Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

¹⁵ Consider that I have set before thee this day life and good, and on the other hand death and evil:

¹⁶ That thou mayst love the Lord thy God, and walk in his ways, and keep his commandments and ceremonies and judgments, and thou mayst live, and he may multiply thee, and bless thee in the land, which thou shalt go in to possess.

¹⁷ But if thy heart be turned away, so that thou wilt not hear, and being deceived with error thou adore strange gods, and serve them:

¹⁸ I foretell thee this day that thou shalt perish, and shalt remain but a short time in the land, to which thou shalt pass over the Jordan, and shalt go in to possess it.

¹⁹ I call heaven and earth to witness this day, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Choose therefore life, that both thou and thy seed may live:

²⁰ And that thou mayst love the Lord thy God, and obey his voice, and adhere to him (for he is thy life, and the length of thy days,) that thou mayst dwell in the land, for which the Lord swore to thy fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that he would give it them.

1 Blessed is the man who hath not walked in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stood in the way of sinners, nor sat in the chair of pestilence.

² But his will is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he shall meditate day and night.

³ And he shall be like a tree which is planted near the running waters, which shall bring forth its fruit, in due season. And his leaf shall not fall off: and all whatsoever he shall do shall prosper.

⁴ Not so the wicked, not so: but like the dust, which the wind driveth from the face of the earth.

⁵ Therefore the wicked shall not rise again in judgment: nor sinners in the council of the just.

⁶ For the Lord knoweth the way of the just: and the way of the wicked shall perish.

¹ Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy, a brother: to Philemon, our beloved and fellow labourer;

² And to Appia, our dearest sister, and to Archippus, our fellow soldier, and to the church which is in thy house:

³ Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

⁴ I give thanks to my God, always making a remembrance of thee in my prayers.

⁵ Hearing of thy charity and faith, which thou hast in the Lord Jesus, and towards all the saints:

⁶ That the communication of thy faith may be made evident in the acknowledgment of every good work, that is in you in Christ Jesus.

⁷ For I have had great joy and consolation in thy charity, because the bowels of the saints have been refreshed by thee, brother.

⁸ Wherefore though I have much confidence in Christ Jesus, to command thee that which is to the purpose:

⁹ For charity sake I rather beseech, whereas thou art such a one, as Paul an old man, and now a prisoner also of Jesus Christ.

¹⁰ I beseech thee for my son, whom I have begotten in my bands, Onesimus,

¹¹ Who hath been heretofore unprofitable to thee, but now is profitable both to me and thee,

¹² Whom I have sent back to thee. And do thou receive him as my own bowels.

¹³ Whom I would have retained with me, that in thy stead he might have ministered to me in the bands of the gospel:

¹⁴ But without thy counsel I would do nothing: that thy good deed might not be as it were of necessity, but voluntary.

¹⁵ For perhaps he therefore departed for a season from thee, that thou mightest receive him again for ever:

¹⁶ Not now as a servant, but instead of a servant, a most dear brother, especially to me: but how much more to thee both in the flesh and in the Lord?

¹⁷ If therefore thou count me a partner, receive him as myself.

¹⁸ And if he hath wronged thee in any thing, or is in thy debt, put that to my account.

¹⁹ I Paul have written it with my own hand: I will repay it: not to say to thee, that thou owest me thy own self also.

²⁰ Yea, brother. May I enjoy thee in the Lord. Refresh my bowels in the Lord.

²¹ Trusting in thy obedience, I have written to thee: knowing that thou wilt also do more than I say.

²⁵ And there went great multitudes with him. And turning, he said to them:

²⁶ If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.

²⁷ And whosoever doth not carry his cross and come after me, cannot be my disciple.

²⁸ For which of you having a mind to build a tower, doth not first sit down, and reckon the charges that are necessary, whether he have wherewithal to finish it:

²⁹ Lest, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that see it begin to mock him,

³⁰ Saying: This man began to build, and was not able to finish.

³¹ Or what king, about to go to make war against another king, doth not first sit down, and think whether he be able, with ten thousand, to meet him that, with twenty thousand, cometh against him?

³² Or else, whilst the other is yet afar off, sending an embassy, he desireth conditions of peace.

³³ So likewise every one of you that doth not renounce all that he possesseth, cannot be my disciple.