Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Taw

¹¹ There was an old prophet living in Bethel. His sons came and told him what the man of God did in Bethel and what he said to King Jeroboam. ¹² The old prophet said, “Which way did he go when he left?” So the sons showed their father which road the man of God from Judah had taken. ¹³ The old prophet told his sons to saddle his donkey. They put the saddle on the donkey, and the prophet left.

¹⁴ The old prophet went after the man of God. He found him sitting under an oak tree and asked him, “Are you the man of God who just came from Judah?”

The man of God answered, “Yes, I am.”

¹⁵ So the old prophet said, “Please come home and eat with me.”

¹⁶ But the man of God said, “I cannot go home with you. I cannot eat or drink anything in this place. ¹⁷ The Lord said to me, ‘You must not eat or drink anything in that place, and you must go back on a different road.’”

¹⁸ The old prophet lied to him and said, “But I am a prophet like you. And an angel from the Lord came to me and told me to bring you home and give you something to eat and drink.”

¹⁹ So the man of God went to the old prophet’s house and ate and drank with him. ²⁰ While they were sitting at the table, the Lord spoke to the old prophet, ²¹ and the old prophet spoke to the man of God from Judah. He said, “The Lord said that you did not obey him! You did not do what he commanded. ²² He told you not to eat or drink anything in this place, but you came back here and ate and drank. So your body will not be buried in your family grave.”

²³ The man of God finished eating and drinking. Then the old prophet saddled the man’s donkey for him and the man left. ²⁴ On the way home, a lion attacked and killed the man of God. His body was lying on the road while the lion stood next to it. The donkey stood nearby. ²⁵ Some people came walking by and saw the body and the lion standing by it. They went into the city where the old prophet lived and told people what they had seen on the road.

Your New Life

3 You were raised from death with Christ. So live for what is in heaven, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God. ² Think only about what is up there, not what is here on earth. ³ Your old self has died, and your new life is kept with Christ in God. ⁴ Yes, Christ is now your life, and when he comes again, you will share in his glory.

⁵ So put everything evil out of your life: sexual sin, doing anything immoral, letting sinful thoughts control you, and wanting things that are wrong. And don’t keep wanting more and more for yourself, which is the same as worshiping a false god. ⁶ God will show his anger against those who don’t obey him,^[a] because they do these evil things. ⁷ You also did these things in the past, when you lived like them.

⁸ But now put these things out of your life: anger, losing your temper, doing or saying things to hurt others, and saying shameful things. ⁹ Don’t lie to each other. You have taken off those old clothes—the person you once were and the bad things you did then. ¹⁰ Now you are wearing a new life, a life that is new every day. You are growing in your understanding of the one who made you. You are becoming more and more like him. ¹¹ In this new life it doesn’t matter if you are a Greek or a Jew, circumcised or not. It doesn’t matter if you speak a different language or even if you are a Scythian.^[b] It doesn’t matter if you are a slave or free. Christ is all that matters, and he is in all of you.