Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Vav.

Obey God and Prosper

6 “Now this is the command; the statutes and the judgments (precepts) which the Lord your God has commanded me to teach you, so that you might do (follow, obey) them in the land which you are crossing over [the Jordan] to possess, ² so that you and your son and your grandson may fear and worship the Lord your God [with awe-filled reverence and profound respect], to keep [and actively do] all His statutes and His commandments which I am commanding you, all the days of your life, so that your days may be prolonged. ³ Therefore listen, O Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly [in numbers], as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land ^[a]flowing with milk and honey.

⁴ “Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one [the only God]! ⁵ You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and mind and with all your soul and with all your strength [your entire being]. ⁶ These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be [written] on your heart and mind. ⁷ You shall teach them diligently to your ^[b]children [impressing God’s precepts on their minds and penetrating their hearts with His truths] and shall speak of them when you sit in your house and when you walk on the road and when you lie down and when you get up. ⁸ And you shall bind them as a sign on your hand (forearm), and they shall be used as ^[c]bands (frontals, frontlets) on your forehead. ⁹ You shall write them on the ^[d]doorposts of your house and on your gates.

²⁰ “When your son asks you in time to come, saying, ‘What is the meaning of the testimonies and statutes and judgments (precepts) which the Lord our God has commanded you?’ ²¹ then you shall say to your son, ‘We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt, and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. ²² Moreover, the Lord showed great and terrible signs and wonders before our eyes against Egypt, Pharaoh and all his household; ²³ He brought us out from there in order to bring us in, to give us the land which He had sworn to [give] our fathers.’ ²⁴ So the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear [and worship] the Lord our God [with awe-filled reverence and profound respect] for our good always and so that He might preserve us alive, as it is today. ²⁵ It will be [considered] righteousness for us [that is, right standing with God] if we are careful to observe all this commandment before the Lord our God—just as He has commanded us.

⁸ If, however, you are [really] fulfilling the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself [that is, if you have an unselfish concern for others and do things for their benefit]” you are doing well.^{(A) 9} But if you show partiality [prejudice, favoritism], you are committing sin and are convicted by the Law as offenders. ¹⁰ For whoever keeps the whole Law but stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of [breaking] all of it. ¹¹ For He who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery, but you murder, you have become ^[a]guilty of transgressing the [entire] Law.^{(B) 12} Speak and act [consistently] as people who are going to be judged by the law of liberty [that moral law that frees obedient Christians from the bondage of sin]. ¹³ For judgment will be merciless to one who has shown no mercy; but [to the one who has shown mercy] mercy triumphs [victoriously] over judgment.