M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

Laws about Paying Back What Is Owed

22 “If a man steals a bull or a sheep and kills it or sells it, he will pay five bulls for the bull and four sheep for the sheep. ² If the robber is caught while breaking in, and is hit so that he dies, the owner of the house is not guilty for his blood. ³ But if the sun has risen on him, there will be guilt for his blood. The robber must pay for the loss. If he has nothing, then he must be sold for stealing. ⁴ If the stolen bull or donkey or sheep is found alive with him, he must pay twice what it is worth. ⁵ If a man lets his cattle eat from a field or grape-field and lets his cattle loose to eat in another man’s field, he will pay for the loss from the best of his own field or grape-field.

⁶ “When a fire starts and spreads to thorn bushes so as to burn up picked grain or standing grain or the field itself, he who started the fire will pay for the loss.

⁷ “If a man gives his neighbor money or things to keep for him, and it is stolen from the man’s house, if the robber is caught he will pay twice as much as the loss. ⁸ If the robber is not caught, then the owner of the house will be brought to the judges. They will see if he stole what belongs to his neighbor. ⁹ For every wrong act, if it is for bull, donkey, sheep, clothing, or any lost thing about which someone says, ‘This is mine,’ the stories of both men will come in front of the judges. Whoever the judges say is guilty will pay his neighbor twice as much as the loss.

¹⁰ “If a man gives his neighbor a donkey, bull, sheep or any animal to keep for him, and it dies or is hurt or is driven away while no one is looking, ¹¹ the two men will make a promise before the Lord that he has not taken what belongs to his neighbor. The owner will take his word for it. And he will not make him pay for the loss. ¹² But if it is stolen from him, he will pay the owner for the loss. ¹³ If the animal is torn to pieces, let him bring it to prove what happened. He will not pay for what has been torn to pieces.

¹⁴ “If a man asks to use anything that belongs to his neighbor, and it gets hurt or dies while its owner is not with it, the man who was using it will pay for the loss. ¹⁵ If its owner is with it, the man who was using it will not pay for the loss. If he paid money to use it, then the loss is paid for.

Laws about Right Living

¹⁶ “If a man tempts a woman who has never had a man and is not promised in marriage, and lies with her, he must pay a wedding gift for her to be his wife. ¹⁷ If her father will not give her to him, he will pay the wedding gift that is to be paid for women who have never had a man.

¹⁸ “Do not allow a woman to live who does witchcraft. ¹⁹ Whoever does sex sins with an animal will be put to death.

²⁰ “He who gives a gift in worship to any god other than the Lord alone will be destroyed. ²¹ Do not do wrong to a stranger or make it hard for him. For you were strangers in the land of Egypt. ²² Do not bring trouble to any woman whose husband has died or any child whose parents have died. ²³ If you bring them trouble, and they cry out to Me, for sure I will hear their cry. ²⁴ My anger will burn and I will kill you with the sword. Then your wives will lose their husbands. And your children will lose their fathers.

²⁵ “If you let any of the poor among My people use your money, do not act toward him like one who is owed money. And do not make him pay you for the use of it. ²⁶ If you ever take your neighbor’s coat to keep while he owes you money, return it to him before the sun goes down. ²⁷ For that is his only covering. It is his clothing for his body. What else will he sleep in? When he cries out to Me, I will hear him. For I have loving-pity.

²⁸ “Do not curse God, or a ruler of your people. ²⁹ Do not wait before giving Me a gift from your gathered grain and the fruit of your fields. You will give to Me the first-born of your sons. ³⁰ You will do the same with your cattle and your sheep. The first-born will be with its mother seven days. On the eighth day you will give it to Me. ³¹ You will be holy men to Me. So you will not eat any flesh torn to pieces in the field. You will throw it to the dogs.

Christ Lived Before the World Was Made

1 The Word (Christ) was in the beginning. The Word was with God. The Word was God. ² He was with God in the beginning. ³ He made all things. Nothing was made without Him making it. ⁴ Life began by Him. His Life was the Light for men. ⁵ The Light shines in the darkness. The darkness has never been able to put out the Light.

John the Baptist Tells of the Coming of Christ

⁶ There was a man sent from God whose name was John. ⁷ He came to tell what he knew about the Light so that all men might believe through him. ⁸ John was not the Light, but he was sent to tell about the Light.

