Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
7 [But Jeremiah said] O Lord, You have persuaded and deceived me, and I was persuaded and deceived; You are stronger than I am and You have prevailed. I am a laughingstock all the day; everyone mocks me.
8 For whenever I speak, I must cry out and complain; I shout, Violence and destruction! For the word of the Lord has become to me a reproach and a derision and has brought me insult all day long.
9 If I say, I will not make mention of [the Lord] or speak any more in His name, in my mind and heart it is as if there were a burning fire shut up in my bones. And I am weary of enduring and holding it in; I cannot [contain it any longer].
10 For I have heard many whispering and defaming, [There is] terror on every side! Denounce him! Let us denounce him! Say all my familiar friends, they who watch for my fall, Perhaps he will be persuaded and deceived; then we will prevail against him, and we will get our revenge on him.
11 But the Lord is with me as a mighty and terrible One; therefore my persecutors will stumble, and they will not overcome [me]. They will be utterly put to shame, for they will not deal wisely or prosper [in their schemes]; their eternal dishonor will never be forgotten.
12 But, O Lord of hosts, You Who try the righteous, Who see the heart and the mind, let me see Your vengeance on them, for to You have I revealed and committed my cause.
13 Sing to the Lord! Praise the Lord! For He has delivered the life of the poor and needy from the hands of evildoers.
7 Because for Your sake I have borne taunt and reproach; confusion and shame have covered my face.
8 I have become a stranger to my brethren, and an alien to my mother’s children.(A)
9 For zeal for Your house has eaten me up, and the reproaches and insults of those who reproach and insult You have fallen upon me.(B)
10 When I wept and humbled myself with fasting, I was jeered at and humiliated;
11 When I made sackcloth my clothing, I became a byword (an object of scorn) to them.
12 They who sit in [the city’s] gate talk about me, and I am the song of the drunkards.
13 But as for me, my prayer is to You, O Lord. At an acceptable and opportune time, O God, in the multitude of Your mercy and the abundance of Your loving-kindness hear me, and in the truth and faithfulness of Your salvation answer me.
14 Rescue me out of the mire, and let me not sink; let me be delivered from those who hate me and from out of the deep waters.
15 Let not the floodwaters overflow and overwhelm me, neither let the deep swallow me up nor the [dug] pit [with water perhaps in the bottom] close its mouth over me.
16 Hear and answer me, O Lord, for Your loving-kindness is sweet and comforting; according to Your plenteous tender mercy and steadfast love turn to me.
17 Hide not Your face from Your servant, for I am in distress; O answer me speedily!
18 Draw close to me and redeem me; ransom and set me free because of my enemies [lest they glory in my prolonged distress]!
6 What shall we say [to all this]? Are we to remain in sin in order that God’s grace (favor and mercy) may multiply and overflow?
2 Certainly not! How can we who died to sin live in it any longer?
3 Are you ignorant of the fact that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?
4 We were buried therefore with Him by the baptism into death, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious [power] of the Father, so we too might [habitually] live and behave in newness of life.
5 For if we have become one with Him by sharing a death like His, we shall also be [one with Him in sharing] His resurrection [by a new life lived for God].
6 We know that our old (unrenewed) self was nailed to the cross with Him in order that [our] body [which is the instrument] of sin might be made ineffective and inactive for evil, that we might no longer be the slaves of sin.
7 For when a man dies, he is freed (loosed, delivered) from [the power of] sin [among men].
8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,
9 Because we know that Christ (the Anointed One), being once raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has power over Him.
10 For by the death He died, He died to sin [ending His relation to it] once for all; and the life that He lives, He is living to God [in unbroken fellowship with Him].
11 Even so consider yourselves also dead to sin and your relation to it broken, but alive to God [living in unbroken fellowship with Him] in Christ Jesus.
24 A disciple is not above his teacher, nor is a servant or slave above his master.
25 It is sufficient for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the servant or slave like his master. If they have called the Master of the house Beelzebub [[a]master of the dwelling], how much more will they speak evil of those of His household.(A)
26 So have no fear of them; for nothing is concealed that will not be revealed, or kept secret that will not become known.
27 What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered in the ear, proclaim upon the housetops.
28 And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; but rather be afraid of Him who can destroy both soul and body in hell (Gehenna).
29 Are not two [b]little sparrows sold for a penny? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground without your Father’s leave (consent) and notice.
30 But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.
31 Fear not, then; you are of more value than many sparrows.
32 Therefore, everyone who acknowledges Me before men and confesses Me [[c]out of a state of oneness with Me], I will also acknowledge him before My Father Who is in heaven and [d]confess [that I am abiding in] him.
33 But whoever denies and disowns Me before men, I also will deny and disown him before My Father Who is in heaven.
34 Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.
35 For I have come to part asunder a man from his father, and a daughter from her mother, and a [e]newly married wife from her mother-in-law—
36 And a man’s foes will be they of his own household.(B)
37 He who loves [and [f]takes more pleasure in] father or mother more than [in] Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves [and takes more pleasure in] son or daughter more than [in] Me is not worthy of Me;
38 And he who does not take up his cross and follow Me [[g]cleave steadfastly to Me, conforming wholly to My example in living and, if need be, in dying also] is not worthy of Me.
39 Whoever finds his [[h]lower] life will lose it [the higher life], and whoever loses his [lower] life on My account will find it [the higher life].
Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation