Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Vav.

¹⁰ “And I stayed on the mountain, like the first time, forty days and nights, and the Lord listened to me at that time also; the Lord was not willing to destroy you. ¹¹ Then the Lord said to me, ‘Arise, go on your journey ahead of the people, so that they may go in and take possession of the land which I swore to their fathers to give to them.’

¹² “And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require from you, but to fear [and worship] the Lord your God [with awe-filled reverence and profound respect], to walk [that is, to live each and every day] in all His ways and to love Him, and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul [your choices, your thoughts, your whole being], ¹³ and to keep the commandments of the Lord and His statutes which I am commanding you today for your good? ¹⁴ Behold, the heavens and the highest of heavens belong to the Lord your God, the earth and all that is in it. ¹⁵ Yet the Lord ^[a]had a delight in loving your fathers and set His affection on them, and He chose their descendants after them, you above all peoples, as it is this day. ¹⁶ So circumcise [that is, remove sin from] your heart, and be stiff-necked (stubborn, obstinate) no longer. ¹⁷ For the Lord your ^[b]God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, the awesome God who does not show ^[c]partiality nor take a bribe. ¹⁸ He ^[d]executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and ^[e]shows His love for the stranger (resident alien, foreigner) by giving him food and clothing. ¹⁹ Therefore, show your love for the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. ²⁰ You shall fear [and worship] the Lord your God [with awe-filled reverence and profound respect]; you shall serve Him and cling to Him [hold tightly to Him, be united with Him], and you shall swear [oaths] by His name. ²¹ He is your praise and glory; He is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome things which you have seen with your own eyes. ²² Your fathers went down to Egypt, seventy persons [in all], and now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars of heaven.

Faith and Works

¹⁴ What is the benefit, my fellow believers, if someone claims to have faith but has no [good] works [as evidence]? Can that [kind of] faith save him? [No, a mere claim of faith is not sufficient—genuine faith produces good works.] ¹⁵ If a brother or sister is without [adequate] clothing and lacks [enough] food for each day, ¹⁶ and one of you says to them, “Go in peace [with my blessing], [keep] warm and feed yourselves,” but he does not give them the necessities for the body, what good does that do? ¹⁷ So too, faith, if it does not have works [to back it up], is by itself dead [inoperative and ineffective].

¹⁸ But someone may say, “You [claim to] have faith and I have [good] works; show me your [alleged] faith without the works [if you can], and I will show you my faith by my works [that is, by what I do].” ¹⁹ You believe that ^[a]God is one; you do well [to believe that]. The demons also believe [that], and shudder and bristle [in awe-filled terror—they have seen His wrath]!^{(A) 20} But are you willing to recognize, you foolish [spiritually shallow] person, that faith without [good] works is useless? ²¹ Was our father Abraham not [shown to be] justified by works [of obedience which expressed his faith] when he offered Isaac his son on the altar [as a sacrifice to God]?^{(B) 22} You see that [his] faith was working together with his works, and as a result of the works, his faith was completed [reaching its maturity when he expressed his faith through obedience]. ²³ And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and this [faith] was credited to him [by God] as righteousness and as conformity to His will,” and he was called the friend of God.^{(C) 24} You see that a man (believer) is justified by works and not by faith alone [that is, by acts of obedience a born-again believer reveals his faith]. ²⁵ In the same way, was Rahab the prostitute not justified by works too, when she received the [Hebrew] ^[b]spies as guests and protected them, and sent them away [to escape] by a different route?^{(D) 26} For just as the [human] body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works [of obedience] is also dead.