Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

¹³ Who among you is wise and knows about things? He should show what he knows by his good life. He will not be proud because he is wise.

¹⁴ Are you a person who is very jealous? In your hearts you want to be better than others? Then stop being proud of yourself. Do not say what is not true.

¹⁵ God did not give you wisdom like that. But it comes from this world. It comes from people. It comes from bad spirits.

¹⁶ If people are jealous of others, their lives are not right. They do every kind of wrong thing to get what they want. They confuse and upset people.

¹⁷ First of all, when God makes people wise, they are holy. They do not fight. They are gentle. They listen to what other people say. They are very kind and do many good things. They do not quarrel. They do not say what is not true.

¹⁸ People who do not quarrel have peace. When there is peace, there is a good life.

4 Why do you fight and quarrel? It is because your feelings are fighting inside of you. That is why you fight.

² You want something but you cannot get it. Then you kill. You want something very much and cannot get it. So you quarrel and fight. You do not get it because you do not ask God for it.

³ You ask for it, but you do not get it, because you ask in a wrong way. You want to use it for yourselves and not for others.

⁷ So let God control you. Fight the devil and he will run away from you.

⁸ Come to God and he will come to you. You bad people, make your hands clean! You love what is good and what is wrong at the same time. Make your hearts clean.

³⁰ Then they left that place and went through Galilee. Jesus did not want anyone to know it.

³¹ He taught his disciples. He said to them, `The Son of Man will be given over to men. They will kill him. When he is killed, he will rise after three days.'

³² The disciples did not understand what he said and they were afraid to ask him.

³³ They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, he asked the disciples, `What were you talking about on the way coming?'

³⁴ But they said nothing, because on the road they had been talking among themselves about who was the greatest person.

³⁵ He sat down and called the twelve disciples to him. He said, `The way to be first is to put yourself last and be a servant to the others.'

³⁶ Jesus took a child and had him stand in front of them. Then he took the child in his arms and said,

³⁷ `If anyone takes in a child like this for my sake, he takes in me. If anyone takes in me, he takes in the One who sent me.'