Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

²² And Paul standing in the midst of Areopagus said, Athenians, in every way I see you given up to demon worship;

²³ for, passing through and beholding your shrines, I found also an altar on which was inscribed, To the unknown God. Whom therefore ye reverence, not knowing [him], him I announce to you.

²⁴ The God who has made the world and all things which are in it, *he*, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands,

²⁵ nor is served by men's hands as needing something, himself giving to all life and breath and all things;

²⁶ and has made of one blood every nation of men to dwell upon the whole face of the earth, having determined ordained times and the boundaries of their dwelling,

²⁷ that they may seek God; if indeed they might feel after him and find him, although he is not far from each one of us:

²⁸ for in him we live and move and exist; as also some of the poets amongst you have said, For we are also his offspring.

²⁹ Being therefore [the] offspring of God, we ought not to think that which is divine to be like gold or silver or stone, [the] graven form of man's art and imagination.

³⁰ God therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, now enjoins men that they shall all everywhere repent,

³¹ because he has set a day in which he is going to judge the habitable earth in righteousness by [the] man whom he has appointed, giving the proof [of it] to all [in] having raised him from among [the] dead.

⁸ Bless our God, ye peoples, and make the voice of his praise to be heard;

⁹ Who hath set our soul in life, and suffereth not our feet to be moved.

¹⁰ For thou, O God, hast proved us: thou hast tried us, as silver is tried.

¹¹ Thou broughtest us into a net, thou didst lay a heavy burden upon our loins;

¹² Thou didst cause men to ride over our head; we went through fire and through water: but thou hast brought us out into abundance.

¹³ I will go into thy house with burnt-offerings; I will perform my vows to thee,

¹⁴ Which my lips have uttered, and my mouth hath spoken, when I was in trouble.

¹⁵ I will offer up unto thee burnt-offerings of fatted beasts, with the incense of rams; I will offer bullocks with goats. Selah.

¹⁶ Come, hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what he hath done for my soul.

¹⁷ I called unto him with my mouth, and he was extolled with my tongue.

¹⁸ Had I regarded iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not hear.

¹⁹ But God hath heard; he hath attended to the voice of my prayer.

²⁰ Blessed be God, who hath not turned away my prayer, nor his loving-kindness from me!

¹³ And who shall injure you if ye have become imitators of that which [is] good?

¹⁴ But if also ye should suffer for righteousness' sake, blessed [are ye]; but be not afraid of their fear, neither be troubled;

¹⁵ but sanctify [the] Lord the Christ in your hearts, and [be] always prepared to [give] an answer [to] every one that asks you to give an account of the hope that [is] in you, but with meekness and fear;

¹⁶ having a good conscience, that [as to that] in which they speak against you as evildoers, they may be ashamed who calumniate your good conversation in Christ.

¹⁷ For [it is] better, if the will of God should will it, to suffer [as] well-doers than [as] evildoers;

¹⁸ for Christ indeed has once suffered for sins, [the] just for [the] unjust, that he might bring us to God; being put to death in flesh, but made alive in [the] Spirit,

¹⁹ in which also going he preached to the spirits [which are] in prison,

²⁰ heretofore disobedient, when the longsuffering of God waited in [the] days of Noah while the ark was preparing, into which few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water:

²¹ which figure also now saves you, [even] baptism, not a putting away of [the] filth of flesh, but [the] demand as before God of a good conscience, by [the] resurrection of Jesus Christ,

²² who is at [the] right hand of God, gone into heaven, angels and authorities and powers being subjected to him.

¹⁵ If ye love me, keep my commandments.

¹⁶ And I will beg the Father, and he will give you another Comforter, that he may be with you for ever,

¹⁷ the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see him nor know him; but ye know him, for he abides with you, and shall be in you.

¹⁸ I will not leave you orphans, I am coming to you.

¹⁹ Yet a little and the world sees me no longer; but ye see me; because I live ye also shall live.

²⁰ In that day ye shall know that I [am] in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.

²¹ He that has my commandments and keeps them, he it is that loves me; but he that loves me shall be loved by my Father, and I will love him and will manifest myself to him.