Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

TAU.

¹⁶⁹ ¶ Let my cry come near before thee, O LORD; give me understanding according to thy word.

¹⁷⁰ Let my supplication come before thee; deliver me according to thy spoken word.

¹⁷¹ ¶ My lips shall overflow with praise when thou hast taught me thy statutes.

¹⁷² ¶ My tongue shall speak thy words; for all thy commandments are righteousness.

¹⁷³ ¶ Let thine hand help me, for I have chosen thy precepts.

¹⁷⁴ I have longed for thy saving health, O LORD, and thy law is my delight.

¹⁷⁵ ¶ Let my soul live, and it shall praise thee, and let thy judgments help me.

¹⁷⁶ ¶ I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek thy slave; for I have not forgotten thy commandments.

¹¹ ¶ Now there dwelt an old prophet in Bethel, and his sons came and told him all the works that the man of God had done that day in Bethel; they also told their father the words which he had spoken unto the king.

¹² And their father said unto them, What way did he go? And his sons showed him the way the man of God had gone, who had come from Judah.

¹³ And he said unto his sons, Saddle me the ass. So they saddled him the ass, and he rode thereon

¹⁴ and went after the man of God and found him sitting under an oak; and he said unto him, Art thou the man of God that didst come from Judah? And he said, I am.

¹⁵ Then he said unto him, Come home with me and eat bread.

¹⁶ And he said, I may not return with thee nor go in with thee; neither will I eat bread nor drink water with thee in this place,

¹⁷ for it was said to me by the word of the LORD, Thou shalt eat no bread nor drink water there nor turn again to go by the way that thou camest.

¹⁸ And the other said unto him, I am a prophet also as thou art, and an angel spoke unto me by the word of the LORD, saying, Bring him back with thee into thy house, that he may eat bread and drink water. But he lied unto him.

¹⁹ So he went back with him and ate bread in his house and drank water.

²⁰ And it came to pass, as they sat at the table, that the word of the LORD came unto the prophet that brought him back,

²¹ and he cried unto the man of God that came from Judah, saying, Thus hath the LORD said, Forasmuch as thou hast rebelled against the mouth of the LORD and hast not kept the commandment which the LORD thy God commanded thee,

²² but didst come back and hast eaten bread and drunk water in the place, of which the LORD did say to thee, Eat no bread and drink no water; thy carcase shall not come unto the sepulchre of thy fathers.

²³ ¶ And when he had eaten of the bread and after he had drunk, the prophet that had brought him back saddled an ass for him,

²⁴ and as he went, a lion met him by the way and slew him, and his carcase was cast in the way, and the ass stood by it, and the lion also stood by the carcase.

²⁵ And, behold, men passed by and saw the carcase cast in the way, and the lion standing by the carcase; and they came and told it in the city where the old prophet dwelt.

3 ¶ If ye then are risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where the Christ sits at the right hand of God.

² Set your sight on things above, not on things on the earth.

³ For ye are dead and your life is hid with the Christ in God.

⁴ When Christ, who is our life, shall be manifested, then shall ye also be manifested with him in glory.

⁵ ¶ Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth: fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil lust, and covetousness, which is idolatry;

⁶ for which things’ sake the wrath of God comes on the sons of disobedience,

⁷ in which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them.

⁸ ¶ But now put ye also off all these things: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth.

⁹ Lie not one to another, putting off the old man with his deeds

¹⁰ and being clothed with the new man, who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of the one that created him,

¹¹ where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian nor Scythian, slave nor free: but Christ is all and in all.