17For if by the trespass of the one, death reigned through the one; so much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ.
18So then as through one trespass, all men were condemned; even so through one act of righteousness, all men were justified to life.
19For as through the one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the one, many will be made righteous.
20The law came in that the trespass might abound; but where sin abounded, grace abounded more exceedingly,
21that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
1What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
2May it never be! We who died to sin, how could we live in it any longer?
Matthew 9.14-17
(Gospel)
14Then John’s disciples came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples don’t fast?”
15Jesus said to them, “Can the friends of the bridegroom mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.
16No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; for the patch would tear away from the garment, and a worse hole is made.
17Neither do people put new wine into old wineskins, or else the skins would burst, and the wine be spilled, and the skins ruined. No, they put new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.”
Commemorations
Apostle Hermes of the Seventy
He is mentioned in the Epistles of St Paul (Romans 16:14). He served as a bishop in the first-century Church, and died a martyr. His book, The Shepherd, is one of the earliest Christian writings outside of the New Testament, and was held in such esteem by the early Church that it is sometimes found in ancient collections of the Holy Scriptures.
Hermas had been a wealthy man, but had fallen into poverty through his sins. A man, clad all in white and holding a staff, appeared to St Hermas and, telling him that he was an angel of repentance, gave St Hermas twelve commandments:
To believe in God
To live in simplicity and innocence
To love truth and flee from falsehood
To guard his thoughts in chastity
To learn patience and magnanimity of soul
To know that a good and an evil spirit attend every man
To fear God, but not the devil
To perform every good deed and to restrain himself from every evil one
To pray to God in faith from the depths of his heart, so that his prayer might be heard
To preserve himself from melancholy, the daughter of doubt, and from anger