Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
6 God, you will continue to rule as king
always and for ever.
Your authority as king will bring justice to your people.
7 You love people to do what is right,
and you hate anything that is evil.
So God, your God, has chosen you
to be greater than all your people.
He has put special olive oil on you,
to make you happy.
8 All your clothes have the beautiful smell
of myrrh, aloes and cassia.
You hear the music of stringed instruments
that comes from beautiful palaces.
That makes you happy.
9 The daughters of kings are among your visitors.
Your royal bride stands at your right hand.
She is wearing gold from Ophir.
10 Royal daughter, listen to me.
Listen carefully to what I am saying.
Forget your people and your family.
11 You are very beautiful
and the king will want to be with you.
He is your master, so respect him.
12 Rich people will come from Tyre to give gifts to you.
They will want you to help them.
13 The king's bride is in the palace,
and she looks beautiful!
Her dress has gold threads in it.[a]
14 Now they lead her to the king in her beautiful clothes.
Her young friends follow after her
to bring her to the king.
15 They are very happy as they walk together
and they go into the king's palace.
16 You will have sons to become kings,
as your ancestors were kings before you.
You will make them princes
to rule over all the land.
17 In future years I will cause people to remember
that you are a great king!
Then people will praise you always and for ever.
Return to the Lord!
14 Israel's people, return to the Lord your God!
Your sins have caused you to fall down.
2 Return to the Lord and pray to him! Say to him,
‘Please forgive all our sins.
Be kind to us as we come to you.
We will praise you with our mouths, as our sacrifice to you.
3 Assyria cannot save us.
The horses that we ride into war will not keep us safe.
We will never again say to the idols that we have made, “You are our gods.”
You are kind to children who have no family.
So please be kind to us.’
4 The Lord says,
‘My people turned away from me, but I will forgive them.
I will love them very much.
I will not be angry with them any more.
5 I will bless Israel's people, like rain that falls on dry ground.
They will grow like beautiful flowers.
They will have strong roots, like the great trees in Lebanon.
6 They will grow like a tree that makes new branches.
They will be beautiful like olive trees.
They will have a sweet smell, like the forests in Lebanon.
7 I will give my people shade to live in safely.
They will plant crops that give them plenty of food.
They will be successful, like a vine that gives many grapes.
They will be famous, like the wine from Lebanon.[a]
8 People of Ephraim, do not let me see your idols any more!
I will answer your prayers. I will take care of you.
I am like a strong green tree.
All the good things that you have come from me.’
9 If you are wise, you should understand these things.
If you understand, think carefully about them.
The Lord teaches you to live in ways that are right.
Righteous people live in those good ways.
But people who turn against the Lord fall down and lose their way.[b]
Paul speaks about false teachers
11 Please be patient with me! I am speaking like a fool. I know that you are being patient with me already! 2 God wants to keep you for himself. And that is what I want too. I have brought you to Christ, like a pure bride who marries one husband. I want you to be pure and to belong only to him. 3 Remember how the snake deceived Eve. Because he was clever, she believed his lies.[a] I am afraid that the same thing might happen to you. False teachers may make you believe wrong things. Then you will no longer love Christ in a pure and honest way. 4 You are ready to listen to any false teachers who come to you. They might tell you about a different Jesus from the Jesus that we told you about. They might want you to receive a different spirit from the Spirit that you received from us. They might tell you a different kind of good news from the message that you heard from us. You seem to accept all this!
5 Those teachers call themselves very special apostles. But I think that I am as special as they are! 6 Perhaps I do not speak as well as they speak. But I do know what I am speaking about. We have always made this very clear to you in everything that we do.
7 When I told you God's good news, I never asked you to pay me anything. I made myself less important so that you could be more important. I do not think that I was wrong to do that. 8 Believers in other churches gave money to me so that I could serve you. It is like I was robbing them so that I could help you. 9 When I was there with you, I never made you help me. Even when I needed something, I did not cause trouble to anyone. Instead, the believers who came from Macedonia gave me everything that I needed. I was very careful never to cause you to have trouble. And I will continue to be careful like that. 10 The message that I speak about Christ is true. So I will continue to be proud of how I lived among you. Nobody in the whole region of Achaia can stop me doing that. 11 You must not think that I say this because I do not love you. God himself knows that I love you.
12 Yes, I will continue to work among you in the way that I am already doing. I will not take any pay from you. Then there will be no chance for those other teachers to be proud about themselves. They will not be able to say that they work in the same way that we do. 13 Those people are false apostles. They do not work in an honest way. They try to make people think that Christ has sent them as his apostles. 14 That should not surprise you! Even Satan can change himself to look like an angel who belongs to the light. 15 So do not be surprised when Satan's servants do the same thing. They can also seem to be serving God. They may seem to be doing good things, but really what they do is bad. So God will punish them in the end.
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