Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

³ Grace be with you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

⁴ I thank my God always in your behalf, for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ – ⁵ that in all things you are made rich by him, in all learning and in all knowledge, ⁶ even as the testimony of Jesus Christ was confirmed in you, ⁷ so that you are behind in no gift, and wait for the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁸ He will strengthen you to the end, so that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁹ For God is faithful, by whom you are called to the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

²⁴ Moreover in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will grow dark, and the moon will not give her light, ²⁵ and the stars of heaven will fall; and the powers which are in heaven shall move. ²⁶ And then will they see the Son of man coming in the clouds with great power and glory. ²⁷ And then he will send his angels, and will gather together his elect from the four winds, and from one end of the world to the other.

²⁸ Learn from a similitude of the fig tree. When its branches are yet tender and it has brought forth leaves, you know that summer is near. ²⁹ So also in like manner, when you see these things come to pass, understand that it is near, even at the doors. ³⁰ Truly I say to you that this generation will not pass till all these things be done.

³¹ Heaven and earth shall pass, but my words will not pass. ³² But of that day and hour no one knows, no, not the angels who are in heaven, nor the Son himself, but the Father only. ³³ Take heed. Watch and pray, for you know not when the time is. ³⁴ It is as a man who has gone into a far country, and has left his house, and given authority to his servants, and to each his work, and instructed the porter to watch.

³⁵ Watch therefore. For you know not when the master of the house will come – whether at evening or midnight, whether at the cock-crowing or in the dawning – ³⁶ lest, if he come suddenly, he should find you sleeping. ³⁷ And what I say to you, I say to all: Watch!