Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

⁵ Then the prophet Jeremiah spoke to the prophet Hananiah in the presence of the priests and all the people who stood in the house of the Lord.

⁶ The prophet Jeremiah said, Amen! May the Lord do so; may the Lord perform your words which you have prophesied to bring back to this place from Babylon the vessels of the Lord’s house and all who were carried away captive.

⁷ Nevertheless, listen now to and hear this word which I speak in your hearing and in the hearing of all the people:

⁸ The prophets who were before me and before you from of old prophesied against many countries and against great kingdoms, of war, of evil, and of pestilence.

⁹ But as for the prophet who [on the contrary] prophesies of peace, when that prophet’s word comes to pass, [only] then will it be known that the Lord has truly sent him.

Psalm 89

A skillful song, or a didactic or reflective poem, of Ethan the Ezrahite.

¹ I will sing of the mercy and loving-kindness of the Lord forever; with my mouth will I make known Your faithfulness from generation to generation.

² For I have said, Mercy and loving-kindness shall be built up forever; Your faithfulness will You establish in the very heavens [unchangeable and perpetual].

³ [You have said] I have made a ^[a]covenant with My chosen one, I have sworn to David My servant,

⁴ Your Seed I will establish forever, and I will build up your throne for all generations. Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]!^(A)

¹⁵ Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) are the people who know the joyful sound [who understand and appreciate the spiritual blessings symbolized by the feasts]; they walk, O Lord, in the light and favor of Your countenance!

¹⁶ In Your name they rejoice all the day, and in Your righteousness they are exalted.

¹⁷ For You are the glory of their strength [their proud adornment], and by Your favor our horn is exalted and we walk with uplifted faces!

¹⁸ For our shield belongs to the Lord, and our king to the Holy One of Israel.

¹² Let not sin therefore rule as king in your mortal (short-lived, perishable) bodies, to make you yield to its cravings and be subject to its lusts and evil passions.

¹³ Do not continue offering or yielding your bodily members [and ^[a]faculties] to sin as instruments (tools) of wickedness. But offer and yield yourselves to God as though you have been raised from the dead to [perpetual] life, and your bodily members [and ^[b]faculties] to God, presenting them as implements of righteousness.

¹⁴ For sin shall not [any longer] exert dominion over you, since now you are not under Law [as slaves], but under grace [as subjects of God’s favor and mercy].

¹⁵ What then [are we to conclude]? Shall we sin because we live not under Law but under God’s favor and mercy? Certainly not!

¹⁶ Do you not know that if you continually surrender yourselves to anyone to do his will, you are the slaves of him whom you obey, whether that be to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience which leads to righteousness (right doing and right standing with God)?

¹⁷ But thank God, though you were once slaves of sin, you have become obedient with all your heart to the standard of teaching in which you were instructed and to which you were committed.

¹⁸ And having been set free from sin, you have become the servants of righteousness (of conformity to the divine will in thought, purpose, and action).

¹⁹ I am speaking in familiar human terms because of your natural limitations. For as you yielded your bodily members [and ^[c]faculties] as servants to impurity and ever increasing lawlessness, so now yield your bodily members [and ^[d]faculties] once for all as servants to righteousness (right being and doing) [which leads] to sanctification.

²⁰ For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.

²¹ But then what benefit (return) did you get from the things of which you are now ashamed? [None] for the end of those things is death.

²² But now since you have been set free from sin and have become the slaves of God, you have your present reward in holiness and its end is eternal life.

²³ For the wages which sin pays is death, but the [bountiful] free gift of God is eternal life through (in union with) Jesus Christ our Lord.

⁴⁰ He who receives and welcomes and accepts you receives and welcomes and accepts Me, and he who receives and welcomes and accepts Me receives and welcomes and accepts Him Who sent Me.

⁴¹ He who receives and welcomes and accepts a prophet because he is a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward, and he who receives and welcomes and accepts a righteous man because he is a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward.

⁴² And whoever gives to one of these little ones [in rank or influence] even a cup of cold water because he is My disciple, surely I declare to you, he shall not lose his reward.