Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
(A)Morning Prayer for Help[a]
3 I have so many enemies, Lord,
so many who turn against me!
2 They talk about me and say,
“God will not help him.”
3 But you, O Lord, are always my shield from danger;
you give me victory
and restore my courage.
4 I call to the Lord for help,
and from his sacred hill[b] he answers me.
5 I lie down and sleep,
and all night long the Lord protects me.
6 I am not afraid of the thousands of enemies
who surround me on every side.
7 Come, Lord! Save me, my God!
You punish all my enemies
and leave them powerless to harm me.
8 Victory comes from the Lord—
may he bless his people.
Doom on the Unrighteous
5 Wealth is deceitful. Greedy people are proud and restless—like death itself they are never satisfied. That is why they conquer nation after nation for themselves. 6 The conquered people will taunt their conquerors and show their scorn for them. They will say, “You take what isn't yours, but you are doomed! How long will you go on getting rich by forcing your debtors to pay up?”
7 But before you know it, you that have conquered others will be in debt yourselves and be forced to pay interest. Enemies will come and make you tremble. They will plunder you! 8 You have plundered the people of many nations, but now those who have survived will plunder you because of the murders you have committed and because of your violence against the people of the world and its cities.[a]
9 You are doomed! You have made your family rich with what you took by violence, and have tried to make your own home safe from harm and danger! 10 But your schemes have brought shame on your family; by destroying many nations you have only brought ruin on yourself. 11 Even the stones of the walls cry out against you, and the rafters echo the cry.
Our Victory over the World
5 Whoever believes that Jesus is the Messiah is a child of God; and whoever loves a father loves his child also. 2 This is how we know that we love God's children: it is by loving God and obeying his commands. 3 (A)For our love for God means that we obey his commands. And his commands are not too hard for us, 4 because every child of God is able to defeat the world. And we win the victory over the world by means of our faith. 5 Who can defeat the world? Only the person who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.
Eternal Life
13 I am writing this to you so that you may know that you have eternal life—you that believe in the Son of God. 14 We have courage in God's presence, because we are sure that he hears us if we ask him for anything that is according to his will. 15 He hears us whenever we ask him; and since we know this is true, we know also that he gives us what we ask from him.
16 If you see a believer commit a sin that does not lead to death, you should pray to God, who will give that person life. This applies to those whose sins do not lead to death. But there is sin which leads to death, and I do not say that you should pray to God about that. 17 All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin which does not lead to death.
18 We know that no children of God keep on sinning, for the Son of God keeps them safe, and the Evil One cannot harm them.
19 We know that we belong to God even though the whole world is under the rule of the Evil One.
20 We know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we know the true God. We live in union with the true God—in union with his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and this is eternal life.
21 My children, keep yourselves safe from false gods!
Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition) © 1992 American Bible Society. All rights reserved. For more information about GNT, visit www.bibles.com and www.gnt.bible.