◀ All Reading Plans / Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary) / Deuteronomy 11:18-21 26-28 (Keeping the words of God); Psalm 31:1-5 19-24 (I commit my spirit); Romans 1:16-17; 3:22b-28 [29-31] (Justified by God’s grace as a gift); Matthew 7:21-29 (Doing the works of God) (New English Translation)

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Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Daily Bible readings that follow the church liturgical year, with thematically matched Old and New Testament readings.

Duration: 1245 days

Deuteronomy 11:18-21

¹⁸Fix these words of mine into your mind and being,^[a] tie them as a reminder on your hands, and let them be symbols^[b] on your forehead. ¹⁹Teach them to your children and speak of them as you sit in your house, as you walk along the road,^[c] as you lie down, and as you get up. ²⁰Inscribe them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates ²¹so that your days and those of your descendants may be extended in the land that the Lord promised to give to your ancestors, like the days of heaven itself.^[d]

Deuteronomy 11:26-28

Anticipation of a Blessing and Cursing Ceremony

²⁶Take note—I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse:^[a] ²⁷the blessing if you take to heart^[b] the commandments of the Lord your God that I am giving you today, ²⁸and the curse if you pay no attention^[c] to his^[d] commandments and turn from the way I am setting before^[e] you today to pursue^[f] other gods you have not known.

Psalm 31:1-5

Psalm 31^[a]

For the music director, a psalm of David.

31 In you, O Lord, I have taken shelter.
Never let me be humiliated.
Vindicate me by rescuing me.^[b]
²Listen to me.^[c]
Quickly deliver me.
Be my protector and refuge,^[d]
a stronghold where I can be safe.^[e]
³For you are my high ridge^[f] and my stronghold;
for the sake of your own reputation^[g] you lead me and guide me.^[h]
⁴You will free me^[i] from the net they hid for me,
for you are my place of refuge.
⁵Into your hand I entrust my life;^[j]
you will rescue^[k] me, O Lord, the faithful God.

Footnotes

Psalm 31:1 sn Psalm 31. The psalmist confidently asks the Lord to protect him. Enemies threaten him and even his friends have abandoned him, but he looks to the Lord for vindication. In vv. 19-24, which were apparently written after the Lord answered the prayer of vv. 1-18, the psalmist thanks the Lord for delivering him.
Psalm 31:1 tn Heb “in your vindication rescue me.”
Psalm 31:2 tn Heb “turn toward me your ear.”
Psalm 31:2 tn Heb “become for me a rocky summit of refuge.”
Psalm 31:2 tn Heb “a house of strongholds to deliver me.”
Psalm 31:3 sn The metaphor of the high ridge pictures God as a rocky, relatively inaccessible summit, where one would be able to find protection from enemies. See 1 Sam 23:25, 28.
Psalm 31:3 tn Heb “name.” The Hebrew term שֵׁם (shem, “name”) refers here to the Lord’s reputation. (The English term “name” is often used the same way.)
Psalm 31:3 tn The present translation assumes that the imperfect verbal forms are generalizing, “you lead me and guide me.” Other options are to take them as an expression of confidence about the future, “you will lead me and guide me” (cf. NASB), or as expressing a prayer, “lead me and guide me” (cf. NEB, NIV, NRSV).
Psalm 31:4 tn Heb “bring me out.” The translation assumes that the imperfect verbal form expresses the psalmist’s confidence about the future. Another option is to take the form as expressing a prayer, “free me.”
Psalm 31:5 tn Heb “my spirit.” The noun רוּחַ (ruakh, “spirit”) here refers to the animating spirit that gives the psalmist life.
Psalm 31:5 tn Or “redeem.” The perfect verbal form is understood here as anticipatory, indicating rhetorically the psalmist’s certitude and confidence that God will intervene. The psalmist is so confident of God’s positive response to his prayer that he can describe his deliverance as if it had already happened. Another option is to take the perfect as precative, expressing a wish or request (“rescue me”; cf. NIV). See IBHS 494-95 §30.5.4c, d. However, not all grammarians are convinced that the perfect is used as a precative in biblical Hebrew.

Psalm 31:19-24

¹⁹How great is your favor,^[a]
which you store up for your loyal followers.^[b]
In plain sight of everyone you bestow it on those who take shelter^[c] in you.^[d]
²⁰You hide them with you, where they are safe from the attacks^[e] of men;^[f]
you conceal them in a shelter, where they are safe from slanderous attacks.^[g]
²¹The Lord deserves praise^[h]
for he demonstrated his amazing faithfulness to me when I was besieged by enemies.^[i]
²²I jumped to conclusions and said,^[j]
“I am cut off from your presence!”^[k]
But you heard my plea for mercy when I cried out to you for help.
²³Love the Lord, all you faithful followers^[l] of his!
The Lord protects those who have integrity,
but he pays back in full the one who acts arrogantly.^[m]
²⁴Be strong and confident,^[n]
all you who wait on the Lord.

