¹⁷ So Samuel said, ^(A)“When you were little in your own eyes, were you not head of the tribes of Israel? And did not the Lord anoint you king over Israel? ¹⁸ Now the Lord sent you on a mission, and said, ‘Go, and utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are ^[a]consumed.’ ¹⁹ Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord? Why did you swoop down on the ^[b]spoil, and do evil in the sight of the Lord?”

²⁰ And Saul said to Samuel, ^(B)“But I have obeyed the voice of the Lord, and gone on the mission on which the Lord sent me, and brought back Agag king of Amalek; I have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. ^21 (C)But the people took of the plunder, sheep and oxen, the best of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal.”

²² So Samuel said:

The Humbled and Exalted Christ

^5 (A)Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, ⁶ who, ^(B)being in the form of God, did not consider it ^[a]robbery to be equal with God, ^7 (C)but ^[b]made Himself of no reputation, taking the form ^(D)of a bondservant, and ^(E)coming in the likeness of men. ⁸ And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and ^(F)became ^(G)obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. ^9 (H)Therefore God also ^(I)has highly exalted Him and ^(J)given Him the name which is above every name,

Jesus Promises Another Helper

^15 (A)“If you love Me, ^[a]keep My commandments.