Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany

15Verse 15. The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers. You must listen to him. 16Verse 16. This is what you asked of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, “Let us not hear the voice of the LORD our God or see this great fire anymore, so that we will not die!” 17Verse 17. Then the LORD said to me, “They have spoken well. 18Verse 18. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. I will put My words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him. 19Verse 19. And I will hold accountable anyone who does not listen to My words that the prophet speaks in My name. 20Verse 20. But if any prophet dares to speak a message in My name that I have not commanded him to speak, or to speak in the name of other gods, that prophet must be put to death.”

1Verse 1. Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. 2Verse 2. The one who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know. 3Verse 3. But the one who loves God is known by God. 4Verse 4. So about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that an idol is nothing at all in the world, and that there is no God but one. 5Verse 5. For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as there are many so-called gods and lords), 6Verse 6. yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we exist. And there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we exist. 7Verse 7. But not everyone has this knowledge. Some people are still so accustomed to idols that they eat such food as if it were sacrificed to an idol. And since their conscience is weak, it is defiled. 8Verse 8. But food does not bring us closer to God: We are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do. 9Verse 9. Be careful, however, that your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak. 10Verse 10. For if someone with a weak conscience sees you who are well informed eating in an idol’s temple, will he not be encouraged to eat food sacrificed to idols? 11Verse 11. So this weak brother, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge. 12Verse 12. By sinning against your brothers in this way and wounding their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. 13Verse 13. Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to stumble.

21Verse 21. Then Jesus and His companions went to Capernaum, and right away Jesus entered the synagogue on the Sabbath and began to teach. 22Verse 22. The people were astonished at His teaching, because He taught as one who had authority, and not as the scribes. 23Verse 23. Suddenly a man with an unclean spirit cried out in the synagogue: 24Verse 24. “What do You want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have You come to destroy us? I know who You are — the Holy One of God!” 25Verse 25. But Jesus rebuked the spirit. “Be silent!” He said. “Come out of him!” 26Verse 26. At this, the unclean spirit threw the man into convulsions and came out with a loud shriek. 27Verse 27. All the people were amazed and began to ask one another, “What is this? A new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey Him!” 28Verse 28. And the news about Jesus spread quickly through the whole region of Galilee.