Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

⁷ “Now, son of man, I am choosing you to be a watchman for the family of Israel. If you hear a message from my mouth, you must warn the people for me. ⁸ I might say to you, ‘These evil people will die.’ Then you must go warn them for me. If you don’t warn them and tell them to change their lives, those evil people will die because they sinned. But I will make you responsible for their deaths. ⁹ But if you do warn the evil people to change their lives and stop sinning, and if they refuse to stop, they will die because they sinned. But you have saved your life.

God Does Not Want to Destroy People

¹⁰ “So, son of man, speak to the family of Israel for me. They might say, ‘We have sinned and broken the law. Our sins are too heavy to bear. We rot away because of them. What can we do to live?’

¹¹ “You must say to them, ‘The Lord God says: By my life, I swear that I don’t enjoy seeing people die—not even evil people! I don’t want them to die. I want them to come back to me. I want them to change their lives so that they can really live. So come back to me! Stop doing bad things! Why must you die, family of Israel?’

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Loving Others Is the Only Law

⁸ You should owe nothing to anyone, except that you will always owe love to each other. The person who loves others has done all that the law commands. ⁹ The law says, “You must not commit adultery, you must not murder anyone, you must not steal, you must not want what belongs to someone else.”^[a] All these commands and all other commands are really only one rule: “Love your neighbor^[b] the same as you love yourself.”^{[c] 10} Love doesn’t hurt others. So loving is the same as obeying all the law.

¹¹ I say this because you know that we live in an important time. Yes, it is now time for you to wake up from your sleep. Our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. ¹² The night is almost finished. The day is almost here. So we should stop doing whatever belongs to darkness. We should prepare ourselves to fight evil with the weapons that belong to the light. ¹³ We should live in a right way, like people who belong to the day. We should not have wild parties or be drunk. We should not be involved in sexual sin or any kind of immoral behavior. We should not cause arguments and trouble or be jealous. ¹⁴ But be like the Lord Jesus Christ, so that when people see what you do, they will see Christ. Don’t think about how to satisfy the desires of your sinful self.

When Someone Hurts You^(A)

¹⁵ “If your brother or sister in God’s family does something wrong, go and tell them what they did wrong. Do this when you are alone with them. If they listen to you, then you have helped them to be your brother or sister again. ¹⁶ But if they refuse to listen, go to them again and take one or two people with you. Then there will be two or three people who will be able to tell all that happened.^{[a] 17} If they refuse to listen to them, tell the church. And if they refuse to listen to the church, treat them as you would treat someone who does not know God or who is a tax collector.

¹⁸ “I can assure you that when you speak judgment here on earth, it will be God’s judgment. And when you promise forgiveness here on earth, it will be God’s forgiveness.^{[b] 19} To say it another way, if two of you on earth agree on anything you pray for, my Father in heaven will do what you ask. ²⁰ Yes, if two or three people are together believing in me, I am there with them.”