Thursday of the 4th week after Pentecost

Brethren, I speak to you Gentiles; inasmuch as I am the Apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, if by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh and save some of them. For if their being cast away is the reconciling of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? For if the firstfruit is holy, the lump is also holy; and if the root is holy, so are the branches. And if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree, do not boast against the branches. But if you boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you. You will say then, “Branches were broken off that I might be grafted in.” Well said. Because of unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by faith. Do not be haughty, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either. Behold, therefore the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise you also shall be cut off. And they also, if they do not continue in unbelief, shall be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. For if you were cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and were grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree, how much more shall these, who are the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?

Brethren, I think that God has shown us, the Apostles, last, as men condemned to death; for we have been made a spectacle unto the world, both to Angels and to men. We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are honored, but we are despised! To the present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and beaten, and homeless. And we labor, working with our own hands. Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we endure; being defamed, we entreat. We have been made as the filth of the world, and are the offscouring of all things unto this day. I do not write these things to shame you, but as my beloved sons I warn you. For though you have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the Gospel. Therefore I beseech you, to follow me.