Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Mem
Loving God’s Word
97 How I love your instruction![a]
Every day it is my meditation.
98 Your commands make me wiser than my adversaries,
since they are always with me.
99 I am more insightful than my teachers,
because your decrees are my meditations.
100 I have more common sense than the elders,
for I observe your precepts.
101 I keep away from every evil choice[b]
so that I may keep your word.[c]
102 I do not avoid your judgments,
for you pointed them out to me.
103 How pleasing is what you have to say to me—
tasting better than honey.
104 I obtain understanding from your precepts;
therefore I hate every false way.
Wisdom’s Invitation
9 Wisdom[a] has built her house;
she has hewn out her seven pillars.
2 She has prepared her food,[b]
she has spiced[c] her wine,
and she also has set her dining table.
3 She has sent out her young women,
while calling out from the heights of the city,
4 “Let whoever is naïve, turn in here.”
To anyone lacking sense, she says,
5 “Come! Eat my food,
and drink the wine that I have mixed.
6 Leave your naïve ways, and live.
Walk in the path of understanding.”
Wisdom Extends Life
7 Whoever corrects a mocker invites only insult,[d]
and whoever rebukes the wicked will himself become stained.
8 Don’t rebuke a mocker or he will hate you.
Rebuke a wise person, and he will love you.
9 Counsel a wise man,
and he will be wiser still;
teach a righteous man,
and he will add to his learning.
10 The fear of the Lord is where wisdom begins,
and knowing holiness[e] demonstrates understanding.
11 For because of me you will live a long life,
and years will be added to your life.
12 If you are wise,
your wisdom will assist you.
If you mock,
you alone will be held responsible.
Folly’s Entrapment
13 The foolish woman is loud,
undisciplined, and without knowledge.
14 She sits at the entrance of her house,
on a seat high above the city.
15 She calls out to those passing by on the road,
who are minding their own business,[f]
16 “Whoever is naïve, turn in here!”
And to anyone lacking sense, she says,
17 “Stolen waters are sweet,
and food eaten in secret is delicious.”
18 But he does not realize that the dead lurk there,
and her invited guests wind up in the depths of Sheol.[g]
The Messiah is Our Advocate
2 My little children, I’m writing these things to you so that you might not sin. Yet if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus, the Messiah,[a] one who is righteous. 2 It is he who is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the whole world’s.
3 This is how we can be sure that we have come to know him: if we continually keep his commandments. 4 The person who says, “I have come to know him,” but does not continually keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth has no place in that person. 5 But whoever continually keeps his commandments is the kind of person in whom God’s love has truly been perfected. This is how we can be sure that we are in union with God:[b] 6 The one who says that he abides in him must live the same way he himself lived.
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