Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Psalm 116^[a]

Thanksgiving to God for Help Received

¹⁵ She let them down by a rope through the window, for the house in which she lived was built upon the city wall. ¹⁶ She said to them, “Go into the hills so that the pursuers will not find you. Hide there for three days until the pursuers shall have returned here. Then you can go on your way.” ¹⁷ The men said to her, “We will not be bound to the promise that you made us swear ¹⁸ unless, when we enter the land, you have a scarlet cord tied to the window from which you let us down, and unless you have brought your father, and your mother, and your brothers, and all of your father’s household into your house. ¹⁹ Whoever goes outside of the doors of your house will be responsible for his own death, we will not be at fault. But whoever is in the house with you, it will be our responsibility if anyone lays a hand on him. ²⁰ However, if you inform on what we are doing, then we will not be bound to the promise that you made us swear.” ²¹ She said, “Let it be as you have said.” She sent them away, and they departed. She then tied a scarlet cord to the window.

²² The Spies Report to Joshua. They left, and went into the hills where they remained for three days until the pursuers had returned. The pursuers had searched all along that way, but had not found them. ^23 [a]The two men then went back home. They came down from the hills and forded the river, coming to Joshua, the son of Nun. They told him everything that had happened to them. ²⁴ They said to Joshua, “Surely the Lord has delivered the entire land into our hands, for all of the people in the land are overcome with fear of us.”

¹⁷ In the same way, faith by itself is dead if it does not have works.

¹⁸ But perhaps someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith without works, and by works I will show you my faith. ¹⁹ You believe that there is one God. You do well to assert that. But even the demons believe and tremble.

²⁰ You fool! Do you want proof that faith without works is futile? ²¹ Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? ²² Thus, you can see that his faith and his works were active together; his faith was brought to completion by works.

²³ Thus, the words of Scripture were fulfilled that say, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called the friend of God. ²⁴ You can see, then, that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone.

²⁵ Likewise, Rahab the prostitute,^[a] was she not also justified by works when she welcomed the messengers and sent them away by a different road? ²⁶ For just as the body is dead without a spirit, so faith without works is also dead.