Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Bet

The Benefits of the Word

²¹ “When you make a vow to the Lord your God, don’t delay paying it, because the Lord your God will certainly demand payment from you, and then you will be guilty of sin. ²² But if you refrain from making a vow, then you won’t be guilty. ²³ Be sure you do whatever you promise, because you have given your word voluntarily to the Lord your God.

²⁴ “When you enter your countrymen’s vineyard, you may eat the grapes to your satisfaction, but don’t take any in a basket. ²⁵ When you enter your countrymen’s grain fields, you may pluck the grain with your hand, but don’t put a sickle to his standing grain.”

Various Laws

24 “If a man chooses to enter into marriage with a woman, but she finds herself displeasing to him because he has found something objectionable^[a] about her, he must draw up divorce papers, hand them to her, and then send her out of his house. ² If she goes out from his house, becomes the wife of another man, ³ and this second husband^[b] dislikes her, he, also, must draw up divorce papers, hand them to her, and then send her away from his house. Should the second husband die, ⁴ her first husband who married her and divorced her earlier must not remarry her,^[c] because she was defiled, since this is detestable to the Lord. Don’t defile the land that the Lord your God is about to give you as a possession.

Respecting the Poor

¹⁰ “When you loan something to your neighbor, don’t enter his house to seize what he offered as collateral. ¹¹ Stay outside and let the man to whom you made the loan bring it^[a] out to you. ¹² If he is a poor man, don’t go to sleep with his collateral in your possession.^{[b] 13} Be sure to return his garment^[c] to him at sunset so that he may sleep with it, and he will bless you. It will be a righteous deed in the presence of the Lord your God. ¹⁴ Don’t take advantage of a hired person who is poor and needy, whether he’s your fellow citizen or a foreigner who lives in your city. ¹⁵ Pay his wages that same day before the sun sets, because he is poor and his livelihood^[d] depends on it. Otherwise, he may cry out to the Lord against you, and you will incur guilt.”

Do Not Show Partiality

2 My brothers, do not let your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus, the Messiah,^[a] be tainted by favoritism. ² Suppose a man wearing gold rings and fine clothes comes into your assembly,^[b] and a poor man in dirty clothes also comes in. ³ If you give special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, “Please take this seat,” but you say to the poor man, “Stand over there” or “Sit on the floor at my feet,”^{[c] 4} then you will have made false distinctions among yourselves and will have judged from evil motives, will you not?

⁵ Listen, my dear brothers! God has chosen the poor in the world to become rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he promised to those who keep on loving him, has he not? ⁶ But you have humiliated the man who is poor. Are not rich people the ones who oppress you and drag you into court? ⁷ Are not they the ones who blaspheme the noble Name^[d] by which you have been called?

⁸ Nevertheless, you are doing the right thing if you obey the royal Law in keeping with the Scripture, “You must love your neighbor as yourself.”^{[e] 9} But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and will be convicted by the Law as violators. ¹⁰ For whoever keeps the whole Law but fails in one point is guilty of breaking all of it. ¹¹ For the one who said, “Never commit adultery,”^[f] also said, “Never murder.”^[g] Now if you do not commit adultery, but you murder, you become a violator of the Law. ¹² You must make it your habit to speak and act like people who are going to be judged by the law of liberty. ¹³ For the one who has shown no mercy will be judged without mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.