Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

^(A)A Prayer for Forgiveness^[a]

⁶ Noah was six hundred years old when the flood came on the earth. ^7 (A)He and his wife, and his sons and their wives, went into the boat to escape the flood. ⁸ A male and a female of every kind of animal and bird, whether ritually clean or unclean, ⁹ went into the boat with Noah, as God had commanded. ¹⁰ Seven days later the flood came.

The End of the Flood

8 God had not forgotten Noah and all the animals with him in the boat; he caused a wind to blow, and the water started going down. ² The outlets of the water beneath the earth and the floodgates of the sky were closed. The rain stopped, ³ and the water gradually went down for 150 days. ⁴ On the seventeenth day of the seventh month the boat came to rest on a mountain in the Ararat range. ⁵ The water kept going down, and on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains appeared.

False Teachers

2 False prophets appeared in the past among the people, and in the same way false teachers will appear among you. They will bring in destructive, untrue doctrines, and will deny the Master who redeemed them, and so they will bring upon themselves sudden destruction. ² Even so, many will follow their immoral ways; and because of what they do, others will speak evil of the Way of truth. ³ In their greed these false teachers will make a profit out of telling you made-up stories. For a long time now their Judge has been ready, and their Destroyer has been wide awake!

⁴ God did not spare the angels who sinned, but threw them into hell, where they are kept chained in darkness,^[a] waiting for the Day of Judgment. ^5 (A)God did not spare the ancient world, but brought the flood on the world of godless people; the only ones he saved were Noah, who preached righteousness, and seven other people. ^6 (B)God condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, destroying them with fire, and made them an example of what will happen to the godless. ^7 (C)He rescued Lot, a good man, who was distressed by the immoral conduct of lawless people. ⁸ That good man lived among them, and day after day he suffered agony as he saw and heard their evil actions. ⁹ And so the Lord knows how to rescue godly people from their trials and how to keep the wicked under punishment for the Day of Judgment, ¹⁰ especially those who follow their filthy bodily lusts and despise God's authority.

These false teachers are bold and arrogant, and show no respect for the glorious beings above; instead, they insult them.