The Second Day of Lent
Posted on February 19, 2026 by under
Scripture: Galatians 5:5-14 (NKJV)
5:5 For we through the Spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love.
7 You ran well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? 8 This persuasion does not come from Him who calls you. 9 A little leaven leavens the whole lump. 10 I have confidence in you, in the Lord, that you will have no other mind; but he who troubles you shall bear his judgment, whoever he is.
11 And I, brethren, if I still preach circumcision, why do I still suffer persecution? Then the offense of the cross has ceased. 12 I could wish that those who trouble you would even cut themselves off!
13 For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. 14 For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
Devotion
The ritualistic abuse of yesterday’s reading is all the more abhorrent in the light of those leading the Galatians astray. They were warping a God-ordained sacrament to proclaim their spiritual superiority! Having a bit of flesh removed when they were eight days old, they asserted, was a fulfilling of the Law that those born to Gentile parents lacked. Therefore, Gentiles couldn’t be as fully members of God’s Kingdom as they were—apparently even asserting that Paul would agree with their saying this. St. Paul, though, rails against it: if having their foreskins removed as infants made them superior, he “could wish” them to become really holy by emasculating themselves altogether!
He doesn’t wish this, though, but that they repent. Neither circumcision nor the lack of it was something to boast about, but only that God the Holy Ghost has given you faith in the work of Jesus to save you. That boast, Paul teaches, should come through works of love toward others, not in boastful words. The glory for this faith is not yours, but His. Circumcision, the sacrament given to God’s people as they were waiting for their Savior to come, wasn’t designed such that one should boast in the physical reality of its having been done any more than we should boast of the bread or type of wine used in the Lord’s Supper. We glorify God for the Word of promise He has attached to it and the work that He, alone, does through it.
Collect: Almighty and Everlasting God, Who hatest nothing that Thou hast made, and dost forgive the sins of all those who are penitent: Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily lamenting our sins, and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of Thee, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
