Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
The men in Anathoth want to kill Jeremiah
18 The Lord showed me what the people were doing.[a] He helped me to understood what was really happening. 19 Before that, I did not know about their plans to kill me. I was like a lamb that men were taking away to kill it. I did not know that they were saying, ‘We should cut down this tree and destroy its fruit![b] Jeremiah must not continue to live in this world. Then people will forget all about him.’
20 So I said, ‘Lord Almighty, you judge people in a fair way. You know what people are thinking. You understand how they feel. I trust you to show that I have not done anything that is wrong. So please punish these people. Pay them back for their sins.’
David wrote this special song for the music leader. He must use stringed instruments. It was when the men of Ziph went to Saul and they said, ‘David is hiding with us.’
God keeps me safe[a]
54 God, you are great, so please help me!
Use your power to show that I am right.
2 God, hear my prayer,
and listen carefully to what I am saying.
3 Strangers are attacking me!
Cruel people want to kill me.
They do not respect you, God.[b]
Selah.
4 But I know that God is the one who gives me help.
My Lord takes care of me.
5 Pay back my enemies with their own evil.
Please do what you have promised
and destroy them.
6 I choose to offer a sacrifice to thank you.
Lord, you are always good,
so I want to praise your name.
7 Yes, God has saved me from all my trouble.
When I looked at my enemies,
I see that I have won against them.[c]
How to be wise
13 Do some of you think that you are wise? Do you think that you are clever? If so, show that you are wise by the way that you live. Be kind to other people. Do things that are good. That is what it means to be wise. 14 But if you live in a bad way, do not think that you are wise. Are you jealous of other people so that you hate them? Do you want to make yourself important? If you live like that, do not say that you are great and wise. You are not saying what is true. 15 You are not being wise in the way that God wants you to be wise. Instead, you are thinking like people who do not know God. Your thoughts do not come from God's Spirit. They come from demons. 16 If you are jealous of other people and you want to make yourself important, that will cause trouble. People will argue and fight against one another. They will do all kinds of bad things. 17 But if God makes you really wise, you will live in a completely good way. That is the most important thing. Also, you will live in a way that brings peace. You will be kind to other people so that they become your friends. You will listen to them and not argue. You will forgive them and do many good things to help them. You will not choose between people. And you will not be a hypocrite.
18 Those who bring peace to other people help them to live together in peace. As a result, people choose to do what is right and good.
Do not turn away from God
4 You fight and quarrel among yourselves. Do you know why that happens? It is because of the troubles in your thoughts. You want to do bad things that you think will make you happy. 2 You want to have something for yourself, but you do not get what you want. You even kill other people. You try to take things that are not yours. But you cannot get them. So you fight and you quarrel with each other. But you do not have these things because you do not ask God for them. 3 Even when you do ask God, you do not receive anything. That is because you ask for the wrong reason. You just want to use these things to make yourselves happy.
7 So obey God's authority. Be strong against the Devil and he will run away from you. 8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Be clean in the way that you live. Stop doing wrong things. Make your minds clean. You cannot love sin and love God at the same time.
30 Jesus and his disciples left that place. They passed through Galilee. Jesus did not want anyone to know where he was. 31 That was because he was teaching his disciples. He told them, ‘Soon, they will give the Son of Man to powerful people. They will take him away and they will kill him. But three days after that, he will become alive again.’ 32 The disciples did not understand what Jesus had said. But they were afraid to ask him.
Jesus explains who will be the most important person
33 Jesus and his disciples arrived at Capernaum. When they were in the house, Jesus asked them, ‘What were you arguing about on the way?’ 34 But they did not say anything. They did not want to tell Jesus why they were arguing. On the way, they had argued about who was the most important disciple.
35 Jesus sat down. He told the 12 apostles to come to him. Then he said to them, ‘If you want to be the leader, make yourself less important than everyone else. You must become the servant of everyone.’
36 Then Jesus brought a child to stand in the middle of them all. He took hold of the child and he said to the disciples, 37 ‘If someone accepts a child like this because of me, then that person also accepts me. If he accepts me, then he is not only accepting me. He is also accepting my Father God, who sent me.’[a]
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