Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Sing a New Song to the Lord

^23 (A) Solomon had two statues of winged creatures^[a] made from olive wood to put in the most holy place. Each creature was four and a half meters tall ^24-26 and four and a half meters across. They had two wings, and the wings were just over two meters long. ²⁷ Solomon put them next to each other in the most holy place. Their wings were spread out and reached across the room. ²⁸ The creatures were also covered with gold.

²⁹ The walls of the two rooms were decorated with carvings of palm trees, flowers, and winged creatures. ³⁰ Even the floor was covered with gold.

^31-32 The two doors to the most holy place were made out of olive wood and were decorated with carvings of palm trees, flowers, and winged creatures. The doors and the carvings were covered with gold. The door frame came to a point at the top.

^33-34 The two doors to the main room of the temple were made out of pine, and each one had two sections^[b] so they could fold open. The door frame was shaped like a rectangle and was made out of olive wood. ³⁵ The doors were covered with gold and were decorated with carvings of palm trees, flowers, and winged creatures.

³⁶ The inner courtyard of the temple had walls made out of three layers of cut stones with one layer of cedar beams.

³⁷ Work began on the temple during Ziv,^[c] the second month of the year, four years after Solomon became king of Israel. ³⁸ Seven years later the workers finished building it during Bul,^[d] the eighth month of the year. It was built exactly as it had been planned.

Bringing People to God

¹¹ We know what it means to respect the Lord, and we encourage everyone to turn to him. God himself knows what we are like, and I hope you also know what kind of people we are. ¹² We are not trying once more to brag about ourselves. But we want you to be proud of us, when you are with those who are not sincere and brag about what others think of them.

¹³ If we seem out of our minds, it is between God and us. But if we are in our right minds, it is for your good. ¹⁴ We are ruled by Christ's love for us. We are certain that if one person died for everyone else, then all of us have died. ¹⁵ And Christ did die for all of us. He died so we would no longer live for ourselves, but for the one who died and was raised to life for us.

¹⁶ We are careful not to judge people by what they seem to be, though we once judged Christ in this way. ¹⁷ Anyone who belongs to Christ is a new person. The past is forgotten, and everything is new.