Romans 1:16-17

The Power of the Gospel

¹⁶For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is God’s power for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.^[a] ¹⁷For the righteousness^[b] of God is revealed in the gospel^[c] from faith to faith,^[d] just as it is written, “The righteous by faith will live.”^[e]

Romans 3:22-28

²²namely, the righteousness of God through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ^[a] for all who believe. For there is no distinction, ²³for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. ²⁴But they are justified^[b] freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. ²⁵God publicly displayed^[c] him^[d] at his death^[e] as the mercy seat^[f] accessible through faith.^[g] This was to demonstrate^[h] his righteousness, because God in his forbearance had passed over the sins previously committed.^[i] ²⁶This was^[j] also to demonstrate^[k] his righteousness in the present time, so that he would be just^[l] and the justifier of the one who lives because of Jesus’ faithfulness.^[m]

²⁷Where, then, is boasting?^[n] It is excluded! By what principle?^[o] Of works? No, but by the principle of faith! ²⁸For we consider that a person^[p] is declared righteous by faith apart from the works of the law.^[q]

Footnotes

Romans 3:22 tn Or “faith in Christ.” A decision is difficult here. Though traditionally translated “faith in Jesus Christ,” an increasing number of NT scholars are arguing that πίστις Χριστοῦ (pistis Christou) and similar phrases in Paul (here and in v. 26; Gal 2:16, 20; 3:22; Eph 3:12; Phil 3:9) involve a subjective genitive and mean “Christ’s faith” or “Christ’s faithfulness” (cf., e.g., G. Howard, “The ‘Faith of Christ’,” ExpTim 85 [1974]: 212-15; R. B. Hays, The Faith of Jesus Christ [SBLDS]; Morna D. Hooker, “Πίστις Χριστοῦ,” NTS 35 [1989]: 321-42). Noteworthy among the arguments for the subjective genitive view is that when πίστις takes a personal genitive it is almost never an objective genitive (cf. Matt 9:2, 22, 29; Mark 2:5; 5:34; 10:52; Luke 5:20; 7:50; 8:25, 48; 17:19; 18:42; 22:32; Rom 1:8; 12; 3:3; 4:5, 12, 16; 1 Cor 2:5; 15:14, 17; 2 Cor 10:15; Phil 2:17; Col 1:4; 2:5; 1 Thess 1:8; 3:2, 5, 10; 2 Thess 1:3; Titus 1:1; Phlm 6; 1 Pet 1:9, 21; 2 Pet 1:5). On the other hand, the objective genitive view has its adherents: A. Hultgren, “The Pistis Christou Formulations in Paul,” NovT 22 (1980): 248-63; J. D. G. Dunn, “Once More, ΠΙΣΤΙΣ ΧΡΙΣΤΟΥ,” SBL Seminar Papers, 1991, 730-44. Most commentaries on Romans and Galatians usually side with the objective view.sn ExSyn 116, which notes that the grammar is not decisive, nevertheless suggests that “the faith/faithfulness of Christ is not a denial of faith in Christ as a Pauline concept (for the idea is expressed in many of the same contexts, only with the verb πιστεύω rather than the noun), but implies that the object of faith is a worthy object, for he himself is faithful.” Though Paul elsewhere teaches justification by faith, this presupposes that the object of our faith is reliable and worthy of such faith.
Romans 3:24 tn Or “declared righteous.” Grk “being justified,” as a continuation of the preceding clause. Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.
Romans 3:25 tn Or “purposed, intended.”
Romans 3:25 tn Grk “whom God publicly displayed.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.
Romans 3:25 tn Grk “in his blood.” The prepositional phrase ἐν τῷ αὐτοῦ αἵματι (en tō autou haimati) is difficult to interpret. It is traditionally understood to refer to the atoning sacrifice Jesus made when he shed his blood on the cross, and as a modifier of ἱλαστήριον (hilastērion). This interpretation fits if ἱλαστήριον is taken to refer to a sacrifice. But if ἱλαστήριον is taken to refer to the place where atonement is made as this translation has done (see note on the phrase “mercy seat”), this interpretation of ἐν τῷ αὐτοῦ αἵματι creates a violent mixed metaphor. Within a few words Paul would switch from referring to Jesus as the place where atonement was made to referring to Jesus as the atoning sacrifice itself. A viable option which resolves this problem is to see ἐν τῷ αὐτοῦ αἵματι as modifying the verb προέθετο (proetheto). If it modifies the verb, it would explain the time or place in which God publicly displayed Jesus as the mercy seat; the reference to blood would be a metaphorical way of speaking of Jesus’ death. This is supported by the placement of ἐν τῷ αὐτοῦ αἵματι in the Greek text (it follows the noun, separated from it by another prepositional phrase) and by stylistic parallels with Rom 1:4. This is the interpretation the translation has followed, although it is recognized that many interpreters favor different options and translations. The prepositional phrase has been moved forward in the sentence to emphasize its connection with the verb, and the referent of the metaphorical language has been specified in the translation. For a detailed discussion of this interpretation, see D. P. Bailey, “Jesus As the Mercy Seat: The Semantics and Theology of Paul’s Use of Hilasterion in Romans 3:25” (Ph.D. diss., University of Cambridge, 1999).
Romans 3:25 tn The word ἱλαστήριον (hilastērion) may carry the general sense “place of satisfaction,” referring to the place where God’s wrath toward sin is satisfied. More likely, though, it refers specifically to the “mercy seat,” i.e., the covering of the ark where the blood was sprinkled in the OT ritual on the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur). This term is used only one other time in the NT: Heb 9:5, where it is rendered “mercy seat.” There it describes the altar in the most holy place (holy of holies). Thus Paul is saying that God displayed Jesus as the “mercy seat,” the place where propitiation was accomplished. See N. S. L. Fryer, “The Meaning and Translation of Hilasterion in Romans 3:25, ” EvQ 59 (1987): 99-116, who concludes the term is a neuter accusative substantive best translated “mercy seat” or “propitiatory covering,” and D. P. Bailey, “Jesus As the Mercy Seat: The Semantics and Theology of Paul’s Use of Hilasterion in Romans 3:25” (Ph.D. diss., University of Cambridge, 1999), who argues that this is a direct reference to the mercy seat which covered the ark of the covenant.
Romans 3:25 tn The prepositional phrase διὰ πίστεως (dia pisteōs) here modifies the noun ἱλαστήριον (hilastērion). As such it forms a complete noun phrase and could be written as “mercy-seat-accessible-through-faith” to emphasize the singular idea. See Rom 1:4 for a similar construction. The word “accessible” is not in the Greek text but has been supplied to clarify the idea expressed by the prepositional phrase (cf. NRSV “effective through faith”).
Romans 3:25 tn Grk “for a demonstration,” giving the purpose of God’s action in v. 25a. Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.
Romans 3:25 tn Grk “because of the passing over of sins previously committed in the forbearance of God.”
Romans 3:26 tn The words “This was” have been repeated from the previous verse to clarify that this is a continuation of that thought. Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.
Romans 3:26 tn Grk “toward a demonstration,” repeating and expanding the purpose of God’s action in v. 25a.
Romans 3:26 tn Or “righteous.”
Romans 3:26 tn Or “of the one who has faith in Jesus.” See note on “faithfulness of Jesus Christ” in v. 22 for the rationale behind the translation “Jesus’ faithfulness.”
Romans 3:27 tn Although a number of interpreters understand the “boasting” here to refer to Jewish boasting, others (e.g. C. E. B. Cranfield, “‘The Works of the Law’ in the Epistle to the Romans,” JSNT 43 [1991]: 96) take the phrase to refer to all human boasting before God.
Romans 3:27 tn Grk “By what sort of law?”
Romans 3:28 tn Here ἄνθρωπον (anthrōpon) is used in an indefinite and general sense (BDAG 81 s.v. ἄνθρωπος 4.a.γ).
Romans 3:28 tn See the note on the phrase “works of the law” in Rom 3:20.

