God’s Response and Promise

God Will Restore Israel

¹⁴ Then the word of the Lord came to me: ¹⁵ Mortal, your kinsfolk, your own kin, your fellow exiles,^[a] the whole house of Israel, all of them, are those of whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, “Stay far from the Lord; to us this land is given for a possession.”^{(A) 16} Therefore say: Thus says the Lord God: Though I removed them far away among the nations and though I scattered them among the countries, yet I have been a sanctuary to them for a little while^[b] in the countries where they have gone.^{(B) 17} Therefore say: Thus says the Lord God: I will gather you from the peoples and assemble you out of the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel.^{(C) 18} When they come there, they will remove from it all its detestable things and all its abominations.^{(D) 19} I will give them one heart and put a new spirit within them;^[c] I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh,^{(E) 20} so that they may follow my statutes and keep my ordinances and obey them. Then they shall be my people, and I will be their God.^(F)

A Call to Holy Living

¹³ Therefore prepare your minds for action;^[a] discipline yourselves; set all your hope on the grace that Jesus Christ will bring you when he is revealed.^{(A) 14} Like obedient children, do not be conformed to the desires that you formerly had in ignorance. ¹⁵ Instead, as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct,^{(B) 16} for it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”^(C)

¹⁷ If you invoke as Father the one who judges impartially according to each person’s work, live in fear during the time of your exile.^{(D) 18} You know that you were ransomed from the futile conduct inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold ¹⁹ but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without defect or blemish.^{(E) 20} He was destined before the foundation of the world but was revealed at the end of the ages for your sake.^{(F) 21} Through him you have come to trust in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your trust and hope are in God.

²² Now that you have purified your souls^[b] by your obedience to the truth^[c] so that you have genuine mutual affection, love one another deeply from the heart.^{[d](G) 23} You have been born anew, not of perishable but of imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God.^{[e](H) 24} For

That word is the good news that was announced to you.^(J)

A Sinful Woman Forgiven

³⁶ One of the Pharisees asked Jesus^[a] to eat with him, and when he went into the Pharisee’s house he reclined to dine.^{(A) 37} And a woman in the city who was a sinner, having learned that he was eating in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster jar of ointment. ³⁸ She stood behind him at his feet, weeping, and began to bathe his feet with her tears and to dry them with her hair, kissing his feet and anointing them with the ointment. ³⁹ Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw it, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what kind of woman this is who is touching him, that she is a sinner.”^{(B) 40} Jesus spoke up and said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” “Teacher,” he replied, “speak.” ⁴¹ “A certain moneylender had two debtors; one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty.^{(C) 42} When they could not pay, he canceled the debts for both of them. Now which of them will love him more?” ⁴³ Simon answered, “I suppose the one for whom he canceled the greater debt.” And Jesus^[b] said to him, “You have judged rightly.” ⁴⁴ Then turning toward the woman, he said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has bathed my feet with her tears and dried them with her hair.^{(D) 45} You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not stopped kissing my feet. ⁴⁶ You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment.^{(E) 47} Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven; hence she has shown great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven loves little.” ⁴⁸ Then he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”^{(F) 49} But those who were at the table with him began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?” ⁵⁰ But he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”^(G)

Some Women Accompany Jesus

8 Soon afterward he went on through one town and village after another, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. The twelve were with him,^{(H) 2} as well as some women who had been cured of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out,^{(I) 3} and Joanna, the wife of Herod’s steward Chuza, and Susanna, and many others, who ministered to them^[c] out of their own resources.