Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

²² So Paul, standing in the center of the Areopagus [Mars Hill meeting place], said: Men of Athens, I perceive in every way [on every hand and with every turn I make] that you are most religious or very reverent to demons.

²³ For as I passed along and carefully observed your objects of worship, I came also upon an altar with this inscription, To the unknown god. Now what you are already worshiping as unknown, this I set forth to you.

²⁴ The God Who produced and formed the world and all things in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in handmade shrines.

²⁵ Neither is He served by human hands, as though He lacked anything, for it is He Himself Who gives life and breath and all things to all [people].^(A)

²⁶ And He made from one [common origin, one source, one blood] all nations of men to settle on the face of the earth, having definitely determined [their] allotted periods of time and the fixed boundaries of their habitation (their settlements, lands, and abodes),

²⁷ So that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel after Him and find Him, although He is not far from each one of us.

²⁸ For in Him we live and move and have our being; as even some of your [own] poets have said, For we are also His offspring.

²⁹ Since then we are God’s offspring, we ought not to suppose that Deity (the Godhead) is like gold or silver or stone, [of the nature of] a representation by human art and imagination, or anything constructed or invented.

³⁰ Such [former] ages of ignorance God, it is true, ignored and allowed to pass unnoticed; but now He charges all people everywhere to repent (^[a]to change their minds for the better and heartily to amend their ways, with abhorrence of their past sins),

³¹ Because He has fixed a day when He will judge the world righteously (justly) by a Man Whom He has destined and appointed for that task, and He has made this credible and given conviction and assurance and evidence to everyone by raising Him from the dead.^(B)

⁸ Bless our God, O peoples, give Him grateful thanks and make the voice of His praise be heard,

⁹ Who put and kept us among the living, and has not allowed our feet to slip.

¹⁰ For You, O God, have proved us; You have tried us as silver is tried, refined, and purified.

¹¹ You brought us into the net (the prison fortress, the dungeon); You laid a heavy burden upon our loins.

¹² You caused men to ride over our heads [when we were prostrate]; we went through fire and through water, but You brought us out into a broad, moist place [to abundance and refreshment and the open air].

¹³ I will come into Your house with burnt offerings [of entire consecration]; I will pay You my vows,

¹⁴ Which my lips uttered and my mouth promised when I was in distress.

¹⁵ I will offer to You burnt offerings of fat lambs, with rams consumed in sweet-smelling smoke; I will offer bullocks and he-goats. Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]!

¹⁶ Come and hear, all you who reverently and worshipfully fear God, and I will declare what He has done for me!

¹⁷ I cried aloud to Him; He was extolled and high praise was under my tongue.

¹⁸ If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me;^(A)

¹⁹ But certainly God has heard me; He has given heed to the voice of my prayer.

²⁰ Blessed be God, Who has not rejected my prayer nor removed His mercy and loving-kindness from being [as it always is] with me.

¹³ Now who is there to hurt you if you are ^[a]zealous followers of that which is good?

¹⁴ But even in case you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, [you are] blessed (happy, to be envied). Do not dread or be afraid of their threats, nor be disturbed [by their opposition].

¹⁵ But in your hearts set Christ apart as holy [and acknowledge Him] as Lord. Always be ready to give a logical defense to anyone who asks you to account for the hope that is in you, but do it courteously and respectfully.^(A)

¹⁶ [And see to it that] your conscience is entirely clear (^[b]unimpaired), so that, when you are falsely accused as evildoers, those who threaten you abusively and revile your right behavior in Christ may come to be ashamed [of slandering your good lives].

¹⁷ For [it is] better to suffer [unjustly] for doing right, if that should be God’s will, than to suffer [justly] for doing wrong.

¹⁸ For Christ [the Messiah Himself] died for sins once ^[c]for all, the Righteous for the unrighteous (the Just for the unjust, the Innocent for the guilty), that He might bring us to God. In His human body He was put to death, but He was made alive in the spirit,

¹⁹ In which He went and preached to the spirits in prison,

²⁰ [The souls of those] who long before in the days of Noah had been disobedient, when God’s patience waited during the building of the ark in which a few [people], actually eight in number, were saved through water.^(B)

²¹ And baptism, which is a figure [of their deliverance], does now also save you [from inward questionings and fears], not by the removing of outward body filth [bathing], but by [providing you with] the answer of a good and clear conscience (inward cleanness and peace) before God [because you are demonstrating what you believe to be yours] through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

²² [And He] has now entered into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with [all] angels and authorities and powers made subservient to Him.

¹⁵ If you [really] love Me, you will keep (obey) My commands.

¹⁶ And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter (Counselor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Strengthener, and Standby), that He may remain with you forever—

¹⁷ The Spirit of Truth, Whom the world cannot receive (welcome, take to its heart), because it does not see Him or know and recognize Him. But you know and recognize Him, for He lives with you [constantly] and will be in you.

¹⁸ I will not leave you as orphans [comfortless, desolate, bereaved, forlorn, helpless]; I will come [back] to you.

¹⁹ Just a little while now, and the world will not see Me any more, but you will see Me; because I live, you will live also.

²⁰ At that time [when that day comes] you will know [for yourselves] that I am in My Father, and you [are] in Me, and I [am] in you.

²¹ The person who has My commands and keeps them is the one who [really] loves Me; and whoever [really] loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I [too] will love him and will show (reveal, manifest) Myself to him. [I will let Myself be clearly seen by him and make Myself real to him.]