Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Two Ways to Live
1 Happy are those who don’t listen to the wicked,
who don’t go where sinners go,
who don’t do what evil people do.
2 They love the Lord’s teachings,
and they think about those teachings day and night.
3 They are strong, like a tree planted by a river.
The tree produces fruit in season,
and its leaves don’t die.
Everything they do will succeed.
4 But wicked people are not like that.
They are like chaff that the wind blows away.
5 So the wicked will not escape God’s punishment.
Sinners will not worship with God’s people.
6 This is because the Lord takes care of his people,
but the wicked will be destroyed.
More Words of Wisdom
23 These are also sayings of the wise:
It is not good to take sides when you are the judge.
24 Don’t tell the wicked that they are innocent;
people will curse you, and nations will hate you.
25 But things will go well if you punish the guilty,
and you will receive rich blessings.
26 An honest answer is as pleasing
as a kiss on the lips.
27 First, finish your outside work
and prepare your fields.
After that, you can build your house.
28 Don’t testify against your neighbor for no good reason.
Don’t say things that are false.
29 Don’t say, “I’ll get even;
I’ll do to him what he did to me.”
30 I passed by a lazy person’s field
and by the vineyard of someone with no sense.
31 Thorns had grown up everywhere.
The ground was covered with weeds,
and the stone walls had fallen down.
32 I thought about what I had seen;
I learned this lesson from what I saw.
33 You sleep a little; you take a nap.
You fold your hands and lie down to rest.
34 Soon you will be as poor as if you had been robbed;
you will have as little as if you had been held up.
39 You carefully study the Scriptures because you think they give you eternal life. They do in fact tell about me, 40 but you refuse to come to me to have that life.
41 “I don’t need praise from people. 42 But I know you—I know that you don’t have God’s love in you. 43 I have come from my Father and speak for him, but you don’t accept me. But when another person comes, speaking only for himself, you will accept him. 44 You try to get praise from each other, but you do not try to get the praise that comes from the only God. So how can you believe? 45 Don’t think that I will stand before the Father and say you are wrong. The one who says you are wrong is Moses, the one you hoped would save you. 46 If you really believed Moses, you would believe me, because Moses wrote about me. 47 But if you don’t believe what Moses wrote, how can you believe what I say?”
The Holy Bible, New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.