Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Only One God

⁶ The Lord, the King of Israel and the One Who saves and frees from sin, the Lord of All, says, “I am the first and I am the last. There is no God besides Me. ⁷ Who is like Me? Let him make it known. Yes, let him tell Me what happened from the time I made people long ago. And let him tell the things that are coming and what is going to happen. ⁸ Do not fear. Do not be afraid. Have I not made it known to you from long ago? And you have heard Me. Is there a God besides Me? No, there is no other Rock. I know of none.”

¹¹ Teach me Your way, O Lord. I will walk in Your truth. May my heart fear Your name. ¹² O Lord my God, I will give thanks to You with all my heart. I will bring honor to Your name forever. ¹³ For Your loving-kindness toward me is great. And You have saved my soul from the bottom of the grave.

¹⁴ O God, proud men have come up against me. A group of fighting men want to take my life. And they do not think of You. ¹⁵ But You, O Lord, are a God full of love and pity. You are slow to anger and rich in loving-kindness and truth. ¹⁶ Turn to me, and show me loving-kindness. Give Your strength to Your servant. And save the son of your woman servant. ¹⁷ Give me something special to see of Your favor. Then those who hate me may see it and be ashamed. Because You, O Lord, have helped me and comforted me.

¹² So then, Christian brothers, we are not to do what our sinful old selves want us to do. ¹³ If you do what your sinful old selves want you to do, you will die in sin. But if, through the power of the Holy Spirit, you destroy those actions to which the body can be led, you will have life. ¹⁴ All those who are led by the Holy Spirit are sons of God. ¹⁵ You should not act like people who are owned by someone. They are always afraid. Instead, the Holy Spirit makes us His sons, and we can call to Him, “My Father.” ¹⁶ For the Holy Spirit speaks to us and tells our spirit that we are children of God. ¹⁷ If we are children of God, we will receive everything He has promised us. We will share with Christ all the things God has given to Him. But we must share His suffering if we are to share His shining-greatness.

¹⁸ I am sure that our suffering now cannot be compared to the shining-greatness that He is going to give us. ¹⁹ Everything that has been made in the world is waiting for the day when God will make His sons known. ²⁰ Everything that has been made in the world is weak. It is not that the world wanted it to be that way. God allowed it to be that way. Yet there is hope. ²¹ Everything that has been made in the world will be set free from the power that can destroy. These will become free just as the children of God become free. ²² We know that everything on the earth cries out with pain the same as a woman giving birth to a child. ²³ We also cry inside ourselves, even we who have received the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the first of God’s gifts to us. We are waiting to become His complete sons when our bodies are made free. ²⁴ We were saved with this hope ahead of us. Now hope means we are waiting for something we do not have. How can a man hope for something he already has? ²⁵ But if we hope for something we do not yet see, we must learn how to wait for it.

The Picture-Story of the Good Seed and the Weed Seed

²⁴ Jesus told them another picture-story. He said, “The holy nation of heaven is like a man who planted good seed in his field. ²⁵ During the night someone who hated him came and planted weed seed with the good seed in his field and went away. ²⁶ When the good seed started to grow and give grain, weeds came up also.

²⁷ “The servants of the man who planted the seed came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not plant good seed in your field? Why does it have weeds also?’ ²⁸ The man who planted the seed said, ‘Someone who hates me has done this.’ The servants asked him, ‘Should we go and pull the weeds out from among the good grain?’ ²⁹ He said, ‘No, because if you pull out the weeds, the good grain will come up also. ³⁰ Let them grow together until the time to gather the grain. Then I will say to the workmen, “Gather the weeds first and put them together to be burned. Then gather the good grain into my building.”’”

Jesus Tells about the Weed Seed

³⁶ After Jesus sent the people away, He went into the house. His followers came to Him and said, “Tell us what You mean by the picture-story of the weeds in the field.” ³⁷ Jesus said, “He Who plants the good seed is the Son of Man. ³⁸ The field is the world. The good seeds are the children of the holy nation. The weeds are the children of the devil. ³⁹ The devil is the one who got in and planted the weeds. The time to gather is the end of the world. The men who gather are the angels. ⁴⁰ As the weeds are gathered together and burned in the fire, so will it be in the end of the world. ⁴¹ The Son of Man will send His angels. They will gather out of His holy nation all things that cause people to sin and those who do sin. ⁴² They will put them into a stove of fire. There will be loud crying and grinding of teeth. ⁴³ Then the ones right with God will shine as the sun in the holy nation of their Father. You have ears, then listen!”