Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 101
A song of David.
1 I will sing of God’s unsparing love and justice;
to You, O Eternal One, I will sing praises.
2 I will seek to live a life of integrity;
when will You come to me?
I will walk in my house
with an honest and true heart.
3 I will refuse to look
on any sordid thing;
I detest the worthless deeds of those who stray;
evil will not get a hold on me.
4 I will rid my heart of all perversion;
I will not flirt with any evil.
5 Whoever secretly slanders his neighbor,
I will silence;
I will not tolerate
a condescending smirk, an arrogant heart.
6 I will look for those who are loyal in the land
so that they may live with me and know my pleasure.
Whoever walks with integrity
will enter my service.
7 The one who makes a habit of deceit
will not be welcome in my house;
The one who lies
will not remain in my presence for long.
8 Every morning I will purge
all the wicked from the land
So as to rid the city of the Eternal
of those who practice evil.
24 Assyria’s king transported men from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sephar-vaim, and he made them live in the Samaritan towns and cities where the Israelites had lived. Samaria now belonged to these new inhabitants of the towns and cities. 25 When they first began living in Samaria, the foreigners lacked any fear of the Eternal One. So He caused lions to invade their ignorant community and kill some of the people. 26 One of them contacted Assyria’s king.
New Samaritan: The people you have transported to the cities of Samaria from foreign lands do not know the ways of Samaria’s God. He caused lions to invade our community and kill some of the people who are ignorant of the ways of Samaria’s God.
King of Assyria: 27 Send for one of the exiled priests, and take him back there so he can teach these new inhabitants the ways of Samaria’s God.
28 Ironically a priest who was exiled by God for not following His ways was brought back to Samaria and became responsible for teaching the new inhabitants how to revere the Eternal. He stayed at Bethel.
29 Even after all of this, all the nations were still crafting their own gods and placing them in the high places built by the Samaritans, each nation in the cities where it settled. 30 The Babylonian men crafted Succoth-benoth, the Cuth men crafted Nergal, the Hamath men crafted Ashima, 31 the Avvites crafted Nibhaz and Tartak, and the Sepharvites gave their own children as burnt sacrifices to their gods Adrammelech and Anammelech. 32 They also greatly feared the Eternal One and nominated some of their own men to act as priests at the high places, interceding for them at the high places’ temples. 33 They feared Him while at the same time honoring the gods of the nations from where they had been exiled.
34 Still today, they honor the earlier traditions of the wicked people before them, and they fail to revere the Eternal properly. They do not honor the sacred laws and judgments that He gave to the descendants of Jacob (whom He called Israel). 35 He entered into a sacred covenant with the new Samaritans and gave them the same sacred commands to follow.
Eternal One: I am your God! Do not fear, bow down to, serve, or sacrifice to any other gods except for Me. 36 You should only fear, bow down to, and sacrifice to Me who led you out of Egypt with My great power and an outstretched arm. 37 Be careful to observe all the laws, statutes, ordinances, and commands I have inscribed for you. And do not revere any other gods. 38 Remember the sacred covenant you have entered into with Me, and do not revere any other gods except Me. I am your God—your only God! 39 You should only fear the Eternal One your God. I will deliver you from the grip of your enemies.
40 But they did not listen to the Lord’s message. Instead they did just as they had done when they lived in their own nations. 41 They feared the Eternal One while at the same time serving their own idols. Their descendants have done the same ever since.
If the church lacks qualified, positive leaders, then it will not succeed in its mission. Paul never provides a job description for “overseers” and “deacons.” What he does offer is a list of character traits or qualifications that challenge even the most outstanding disciple. Essentially they are servant-leaders of the church. They give themselves to the church’s well-being by teaching the truth, living a life in imitation of Jesus, and defending the church from false teaching. Paul knows firsthand how important it is to discover, train, and empower capable leaders. Everywhere he goes, he invests a lot of himself in coworkers like Timothy. Now it is Timothy’s turn to train the next generation.
14 I am writing all this to you, hoping I can come to you before too long; 15 but in case I am delayed, you will know how one ought to behave as a member of God’s family—the assembly of the living God, the pillar and foundation that support the truth— 16 and I think you will agree that the mystery of godliness is great:
He[a] was revealed in the flesh,
proven right in the Spirit;
He was seen by the heavenly messengers,
preached to outsider nations.
He was believed in the world,
taken up to the heavens in glory.
4 But even so, the Spirit very clearly tells us that in the last times some will abandon the true faith because of their devotion to spirits sent to deceive and sabotage, and mistakenly they will end up following the doctrine of demons. 2 They will be carried away through the hypocrisy of liars whose consciences have been branded with a red-hot iron, 3 saying, “Don’t marry. Don’t eat such-and-such foods.” But God created all these to be received with gratitude by people who hold fast to the faith and really comprehend the truth. 4 For everything God made is good. That means nothing should be rejected as long as it’s received with a grateful heart, 5 for by God’s word and prayer, it is made holy.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.