Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

SIN AND SHIN

¹⁷ Yahweh’s word came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, ¹⁸ “Arise, go down to meet Ahab king of Israel, who dwells in Samaria. Behold, he is in the vineyard of Naboth, where he has gone down to take possession of it. ¹⁹ You shall speak to him, saying, ‘Yahweh says, “Have you killed and also taken possession?”’ You shall speak to him, saying, ‘Yahweh says, “In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth, dogs will lick your blood, even yours.”’”

²⁰ Ahab said to Elijah, “Have you found me, my enemy?”

He answered, “I have found you, because you have sold yourself to do that which is evil in Yahweh’s sight. ²¹ Behold, I will bring evil on you, and will utterly sweep you away and will cut off from Ahab everyone who urinates against a wall,^[a] and him who is shut up and him who is left at large in Israel. ²² I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah, for the provocation with which you have provoked me to anger, and have made Israel to sin.” ²³ Yahweh also spoke of Jezebel, saying, “The dogs will eat Jezebel by the rampart of Jezreel. ²⁴ The dogs will eat he who dies of Ahab in the city; and the birds of the sky will eat he who dies in the field.”

²⁵ But there was no one like Ahab, who sold himself to do that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight, whom Jezebel his wife stirred up. ²⁶ He did very abominably in following idols, according to all that the Amorites did, whom Yahweh cast out before the children of Israel.

²⁷ When Ahab heard those words, he tore his clothes, put sackcloth on his body, fasted, lay in sackcloth, and went about despondently.

²⁸ Yahweh’s word came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, ²⁹ “See how Ahab humbles himself before me? Because he humbles himself before me, I will not bring the evil in his days; but I will bring the evil on his house in his son’s day.”

4 Beloved, don’t believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. ² By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit who confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, ³ and every spirit who doesn’t confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God; and this is the spirit of the Antichrist, of whom you have heard that it comes. Now it is in the world already. ⁴ You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world. ⁵ They are of the world. Therefore they speak of the world, and the world hears them. ⁶ We are of God. He who knows God listens to us. He who is not of God doesn’t listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.