Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Solomon prays in the temple

²² Then Solomon stood in front of the Lord's altar. All the Israelite people who had come together there could see him. He lifted up his hands towards the sky.^{[a] 23} He prayed,

‘Lord, Israel's God, there is no God like you, either in heaven above or down here on the earth. You continue to do what you have promised to do for your people. You faithfully love those who want to serve you.

⁴¹ Foreigners, who do not belong to your people, the Israelites, will hear how great you are. Then they will come here from other countries far away. ⁴² They will hear about you and your power to do great things. Then they will turn towards this temple and pray to you. ⁴³ When that happens, please hear them from your home in heaven. Please answer all the prayers of these foreign people. Then people from all the nations in the world will realize how great you are. They also will respect you and obey you, as your own people do. They will understand that this temple that I have built belongs to you.

Sing a new song!^[a]

Paul says ‘hello’

1 This letter is from me, Paul. I am an apostle of Jesus Christ. It is not any group of people or any one person that has given that authority to me. It is Jesus Christ himself who has chosen me to serve him. And God our Father, who raised Jesus to become alive again after his death, has also sent me. ² All the believers who are here say ‘hello’ to you. We all send this letter to you.

I am writing to you, the people of the churches that are in Galatia.

³ I pray that God, our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ will continue to help you. I pray that they will give you peace in your minds. ⁴ Jesus offered himself as a sacrifice because of all the wrong things that we have done. He did that to save us from all the bad things of this world in which we live now. This is what God, our Father, wanted him to do. ⁵ God is great and we should praise him for ever. Amen. This is true.

The true message of good news

⁶ I am very surprised that you are turning away so soon from God. He is the one who chose you to come to him. He did that because Christ is very kind to you. But now you want to accept a different message which some people call good news. ⁷ But really, there is no other message from God which is good news. Some people are confusing you. They are trying to change the good news about Christ and make it something different. ⁸ Nobody should ever teach a message that is different from the good news that we taught you. Neither we ourselves, nor even an angel from heaven, should ever teach a different message. If anyone does that, I pray that God would curse him. ⁹ We have already said this, but now I will say it again. Do not accept any message that is different from the message that we taught you. If anyone teaches a different message, I pray that God will curse him very strongly.

¹⁰ When I say these things, I am not trying to please people. No, it is God that I want to please. If I only wanted to make people happy, then I would not be a servant of Christ.

Paul's message is from God

¹¹ The good news that I tell people did not come from any person on earth. I want you to know that, my friends. ¹² Nobody on earth gave it to me. Nobody taught it to me. No, it was Jesus Christ himself who showed it to me clearly.

A Roman officer believes that Jesus can help him

7 After Jesus had finished speaking to the people, he went to Capernaum.^{[a] 2} A Roman officer there had a servant that he liked very much. The servant was very ill and he was dying.

³ The officer heard about Jesus, so he sent some important Jews to speak to him. ‘Please go to Jesus,’ he said to them. ‘I would like him to make my servant well. Ask him if he would come to do that.’ ⁴ The Jewish leaders went to Jesus. They asked him, ‘Please would you do something to help this Roman officer. ⁵ He loves the Jewish people. He himself built a meeting place for us.’

⁶ So Jesus went with them. When he was not very far away from the house, the officer sent some friends to talk to him. He told them to say to Jesus, ‘Sir, I do not want to be a trouble to you. I am not good enough for you to come into my house. ⁷ That is why I did not come to talk to you myself. Instead, just say that my servant will get better. I know that he will then be well again. ⁸ In my work, someone has authority over me. I also have authority over other soldiers. I say to one soldier, “Go!” and he goes. I say to another one, “Come!” and he comes. I say to my servant, “Do this!” and he does it.’

⁹ When Jesus heard this message from the officer, he was very surprised. He turned towards the crowd that was following him. He said to them, ‘I tell you, I have not found anyone like this man in all of Israel. Nobody else believes in me as well as he does.’

¹⁰ The friends of the officer then returned to his house. When they arrived there, they saw that the servant was well again.