he says and do^(AO) all that I say, I will be an enemy^(AP) to your enemies and will oppose those who oppose you. ²³ My angel will go ahead of you and bring you into the land of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites and Jebusites,^(AQ) and I will wipe them out. ²⁴ Do not bow down before their gods or worship^(AR) them or follow their practices.^(AS) You must demolish^(AT) them and break their sacred stones^(AU) to pieces. ²⁵ Worship the Lord your God,^(AV) and his blessing^(AW) will be on your food and water. I will take away sickness^(AX) from among you, ²⁶ and none will miscarry or be barren^(AY) in your land. I will give you a full life span.^(AZ)

²⁷ “I will send my terror^(BA) ahead of you and throw into confusion^(BB) every nation you encounter. I will make all your enemies turn their backs and run.^{(BC) 28} I will send the hornet^(BD) ahead of you to drive the Hivites, Canaanites and Hittites^(BE) out of your way. ²⁹ But I will not drive them out in a single year, because the land would become desolate and the wild animals^(BF) too numerous for you. ³⁰ Little by little I will drive them out before you, until you have increased enough to take possession^(BG) of the land.

³¹ “I will establish your borders from the Red Sea^[a] to the Mediterranean Sea,^[b] and from the desert to the Euphrates River.^(BH) I will give into your hands the people who live in the land, and you will drive them out^(BI) before you. ³² Do not make a covenant^(BJ) with them or with their gods. ³³ Do not let them live in your land or they will cause you to sin against me, because the worship of their gods will certainly be a snare^(BK) to you.”

Jesus Changes Water Into Wine

2 On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee.^(A) Jesus’ mother^(B) was there, ² and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. ³ When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.”

⁴ “Woman,^[a](C) why do you involve me?”^(D) Jesus replied. “My hour^(E) has not yet come.”

⁵ His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”^(F)

⁶ Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing,^(G) each holding from twenty to thirty gallons.^[b]

⁷ Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim.

⁸ Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.”

They did so, ⁹ and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine.^(H) He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside ¹⁰ and said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.”

¹¹ What Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs^(I) through which he revealed his glory;^(J) and his disciples believed in him.^(K)

¹² After this he went down to Capernaum^(L) with his mother^(M) and brothers^(N) and his disciples. There they stayed for a few days.

Jesus Clears the Temple Courts^(O)

¹³ When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover,^(P) Jesus went up to Jerusalem.^{(Q) 14} In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves,^(R) and others sitting at tables exchanging money.^{(S) 15} So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. ¹⁶ To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house^(T) into a market!” ¹⁷ His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.”^[c](U)

¹⁸ The Jews^(V) then responded to him, “What sign^(W) can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?”^(X)

¹⁹ Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”^(Y)

²⁰ They replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” ²¹ But the temple he had spoken of was his body.^{(Z) 22} After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said.^(AA) Then they believed the scripture^(AB) and the words that Jesus had spoken.

²³ Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival,^(AC) many people saw the signs^(AD) he was performing and believed^(AE) in his name.^{[d] 24} But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all people. ²⁵ He did not need any testimony about mankind,^(AF) for he knew what was in each person.^(AG)

Paul and the False Apostles

11 I hope you will put up with^(A) me in a little foolishness.^(B) Yes, please put up with me! ² I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband,^(C) to Christ, so that I might present you^(D) as a pure virgin to him. ³ But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning,^(E) your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. ⁴ For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached,^(F) or if you receive a different spirit^(G) from the Spirit you received, or a different gospel^(H) from the one you accepted, you put up with it^(I) easily enough.

⁵ I do not think I am in the least inferior to those “super-apostles.”^{[a](J) 6} I may indeed be untrained as a speaker,^(K) but I do have knowledge.^(L) We have made this perfectly clear to you in every way. ⁷ Was it a sin^(M) for me to lower myself in order to elevate you by preaching the gospel of God^(N) to you free of charge?^{(O) 8} I robbed other churches by receiving support from them^(P) so as to serve you. ⁹ And when I was with you and needed something, I was not a burden to anyone, for the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied what I needed.^(Q) I have kept myself from being a burden to you^(R) in any way, and will continue to do so. ¹⁰ As surely as the truth of Christ is in me,^(S) nobody in the regions of Achaia^(T) will stop this boasting^(U) of mine. ¹¹ Why? Because I do not love you? God knows^(V) I do!^(W)

¹² And I will keep on doing what I am doing in order to cut the ground from under those who want an opportunity to be considered equal with us in the things they boast about. ¹³ For such people are false apostles,^(X) deceitful^(Y) workers, masquerading as apostles of Christ.^{(Z) 14} And no wonder, for Satan^(AA) himself masquerades as an angel of light. ¹⁵ It is not surprising, then, if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.^(AB)

Paul Boasts About His Sufferings

¹⁶ I repeat: Let no one take me for a fool.^(AC) But if you do, then tolerate me just as you would a fool, so that I may do a little boasting. ¹⁷ In this self-confident boasting I am not talking as the Lord would,^(AD) but as a fool.^{(AE) 18} Since many are boasting in the way the world does,^(AF) I too will boast.^{(AG) 19} You gladly put up with^(AH) fools since you are so wise!^{(AI) 20} In fact, you even put up with^(AJ) anyone who enslaves you^(AK) or exploits you or takes advantage of you or puts on airs or slaps you in the face. ²¹ To my shame I admit that we were too weak^(AL) for that!

Whatever anyone else dares to boast about—I am speaking as a fool—I also dare to boast about.^{(AM) 22} Are they Hebrews? So am I.^(AN) Are they Israelites? So am I.^(AO) Are they Abraham’s descendants? So am I.^{(AP) 23} Are they servants of Christ?^(AQ) (I am out of my mind to talk like this.) I am more. I have worked much harder,^(AR) been in prison more frequently,^(AS) been flogged more severely,^(AT) and been exposed to death again and again.^{(AU) 24} Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes^(AV) minus one. ²⁵ Three times I was beaten with rods,^(AW) once I was pelted with stones,^(AX) three times I was shipwrecked,^(AY) I spent a night and a day in the open sea, ²⁶ I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews,^(AZ) in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city,^(BA) in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers.^{(BB) 27} I have labored and toiled^(BC) and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food;^(BD) I have been cold and naked. ²⁸ Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches.^{(BE) 29} Who is weak, and I do not feel weak?^(BF) Who is led into sin,^(BG) and I do not inwardly burn?

³⁰ If I must boast, I will boast^(BH) of the things that show my weakness.^{(BI) 31} The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, who is to be praised forever,^(BJ) knows^(BK) that I am not lying. ³² In Damascus the governor under King Aretas had the city of the Damascenes guarded in order to arrest me.^{(BL) 33} But I was lowered in a basket from a window in the wall and slipped through his hands.^(BM)