Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

ת tav

¹¹ Now there was an old prophet living in Bethel. His sons came and told him everything that the man of God had done that day at Bethel. They also told their father the words that he spoke to the king. ¹² “Which way did he go?” their father asked them. His sons had seen the way the man of God went when he came from Judah. ¹³ The old prophet said to his sons, “Saddle my donkey.” So they saddled his donkey, and he got on it. ¹⁴ He went after the man of God and found him sitting underneath a terebinth tree. He said to him, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah?”

“I am,” he replied.

¹⁵ The old prophet then said to him, “Come home with me and eat some food.”

¹⁶ But the man of God answered, “I can’t return or go with you, and I can’t eat food or drink water with you in this place ¹⁷ because of the message that came to me from the Lord’s word: Don’t eat food! Don’t drink water! Don’t return by the way you came!”

¹⁸ The old prophet said to the man of God, “I’m also a prophet like you. A messenger spoke to me with the Lord’s word, ‘Bring him back with you to your house so that he may eat food and drink water.’”

But the old prophet was lying to him. ¹⁹ So the man of God went back with the old prophet. He ate food in his home and drank water. ²⁰ Then as they were sitting at the table, the Lord’s word came to the prophet who had brought him back. ²¹ He cried out to the man of God who had come from Judah:

“But he had commanded you: ‘Don’t eat food! Don’t drink water!’ Now your body won’t go to the grave of your ancestors.”

²³ After he ate food and drank, the old prophet saddled the donkey for the prophet he had brought back. ²⁴ The man of God departed, and a lion found him on the road and killed him. His body was thrown down on the road. The donkey stood beside it, and the lion also stood beside the body. ²⁵ Some people were traveling nearby, and they discovered the body thrown down on the road and the lion standing beside it. They entered the town where the old prophet lived and were talking about it.

Your life hidden in Christ

3 Therefore, if you were raised with Christ, look for the things that are above where Christ is sitting at God’s right side. ² Think about the things above and not things on earth. ³ You died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. ⁴ When Christ, who is your life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.

⁵ So put to death the parts of your life that belong to the earth, such as sexual immorality, moral corruption, lust, evil desire, and greed (which is idolatry). ⁶ The wrath of God is coming upon disobedient people because of these things. ⁷ You used to live this way, when you were alive to these things. ⁸ But now set aside these things, such as anger, rage, malice, slander, and obscene language. ⁹ Don’t lie to each other. Take off the old human nature with its practices ¹⁰ and put on the new nature, which is renewed in knowledge by conforming to the image of the one who created it. ¹¹ In this image there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all things and in all people.