Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

⁹⁷ O, how I love Your Law! It is what I think about all through the day. ⁹⁸ Your Word makes me wiser than those who hate me, for it is always with me. ⁹⁹ I have better understanding than all my teachers because I think about Your Law. ¹⁰⁰ I have a better understanding than those who are old because I obey Your Word. ¹⁰¹ I have kept my feet from every sinful way so that I may keep Your Word. ¹⁰² I have not turned away from Your Law, for You Yourself have taught me. ¹⁰³ How sweet is Your Word to my taste! It is sweeter than honey to my mouth! ¹⁰⁴ I get understanding from Your Law and so I hate every false way.

The One Place for Worship

12 “These are the Laws you should be careful to obey in the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you for your own as long as you live on the earth. ² Be sure to destroy all the places of worship of the nations whose place you are taking. Destroy them on the high mountains, on the hills, and under every green tree. ³ Break down their altars and crush their pillars of worship. Burn their wooden female gods of worship named Asherim with fire. Cut down the objects made to look like their gods. And destroy their name from that place. ⁴ But do not act like this toward the Lord your God. ⁵ Look for the Lord at the place which the Lord your God will choose from all your family groups. There He will make His name known, and make His home there, and there you will come. ⁶ Bring to this place your burnt gifts, your gifts of worship, the tenth part of what you receive, the gifts of your hands, your promises, your free-will gifts, and the first-born of your cattle and your flock. ⁷ You and those of your house will eat there before the Lord your God, and have joy in all that you do, in which the Lord your God has brought good to you. ⁸ You will not do at all the things we are doing here today, for every man is doing whatever is right in his own eyes. ⁹ For you have not yet come to the resting place and the land the Lord your God is giving you. ¹⁰ You will cross the Jordan and live in the land the Lord your God is giving you. He will give you rest from all those around you who hate you, so you will be safe. ¹¹ Then bring all I tell you to the place where the Lord your God will choose to make His name known. Bring your burnt gifts, your gifts of worship, the tenth part of what you receive, the gifts of your hands, and all the special gifts that you promised to the Lord. ¹² Be full of joy before the Lord your God, you and your sons and daughters, your men and women servants, and the Levite within your town who has no share of their gift.

⁴¹ The Jews talked among themselves against Him. They did not like it because He said, “I am the Bread that came down from heaven.” ⁴² They asked each other, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph? We know His father and mother. How can He say, ‘I came down from heaven’?”

⁴³ Jesus said to them, “Do not talk among yourselves against Me. ⁴⁴ The Father sent Me. No man can come to Me unless the Father gives him the desire to come to Me. Then I will raise him to life on the last day. ⁴⁵ The early preachers wrote, ‘They will all be taught of God.’ ^(A) Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from Him comes to Me. ⁴⁶ No one has seen the Father. I am the only One Who has seen Him. ⁴⁷ For sure, I tell you, he who puts his trust in Me has life that lasts forever. ⁴⁸ I am the Bread of Life. ⁴⁹ Your early fathers ate bread that came from heaven in the desert. They died. ⁵⁰ But this is the Bread that comes down from heaven. The one who eats it never dies. ⁵¹ I am the Living Bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats this Bread, he will live forever. The Bread which I will give is My flesh. I will give this for the life of the world.”