Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
God’s Mercy on His People
14 “Therefore, behold, I will allure her,
Will bring her into the wilderness,
And speak [a]comfort to her.
15 I will give her her vineyards from there,
And (A)the Valley of Achor as a door of hope;
She shall sing there,
As in (B)the days of her youth,
(C)As in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt.
16 “And it shall be, in that day,”
Says the Lord,
“That you will call Me [b]‘My Husband,’
And no longer call Me [c]‘My Master,’
17 For (D)I will take from her mouth the names of the Baals,
And they shall be remembered by their name no more.
18 In that day I will make a (E)covenant for them
With the beasts of the field,
With the birds of the air,
And with the creeping things of the ground.
Bow and sword of battle (F)I will shatter from the earth,
To make them (G)lie down safely.
19 “I will betroth you to Me forever;
Yes, I will betroth you to Me
In righteousness and justice,
In lovingkindness and mercy;
20 I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness,
And (H)you shall know the Lord.
Praise for the Lord’s Mercies
A Psalm of David.
103 Bless (A)the Lord, O my soul;
And all that is within me, bless His holy name!
2 Bless the Lord, O my soul,
And forget not all His benefits:
3 (B)Who forgives all your iniquities,
Who (C)heals all your diseases,
4 Who redeems your life from destruction,
(D)Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies,
5 Who satisfies your mouth with good things,
So that (E)your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
6 The Lord executes righteousness
And justice for all who are oppressed.
7 (F)He made known His ways to Moses,
His acts to the children of Israel.
8 (G)The Lord is merciful and gracious,
Slow to anger, and abounding in mercy.
9 (H)He will not always strive with us,
Nor will He keep His anger forever.
10 (I)He has not dealt with us according to our sins,
Nor punished us according to our iniquities.
22 Bless the Lord, all His works,
In all places of His dominion.
Bless the Lord, O my soul!
Christ’s Epistle(A)
3 Do (B)we begin again to commend ourselves? Or do we need, as some others, (C)epistles of commendation to you or letters of commendation from you? 2 (D)You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men; 3 clearly you are an epistle of Christ, (E)ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not (F)on tablets of stone but (G)on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart.
The Spirit, Not the Letter
4 And we have such trust through Christ toward God. 5 (H)Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but (I)our sufficiency is from God, 6 who also made us sufficient as (J)ministers of (K)the new covenant, not (L)of the letter but of the [a]Spirit; for (M)the letter kills, (N)but the Spirit gives life.
Matthew the Tax Collector(A)
13 (B)Then He went out again by the sea; and all the multitude came to Him, and He taught them. 14 (C)As He passed by, He saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, (D)“Follow Me.” So he arose and (E)followed Him.
15 (F)Now it happened, as He was dining in Levi’s house, that many tax collectors and sinners also sat together with Jesus and His disciples; for there were many, and they followed Him. 16 And when the scribes [a]and Pharisees saw Him eating with the tax collectors and sinners, they said to His disciples, “How is it that He eats and drinks with tax collectors and sinners?”
17 When Jesus heard it, He said to them, (G)“Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, [b]to repentance.”
Jesus Is Questioned About Fasting(H)
18 (I)The disciples of John and of the Pharisees were fasting. Then they came and said to Him, “Why do the disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not fast?”
19 And Jesus said to them, “Can the [c]friends of the bridegroom fast 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 (J)taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days. 21 No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; or else the new piece pulls away from the old, and the tear is made worse. 22 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine bursts the wineskins, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But new wine must be put into new wineskins.”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.