Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

⁹⁷ Oh, how I love them. I think about them all day long. ⁹⁸ They make me wiser than my enemies because they are my constant guide. ⁹⁹ Yes, wiser than my teachers, for I am ever thinking of your rules. ¹⁰⁰ They make me even wiser than the aged.

¹⁰¹ I have refused to walk the paths of evil, for I will remain obedient to your Word. ^102-103 No, I haven’t turned away from what you taught me; your words are sweeter than honey. ¹⁰⁴ And since only your rules can give me wisdom and understanding, no wonder I hate every false teaching.

18 Word soon reached Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, the priest of Midian, about all the wonderful things God had done for his people and for Moses, and how the Lord had brought them out of Egypt.

² Then Jethro took Moses’ wife, Zipporah, to him (for he had sent her home), ³ along with Moses’ two sons, Gershom (meaning “foreigner,” for Moses said when he was born, “I have been wandering in a foreign land”) ⁴ and Eliezer (meaning “God is my help,” for Moses said at his birth, “The God of my fathers was my helper and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh”). ^5-6 They arrived while Moses and the people were camped at Mount Sinai.^[a]

“Jethro, your father-in-law, has come to visit you,” Moses was told, “and he has brought your wife and your two sons.”

⁷ Moses went out to meet his father-in-law and greeted him warmly; they asked about each other’s health and then went into Moses’ tent to talk further. ⁸ Moses related to his father-in-law all that had been happening and what the Lord had done to Pharaoh and the Egyptians in order to deliver Israel, and all the problems there had been along the way, and how the Lord had delivered his people from all of them. ⁹ Jethro was very happy about everything the Lord had done for Israel, and about his bringing them out of Egypt.

¹⁰ “Bless the Lord,” Jethro said, “for he has saved you from the Egyptians and from Pharaoh, and has rescued Israel. ¹¹ I know now that the Lord is greater than any other god because he delivered his people from the proud and cruel Egyptians.”

¹² Jethro offered sacrifices to God,^[b] and afterwards Aaron and the leaders of Israel came to meet Jethro, and they all ate the sacrificial meal together before the Lord.

^26-27 He has kept this secret for centuries and generations past, but now at last it has pleased him to tell it to those who love him and live for him, and the riches and glory of his plan are for you Gentiles, too. And this is the secret: Christ in your hearts is your only hope of glory.

²⁸ So everywhere we go we talk about Christ to all who will listen, warning them and teaching them as well as we know how. We want to be able to present each one to God, perfect because of what Christ has done for each of them. ²⁹ This is my work, and I can do it only because Christ’s mighty energy is at work within me.

2 I wish you could know how much I have struggled in prayer for you and for the church at Laodicea, and for my many other friends who have never known me personally. ² This is what I have asked of God for you: that you will be encouraged and knit together by strong ties of love, and that you will have the rich experience of knowing Christ with real certainty and clear understanding. For God’s secret plan, now at last made known, is Christ himself. ³ In him lie hidden all the mighty, untapped treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

⁴ I am saying this because I am afraid that someone may fool you with smooth talk. ⁵ For though I am far away from you my heart is with you, happy because you are getting along so well, happy because of your strong faith in Christ. ⁶ And now just as you trusted Christ to save you, trust him, too, for each day’s problems; live in vital union with him. ⁷ Let your roots grow down into him and draw up nourishment from him. See that you go on growing in the Lord, and become strong and vigorous in the truth you were taught. Let your lives overflow with joy and thanksgiving for all he has done.