Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

¹¹ Fate of a Disobedient Prophet.^[a] Now there was an old prophet who lived in Bethel whose sons came and told him all about the things that the man of God had done in Bethel that day. ¹² They also told their father what he had said to the king. Their father asked them, “Which way did he go?” His sons showed him the way on which the man of God from Judah had gone. ¹³ He said to his sons, “Saddle up the donkey for me.” They saddled up the donkey, and he rode on it.

¹⁴ He rode after the man of God and found him sitting under an oak tree and said to him, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah?” He answered, “I am.” ¹⁵ So he said to him, “Come home and eat with me.” ¹⁶ He answered, “I cannot return nor can I go with you. I cannot eat bread with you nor drink water with you in that place. ¹⁷ The word of the Lord told me, ‘Do not eat bread nor drink water there. Do not return by the way which you came.’ ”

¹⁸ He said, “I am also a prophet like you. An angel spoke the word of the Lord to me, saying, ‘Bring him back with you into your house so that he can eat bread and drink water.’ ” But he was lying.

¹⁹ The man of God returned with him and he ate bread and drank water in his house. ²⁰ While they were sitting at the table, the word of the Lord came to the prophet who brought him back. ²¹ He cried out to the man of God who had come from Judah, “Thus says the Lord: ‘Because you defied the mouth of the Lord and have not observed the command that the Lord, your God, commanded you, ²² but you came back and ate bread and drank water in the place that I told you not to eat bread nor drink water, therefore your body will not be buried in the tomb of your fathers.’ ”

²³ When he had finished eating bread and drinking, the prophet who had brought him back saddled his donkey up for him. ²⁴ On the way, a lion came upon him and killed him, and his body was thrown down upon the road, with both the donkey and the lion standing alongside of him.

²⁵ Some of those who were passing by on the road saw his body tossed down there, and there was a lion standing by the body. They came and reported it in the city where the old prophet was living.

Exhortation To Live as Christians

Chapter 3

Seek the Things That Are Above.^{[a] 1} Therefore, since you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, sitting at God’s right hand. ² Fix your thoughts on things that are above, not on things that are on the earth, ³ for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. ⁴ When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

A New Self.^{[b] 5} And so you should put to death everything in your nature that is earthly: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desires, and greed (which is idolatry).^{[c] 6} Because of these practices, the wrath of God will fall on those who are disobedient. ⁷ In the life you formerly lived, you used to do these things. ⁸ But now you must cast them all aside—anger, rage, malice, slander, and foul language out of your lips.

⁹ Do not lie to one another, since you have stripped off the old self with its practices ¹⁰ and have put on the new self that is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. ¹¹ Now there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian and Scythian,^[d] slave and free man. Rather, Christ is all and in all.