Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

103 I bless the holy name of God with all my heart. ² Yes, I will bless the Lord and not forget the glorious things he does for me.

³ He forgives all my sins. He heals me. ⁴ He ransoms me from hell. He surrounds me with loving-kindness and tender mercies. ⁵ He fills my life with good things! My youth is renewed like the eagle’s! ⁶ He gives justice to all who are treated unfairly. ⁷ He revealed his will and nature to Moses and the people of Israel.

⁸ He is merciful and tender toward those who don’t deserve it; he is slow to get angry and full of kindness and love. ⁹ He never bears a grudge, nor remains angry forever. ¹⁰ He has not punished us as we deserve for all our sins, ¹¹ for his mercy toward those who fear and honor him is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth. ¹² He has removed our sins as far away from us as the east is from the west. ¹³ He is like a father to us, tender and sympathetic to those who reverence him.

²² Let everything everywhere bless the Lord. And how I bless him too!

⁴⁴ “‘“Like mother, like daughter”—that is what everyone will say of you. ⁴⁵ For your mother loathed her husband and her children, and you do too. And you are exactly like your sisters, for they despised their husbands and their children. Truly, your mother must have been a Hittite and your father an Amorite.

⁴⁶ “‘Your older sister is Samaria, living with her daughters north of you; your younger sister is Sodom and her daughters, in the south. ⁴⁷ You have not merely sinned as they do—no, that was nothing to you; in a very short time you far surpassed them.

⁴⁸ “‘As I live, the Lord God says, Sodom and her daughters have never been as wicked as you and your daughters. ⁴⁹ Your sister Sodom’s sins were pride, laziness, and too much food, while the poor and needy suffered outside her door. ⁵⁰ She insolently worshiped many idols as I watched. Therefore I crushed her.

⁵¹ “‘Even Samaria has not committed half your sins. You have worshiped idols far more than your sisters have; they seem almost righteous in comparison with you! ⁵² Don’t be surprised then by the lighter punishment they get. For your sins are so awful that in comparison with you, your sisters seem innocent!

1 From: Simon Peter, a servant and missionary of Jesus Christ.

To: All of you who have our kind of faith. The faith I speak of is the kind that Jesus Christ our God and Savior gives to us. How precious it is, and how just and good he is to give this same faith to each of us.

² Do you want more and more of God’s kindness and peace? Then learn to know him better and better. ³ For as you know him better, he will give you, through his great power, everything you need for living a truly good life: he even shares his own glory and his own goodness with us! ⁴ And by that same mighty power he has given us all the other rich and wonderful blessings he promised; for instance, the promise to save us from the lust and rottenness all around us, and to give us his own character.

⁵ But to obtain these gifts, you need more than faith; you must also work hard to be good, and even that is not enough. For then you must learn to know God better and discover what he wants you to do. ⁶ Next, learn to put aside your own desires so that you will become patient and godly, gladly letting God have his way with you. ⁷ This will make possible the next step, which is for you to enjoy other people and to like them, and finally you will grow to love them deeply. ⁸ The more you go on in this way, the more you will grow strong spiritually and become fruitful and useful to our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁹ But anyone who fails to go after these additions to faith is blind indeed, or at least very shortsighted and has forgotten that God delivered him from the old life of sin so that now he can live a strong, good life for the Lord.

¹⁰ So, dear brothers, work hard to prove that you really are among those God has called and chosen, and then you will never stumble or fall away. ¹¹ And God will open wide the gates of heaven for you to enter into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.