¹⁶ Live as free people,^(A) but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil;^(B) live as God’s slaves.^(C)

Psalm 23

A psalm of David.

Watchfulness^(A)(B)

³⁵ “Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, ³⁶ like servants waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him. ³⁷ It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes.^(C) Truly I tell you, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them.^{(D) 38} It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the middle of the night or toward daybreak. ³⁹ But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief^(E) was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. ⁴⁰ You also must be ready,^(F) because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”

³¹ Our ancestors ate the manna^(A) in the wilderness; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’^[a]”^(B)

⁹ However, as it is written:

The Nature of True Apostleship

4 This, then, is how you ought to regard us: as servants^(A) of Christ and as those entrusted^(B) with the mysteries^(C) God has revealed. ² Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful.

⁸ And God is able^(A) to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need,^(B) you will abound in every good work. ⁹ As it is written:

¹⁰ Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food^(E) will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness.^(F)