Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Trust in God’s Love

52 Why do you take pride in wrong-doing, O powerful man? The loving-kindness of God lasts all day long. ² Your tongue makes plans to destroy like a sharp knife, you who lie. ³ You love what is bad more than what is good, and you speak lies more than you speak the truth. ⁴ You love all words that destroy, O lying tongue.

⁵ But God will destroy you forever. He will pick you up and pull you away from your tent. He will pull up your roots from the land of the living. ⁶ And those who are right will see and be afraid. They will laugh at him, saying, ⁷ “Look, the man who would not make God his safe place, but trusted in his many riches and was strong in his sinful desire.”

⁸ But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God. I trust in the loving-kindness of God forever and ever. ⁹ I will give You thanks forever because of what You have done. And I will hope in Your name, for it is good to be where those who belong to You are.

Jeremiah’s Words to the Kings of Judah

22 The Lord says, “Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak this word there. ² Say, ‘Hear the Word of the Lord, O king of Judah, who sits on David’s throne, you and your servants and your people who come through these gates. ³ The Lord says, “Do what is right and fair and good, and take the one who has been robbed away from the power of the one who has made it hard for him. Do not hurt or do wrong to the stranger, the one whose parents have died, or the woman whose husband has died. And do not kill those who are not guilty in this place. ⁴ For if you will obey this word, then kings will come through the gates of this house and sit on the throne of David. They will be in war-wagons and on horses, together with their servants and their people. ⁵ But if you will not obey these words, I promise by Myself,” says the Lord, “that this house will be destroyed.”’” ⁶ For the Lord says about the house of the king of Judah: “You are like Gilead to Me, or like the top of Lebanon. Yet I will be sure to make you like a desert, like cities without people. ⁷ I will send destroyers against you, each with his things for fighting. And they will cut down your best cedar trees and throw them on the fire. ⁸ Many nations will pass by this city, and they will say to one another, ‘Why has the Lord done such a thing to this great city?’ ⁹ And they will answer, ‘Because they did not keep the agreement of the Lord their God. They worshiped other gods and served them.’”

Jesus Teaches about False Teachers

⁴³ “A good tree cannot have bad fruit. A bad tree cannot have good fruit. ⁴⁴ For every tree is known by its own fruit. Men do not gather figs from thorns. They do not gather grapes from thistles. ⁴⁵ Good comes from a good man because of the riches he has in his heart. Sin comes from a sinful man because of the sin he has in his heart. The mouth speaks of what the heart is full of.