Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

There is only one true God^[a]

The Levites must be ready to serve God

⁵ Again the Lord spoke to Moses and he said, ⁶ ‘Take the Levites from among the Israelites and make them clean. ⁷ You will make them clean like this: Put on them the special water that makes people clean. They must remove all the hair from their whole body, and they must wash their clothes. Then they will be clean. ⁸ Then they must take a bull with the proper grain offering and oil. And you must take another bull for a sin offering. ⁹ Then you must bring the Levites in front of the Tent of Meeting. You must also bring all the Israelites there. ¹⁰ You must bring the Levites in front of the Lord. Then the Israelites must put their hands on the Levites' heads. ¹¹ Aaron must give the Levites to the Lord as a special offering from the Israelites. Then they will be ready to do the Lord's work.

¹² Then the Levites must put their hands on the heads of the bulls. Then offer one bull for a sin offering and the other one for a burnt offering to the Lord.^[a] That will make peace with the Lord for the Levites sin. ¹³ And you must cause the Levites to stand in front of Aaron and his sons. So they will be a special gift to the Lord. ¹⁴ That is how you will make the Levites separate from the other Israelites. And then the Levites will be mine.

¹⁵ Then after that the Levites can go in to work in the Tent of Meeting. But you must make them clean and you must bring them to me as a special gift. ¹⁶ That is because all the Levites among the Israelites are mine. All the Israelites' firstborn sons are mine. But I have taken the Levites for myself instead. ¹⁷ Every firstborn son among the Israelites is mine. And all the firstborn male animals are mine too. On the day that I killed all the firstborn sons in Egypt I made them special for myself. ¹⁸ But now I have not taken all the firstborn sons among the Israelites. I have taken the Levites instead. ¹⁹ And I have given the Levites as a gift to Aaron and to his sons from among the Israelites. They will work at the Tent of Meeting on behalf of the Israelites. And they will make peace with me on behalf of the Israelites. So there will not be a bad disease among the Israelites when they go near to God's Holy Tent.’

²⁰ So Moses and Aaron and all the Israelites did those things to the Levites. The Israelites did everything that the Lord had said to Moses about the Levites. ²¹ The Levites, too, made themselves clean and they washed their clothes. And Aaron brought them in front of Lord as a special gift. Aaron also burnt sacrifices to make them clean. ²² After that, the Levites went in to do their work in the Tent of Meeting. They helped Aaron and his sons. The Israelites did everything with the Levites that the Lord had said to Moses about them.

Paul says ‘Hello’ to Titus

1 This letter is from me, Paul. I am God's servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ. God has sent me to help the people that he has chosen. I teach them to understand his true message and to trust him. As a result they will live in a way that pleases God. ² They will also be sure that they will live with God for ever. Before the world began, God promised that his people would have life with him. And God never tells lies. ³ God is the one who saves us. Now, at the proper time, he has made his message clear. He has given his message to me so that I can tell it to people. That is what he has told me to do.

⁴ I am writing to you, Titus. I told you the message about Jesus and now we both believe in him. So you are like my own child.

I pray that God, the Father, and Christ Jesus, our Saviour, will continue to help you. I pray that they will give you peace in your mind.

Titus's work in Crete

⁵ I left you in Crete so that you could finish certain things. You should make right some things that were wrong. And you should choose leaders of the believers in every town, as I told you.

⁶ This is what a leader in the church must be like. Nobody should have a reason to say that he has done something wrong. He must be the husband of only one wife. He must have children who respect him. Nobody should say that they enjoy bad things or that they do not obey their parents.^{[a] 7} A leader in the church serves the believers on God's behalf. Because of that, nobody should have a reason to say that the leader has done anything wrong. A leader must not be proud. He must not become angry easily. He should not like to drink too much wine. He must not be someone who likes to fight. He must not want to get a lot of money for himself. ⁸ Instead, he must be happy to have visitors in his home. He must want to do good things. He must be careful in how he lives. He must do what is right. He must want to serve God well. He must control himself well.

⁹ A leader in the church must continue to believe the true message very well. That is the message which we have taught. Then he will be able to teach people what is true and right. He will also show that people who speak against the true message are wrong.