⁹ This true Light, coming into the world, gives light to every man. ¹⁰ He came into the world. The world was made by Him, but it did not know Him. ¹¹ He came to His own, but His own did not receive Him. ¹² He gave the right and the power to become children of God to those who received Him. He gave this to those who put their trust in His name. ¹³ These children of God were not born of blood and of flesh and of man’s desires, but they were born of God. ¹⁴ Christ became human flesh and lived among us. We saw His shining-greatness. This greatness is given only to a much-loved Son from His Father. He was full of loving-favor and truth.

John the Baptist Makes the Way Ready for Jesus Christ ^(A)

¹⁵ John told about Christ and said, “I have been telling you about this One. I said, ‘He is coming after me. He is more important than I because He lived before me.’” ¹⁶ From Him Who has so much we have all received loving-favor, one loving-favor after another. ¹⁷ The Law was given through Moses, but loving-favor and truth came through Jesus Christ. ¹⁸ The much-loved Son is beside the Father. No man has ever seen God. But Christ has made God known to us.

¹⁹ The Jews sent their religious leaders and men from the family group of Levi to ask John, “Who are you?” ²⁰ He told them without holding back any words, “I am not the Christ!” ²¹ They asked him, “Then who are you? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not!” Then they asked, “Are you the special One Who was to come to speak for God?” John said, “No.” ²² Then they asked him, “Who are you? We must tell those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?”

²³ John said, “I am the voice of one crying in the desert. ‘Make the road straight for the Lord,’ as the early preacher Isaiah said.” ^(B)

²⁴ Those who had been sent were from the proud religious law-keepers. ²⁵ They asked John again, “Then why do you baptize if you are not the Christ or Elijah or that special One Who was to come to speak for God?” ²⁶ John answered, “I baptize with water. But there is One standing among you Whom you do not know. ²⁷ He is the One Who is coming after me. I am not good enough to get down and help Him take off His shoes.” ²⁸ All this happened when John was baptizing in the town of Bethany. He was on the other side of the Jordan River.

The Baptism of Jesus ^(C)

²⁹ The next day John the Baptist saw Jesus coming to him. He said, “See! The Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world! ³⁰ I have been talking about Him. I said, ‘One is coming after me Who is more important than I, because He lived before I was born.’ ³¹ I did not know who He was, but I have come to baptize with water so the Jews might know about Him.”

³² Then John said, “I saw the Holy Spirit come down on Jesus as a dove from heaven. The Holy Spirit stayed on Him. ³³ I did not know Him then. But God sent me to baptize with water. God said to me, ‘The Holy Spirit will come down and stay on Him. He is the One Who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ ³⁴ I saw this happen. I am now saying that Jesus is the Son of God.”

Jesus Calls Andrew and Peter

³⁵ The next day John the Baptist was standing with two of his own followers. ³⁶ Jesus walked by. John looked at Him and said, “See! The Lamb of God.” ³⁷ John’s two followers heard him say this and followed Jesus.

³⁸ Jesus turned around and saw them following. He said to them, “What are you looking for?” They answered, “Teacher, where are you staying?” ³⁹ He said to them, “Come and see.” They followed Him and saw where He lived. They stayed with Him that day. It was about four o’clock in the afternoon.

⁴⁰ Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who had heard John’s words and had followed Jesus. ⁴¹ The first thing he did was to find his brother Simon. He said to him, “We have found the Christ!” ⁴² Andrew took Simon to Jesus. When Jesus saw Simon, He said, “You are Simon, the son of John. Your name will be Cephas.” The name Cephas means Peter, or a rock.

Jesus Calls Philip And Nathanael

⁴³ The next day Jesus wanted to go to the country of Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow Me.” ⁴⁴ Philip was from the town of Bethsaida. Andrew and Peter were from this town also. ⁴⁵ Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found the One Moses wrote about in the Law. He is the One the early preachers wrote about. He is Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of Joseph.” ⁴⁶ Nathanael said, “Can anything good come out of the town of Nazareth?” Philip said, “Come and see.”

