Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

⁶ The Lord is Israel's King and Redeemer. He is the Lord Almighty. He says,

¹² So, my Christian friends, we must not obey what our weak human thoughts tell us to do. We no longer have to live like that. ¹³ If you agree to live in that way, you will die. Instead, you should let God's Spirit help you with his power. Then you can stop doing the wrong things that your bodies want to do. As a result, you will have life with God.

¹⁴ All those people who live with God's Spirit as their guide are God's children. ¹⁵ The Spirit that you have received from God does not make you serve him like slaves. That would make you afraid again. No. The Spirit that God has given to you causes you to become God's children. Now he takes care of you. God's Spirit makes us call God: ‘Abba, our Father.’ ¹⁶ God's Spirit himself causes us to know that we are God's children. God's Spirit and our own spirits agree that this is true. ¹⁷ Because we are God's children, we also know that we will receive good things from him. Those are the things that he has promised to give to his children. Together with Christ, we will receive the things that God has kept for him. That is true if we agree to have troubles like Christ did. Then we will also enjoy life in heaven like Christ does.

God has prepared great things for his people

¹⁸ During this time now, we have troubles and pain. But I am sure that these troubles are not really very great. One day God will show us all the great things he has prepared for us. That will make the troubles that we have now seem very small. ¹⁹ The whole universe that God has made now waits for something great to happen. Everything is waiting with hope to find out who God's children really are.

²⁰ God has caused everything in the universe to lose its purpose. It did not choose to be like that. It was God who decided that it should be like that. Then it could hope for something better in a future time. ²¹ At that time, the universe will not continue to become worse and worse, as it does now. It will become free from that power. It will be free to enjoy great things from God, as God's children are also free.

²² We know that everything in the universe is still in great pain now. Everything cries together in pain, like a woman who is ready to have a baby. ²³ It is the same for us who are believers. We have received God's Spirit as the first of his gifts to us, but we also cry inside ourselves. We are waiting for the time when God will finish his great work. Then we will belong to him completely as his children. Our bodies will be free from the power of sin.

²⁴ Ever since God saved us, we have continued to wait for this to happen. One day, we will receive what we have hoped for. Then we will not need to hope for it any more. Nobody continues to hope for something that he has already. ²⁵ But we continue to hope for what we do not yet see. And so, we wait for it patiently.

Jesus tells a story about some weeds

²⁴ Then Jesus told the people another story. He said, ‘This is what the kingdom of heaven is like: A farmer planted some good wheat seeds into his field. ²⁵ But one night, when everyone was sleeping, a bad person came to the farmer's field. He did not like the farmer. This bad person planted seeds from weeds among the good wheat seeds. Then the bad person went away again. ²⁶ The good seeds grew and the plants began to make new seeds. But when this happened, the weeds also grew.

²⁷ So the farmer's servants came to speak to him. “Master, you planted only good seeds in your field but now many weeds are also growing there. How did this happen?” they asked him.

²⁸ The farmer said to his servants, “A bad person who does not like me has done this.”

So the servants then asked the farmer, “Do you want us to go and pull up the weeds?”

²⁹ The farmer replied, “No, I do not want you to do that. If you pull up the weeds, you may also pull up some of the good wheat plants. ³⁰ Let the good plants and the weeds grow up together. At harvest time, I will tell the workers to cut down the weeds first. Then they will tie them together and burn them. Then they will cut the wheat and bring it into my building. I will store it there.” ’

Jesus explains the story about the weeds

³⁶ Then Jesus told the crowds of people to go away. He went into the house where he was staying. His disciples also went into the house with him. They said to him, ‘Explain to us the story about the weeds that were growing in the field.’

³⁷ Jesus replied, ‘The Son of Man is like the farmer who planted the good seed in the field. ³⁸ The field is like the world. The good seeds are like the people who belong to God's kingdom. The weeds are like the people who belong to the Devil. ³⁹ The Devil is the bad person who planted the weed seeds in the field. The time for harvest is like the end of time. God's angels are the workers who cut the plants down.

⁴⁰ In the story, the workers cut down the weeds and they burned them in the fire. When this world comes to an end, it will happen like that. ⁴¹ The Son of Man will send his workers, who are his angels. They will remove from his kingdom everything that causes sin. They will take away everyone who does evil things. ⁴² The angels will throw those bad people into the great fire. There the people will cry and they will bite their teeth together.^{[a] 43} The people who obeyed God will shine like the sun. They will be in the kingdom of their Father. You have ears, so listen well to what I say!’