Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

This is a song that David wrote when he ran away from his son, Absalom.^[a]

A morning song

⁵ Wine will destroy that proud enemy.^[a] They do not stop attacking other people. They never have enough for themselves. They are like death that is so hungry that it eats as much as it can. The deep hole of death eats everything. The cruel enemy is like that! They want all the nations to belong to them. They catch everyone to be their prisoners.

⁶ But one day, their prisoners will laugh at them. The people will insult that proud nation with songs and proverbs. They will say, “You have stored for yourselves many valuable things that do not belong to you. It will be very bad for you! You have robbed other nations so that you can be rich. This will not continue much longer!”

⁷ The people that have lent their riches to you will suddenly attack. They will come to take back their things and you will be very afraid. Now they will come to rob you! ⁸ You have robbed many nations. You have murdered people in many lands. You have destroyed towns and the people who live in them. Now the people who remain will come to rob you.

⁹ It will be very bad for anyone who cheats other people so that he can make his family rich. He thinks that his riches will make him safe. He thinks that he is too high up for any trouble to reach him. ¹⁰ But the cruel things that you have done will bring shame to your family. You decided to destroy people from many countries. Because of that, you will pay with your own life. ¹¹ The stones in the walls of your houses will cry out against you. The beams in your roof will also shout aloud.

Believe in Jesus Christ

5 Everyone who believes that Jesus is God's Messiah has become a child of God. And if we love God, our Father, we will love his other children too. ² How do we know that we love God's children? We know it when we love God and we do what he tells us to do. ³ Because, if we really love God, we will obey his commands. And those commands are not difficult for us to obey. ⁴ Because we have become God's children, we can live in a good way. We can refuse to live like people who belong to this world. We are able to win against the wrong ways of this world because we trust Jesus Christ. ⁵ It is only people who believe that Jesus is the Son of God who can do that. Only they can win against the wrong ways of this world.

Christians have true life with God

¹³ I have written these things to you who believe that Jesus is the Son of God. I want you to know that you have true life with God for ever. ¹⁴ Also, we can trust God to help us when we turn to him. We know that he will hear us. When we ask for anything that he wants us to have, he listens to us. ¹⁵ Since we know that, we also know that God will give to us the things that we ask for. It is like we have already received those things from him.

¹⁶ If you see that another Christian is doing something bad, this is what you should do. If it is a sin that does not cause death, pray that God will help him. Then God will help that person to live for ever with him. That is for a sin which does not cause death. But there is a sin that causes death. If another Christian does that, I am not saying that you should pray for God to help that person. ¹⁷ Any wrong thing that a person does is sin. But not all sins cause death.^[a]

¹⁸ Nobody who has become a child of God continues to do wrong things. Instead, the Son of God keeps him safe.^[b] Satan cannot do anything against a child of God. ¹⁹ We know that we belong to God. We know that Satan rules all the people who belong to this world. ²⁰ We also know that the Son of God has come into the world. He has helped us to understand what is true. As a result, we know the only true God. We live together with this true God, because we belong to his Son, Jesus Christ. He is the true God. He is the one who gives us life with God for ever.

²¹ My little children, be careful to keep away from idols.^[c]