⁴⁷ Jesus saw Nathanael coming to Him and said, “See! There is a true Jew. There is nothing false in him.” ⁴⁸ Nathanael said to Jesus, “How do You know me?” Jesus answered him, “Before Philip talked to you, I saw you under the fig tree.” ⁴⁹ Nathanael said to Him, “Teacher, You are the Son of God. You are the King of the Jews.” ⁵⁰ Jesus said to him, “Do you believe because I said I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than that. ⁵¹ For sure, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and God’s angels going up and coming and down on the Son of Man.”

The Lord Is Speaking to Job

40 Then the Lord said to Job, ² “Will one who finds fault not agree with the All-powerful? He who speaks strong words against God, let him answer.”

³ Job answered the Lord and said, ⁴ “See, I am not important. What can I answer You? I put my hand on my mouth. ⁵ I have spoken once, and I cannot answer; even twice, and I have no more to say.”

⁶ Then the Lord answered out of the storm, and said, ⁷ “Get ready like a man. I will ask you, and you answer Me. ⁸ Will you say what I decide is wrong? Will you say that I have done wrong, that you may be made right? ⁹ Do you have an arm like God? Can you thunder with a voice like His?

¹⁰ “Dress yourself with shining-greatness and great power. Cover yourself with honor and greatness. ¹¹ Pour out your anger that is flowing over. Look on everyone who is proud, and put him to shame. ¹² Look on everyone who is proud, and bring him down. Crush the sinful where they stand. ¹³ Hide them all in the dust together. Shut them up in the hidden place. ¹⁴ Then I will also tell you that your own right hand can save you.

¹⁵ “See now the hippopotamus, which I made as well as you. He eats grass like an ox. ¹⁶ See, his strength is in his body. His power is in his stomach. ¹⁷ He moves his tail like a cedar tree. His legs are made very strong. ¹⁸ His bones are like brass. His legs are like pieces of iron.

¹⁹ “He is the first of the works of God. Let his maker bring him his sword. ²⁰ For sure the mountains bring food to him where all the animals of the field play. ²¹ He lies down under the lotus plants, hidden in the high river grass. ²² He lies in the shadow of the lotus plants, with the willow trees of the river around him. ²³ If a river flows over, he is not afraid. He is sure of himself even if the Jordan rushes against his mouth. ²⁴ Can anyone take him when he is watching? Can anyone catch him and put a ring in his nose?

Paul Proves He Is a Missionary

10 I, Paul, ask you this myself. I do it through Christ Who is so gentle and kind. Some people say that I am gentle and quiet when I am with you, but that I have no fear and that my language is strong when I am away from you. ² Do not make me speak strong words to you when I come. Some people think we want the things of the world because of what we do and say. I have decided to talk to these people if I have to. ³ It is true, we live in a body of flesh. But we do not fight like people of the world. ⁴ We do not use those things to fight with that the world uses. We use the things God gives to fight with and they have power. Those things God gives to fight with destroy the strong-places of the devil. ⁵ We break down every thought and proud thing that puts itself up against the wisdom of God. We take hold of every thought and make it obey Christ. ⁶ We are ready to punish those who will not obey as soon as you obey in everything.

⁷ You are seeing things only as men see them. If anyone feels sure he belongs to Christ, he should remember that we belong to Christ also. ⁸ I am not ashamed if I say this of myself. The Lord gave me the right and the power to help you become stronger, not to break you down. ⁹ I do not want you to think I am trying to make you afraid with my letters. ¹⁰ They say, “His letters are strong and they make us think. When he is here with us, he is weak and he is hard to listen to.” ¹¹ What we say in our letters we will do when we get there. They should understand this. ¹² We do not compare ourselves with those who think they are good. They compare themselves with themselves. They decide what they think is good or bad and compare themselves with those ideas. They are foolish. ¹³ But we will not talk with pride more than God allows us to. We will follow the plan of the work He has given us to do and you are a part of that work. ¹⁴ We did not go farther than we were supposed to go when we came to you. But we did come to you with the Good News of Christ. ¹⁵ We take no pride in the work others have done there. But we hope your faith will keep growing because of help from others. Then we will grow because of you. ¹⁶ We hope to preach the Good News in the countries on the other side of you. Then we would take no pride in work done by another person in another country. ¹⁷ If anyone wants to be proud, he should be proud of what the Lord has done. ¹⁸ It is not what a man thinks and says of himself that is important. It is what God thinks of him.