Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

¹⁴ Therefore, behold, I will allure her [Israel] and bring her into the wilderness, and I will speak tenderly and to her heart.

¹⁵ There I will give her her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor [troubling] to be for her a door of hope and expectation. And she shall sing there and respond as in the days of her youth and as at the time when she came up out of the land of Egypt.^(A)

¹⁶ And it shall be in that day, says the Lord, that you will call Me Ishi [my Husband], and you shall no more call Me Baali [my Baal].

¹⁷ For I will take away the names of Baalim [the Baals] out of her mouth, and they shall no more be mentioned or seriously remembered by their name.

¹⁸ And in that day will I make a covenant for Israel with the living creatures of the open country and with the birds of the heavens and with the creeping things of the ground. And I will break the bow and the sword and [abolish battle equipment and] conflict out of the land and will make you lie down safely.

¹⁹ And I will betroth you to Me forever; yes, I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and justice, in steadfast love, and in mercy.

²⁰ I will even betroth you to Me in stability and in faithfulness, and you shall know (recognize, be acquainted with, appreciate, give heed to, and cherish) the Lord.

Psalm 103

[A Psalm] of David.

¹ Bless (affectionately, gratefully praise) the Lord, O my soul; and all that is [deepest] within me, bless His holy name!

² Bless (affectionately, gratefully praise) the Lord, O my soul, and forget not [one of] all His benefits—

³ Who forgives [every one of] all your iniquities, Who heals [each one of] all your diseases,

⁴ Who redeems your life from the pit and corruption, Who beautifies, dignifies, and crowns you with loving-kindness and tender mercy;

⁵ Who satisfies your mouth [your necessity and desire at your personal age and situation] with good so that your youth, renewed, is like the eagle’s [strong, overcoming, soaring]!^(A)

⁶ The Lord executes righteousness and justice [not for me only, but] for all who are oppressed.

⁷ He made known His ways [of righteousness and justice] to Moses, His acts to the children of Israel.

⁸ The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and plenteous in mercy and loving-kindness.^(B)

⁹ He will not always chide or be contending, neither will He keep His anger forever or hold a grudge.

¹⁰ He has not dealt with us after our sins nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.

¹¹ For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great are His mercy and loving-kindness toward those who reverently and worshipfully fear Him.

¹² As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.

¹³ As a father loves and pities his children, so the Lord loves and pities those who fear Him [with reverence, worship, and awe].

²² Bless the Lord, all His works in all places of His dominion; bless (affectionately, gratefully praise) the Lord, O my soul!

3 Are we starting to commend ourselves again? Or we do not, like some [false teachers], need written credentials or letters of recommendation to you or from you, [do we]?

² [No] you yourselves are our letter of recommendation (our credentials), written in ^[a]your hearts, to be known (perceived, recognized) and read by everybody.

³ You show and make obvious that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, not written with ink but with [the] Spirit of [the] living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.^(A)

⁴ Such is the reliance and confidence that we have through Christ toward and with reference to God.

⁵ Not that we are fit (qualified and sufficient in ability) of ourselves to form personal judgments or to claim or count anything as coming from us, but our power and ability and sufficiency are from God.

⁶ [It is He] Who has qualified us [making us to be fit and worthy and sufficient] as ministers and dispensers of a new covenant [of salvation through Christ], not [ministers] of the letter (of legally written code) but of the Spirit; for the code [of the Law] kills, but the [Holy] Spirit makes alive.^(B)

¹³ [Jesus] went out again along the seashore; and all the multitude kept gathering about Him, and He kept teaching them.

¹⁴ And as He was passing by, He saw Levi (Matthew) son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax office, and He said to him, Follow Me! [Be ^[a]joined to Me as a disciple, side with My party!] And he arose and joined Him as His disciple and sided with His party and accompanied Him.

¹⁵ And as Jesus, together with His disciples, sat at table in his [Levi’s] house, many tax collectors and persons [^[b]definitely stained] with sin were dining with Him, for there were many who walked the same road (followed) with Him.

¹⁶ And the scribes [belonging to the party] of the Pharisees, when they saw that He was eating with [those ^[c]definitely known to be especially wicked] sinners and tax collectors, said to His disciples, Why does He eat and drink with tax collectors and [notorious] sinners?

¹⁷ And when Jesus heard it, He said to them, Those who are strong and well have no need of a physician, but those who are weak and sick; I came not to call the righteous ones to repentance, but sinners (the ^[d]erring ones and ^[e]all those not free from sin).

¹⁸ Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were observing a fast; and [some people] came and asked Jesus, Why are John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fasting, but Your disciples are not doing so?

¹⁹ Jesus answered them, Can the wedding guests fast (abstain from food and drink) while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast.

²⁰ But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and they will fast in that day.

²¹ No one sews a patch of unshrunken (new) goods on an old garment; if he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and the rent (tear) becomes bigger and worse [than it was before].

²² And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; if he does, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost and the bottles destroyed; but new wine is to be put in new (fresh) wineskins.