Romans 3:29-31

²⁹Or is God the God of the Jews only? Is he not the God of the Gentiles too? Yes, of the Gentiles too! ³⁰Since God is one,^[a] he will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. ³¹Do we then nullify^[b] the law through faith? Absolutely not! Instead^[c] we uphold the law.

Matthew 7:21-29

Judgment of Pretenders

²¹“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’^[a] will enter into the kingdom of heaven—only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. ²²On that day, many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many powerful deeds in your name?’^[b] ²³Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you. Go away from me, you lawbreakers!’^[c]

Hearing and Doing

²⁴“Everyone^[d] who hears these words of mine and does them is like^[e] a wise man^[f] who built his house on rock. ²⁵The rain fell, the flood^[g] came, and the winds beat against that house, but it did not collapse because its foundation had been laid on rock. ²⁶Everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. ²⁷The rain fell, the flood came, and the winds beat against that house, and it collapsed—it was utterly destroyed!”^[h]

²⁸When^[i] Jesus finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed by his teaching, ²⁹because he taught them like one who had authority,^[j] not like their experts in the law.^[k]

New English Translation (NET)

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Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Footnotes

Anticipation of a Blessing and Cursing Ceremony

Footnotes

Psalm 31[a]

For the music director, a psalm of David.

Footnotes

Footnotes

The Power of the Gospel

Footnotes

Footnotes

Footnotes

Judgment of Pretenders

Hearing and Doing

Footnotes

Psalm 31^[a]