Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

19 ^1-2 The Lord also told Moses to tell the people of Israel, “You must be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy. You must respect your mothers and fathers, and obey my Sabbath law, for I am the Lord your God.

⁹ “When you harvest your crops, don’t reap the corners of your fields, and don’t pick up stray grains of wheat from the ground. ¹⁰ It is the same with your grape crop—don’t strip every last piece of fruit from the vines, and don’t pick up the grapes that fall to the ground. Leave them for the poor and for those traveling through, for I am Jehovah your God.

¹¹ “You must not steal nor lie nor defraud. ¹² You must not swear to a falsehood, thus bringing reproach upon the name of your God, for I am Jehovah.

¹³ “You shall not rob nor oppress anyone, and you shall pay your hired workers promptly. If something is due them, don’t even keep it overnight.

¹⁴ “You must not curse the deaf nor trip up a blind man as he walks. Fear your God; I am Jehovah!

¹⁵ “Judges must always be just in their sentences, not noticing whether a person is poor or rich; they must always be perfectly fair.

¹⁶ “Don’t gossip. Don’t falsely accuse your neighbor of some crime,^[a] for I am Jehovah.

¹⁷ “Don’t hate your brother. Rebuke anyone who sins; don’t let him get away with it, or you will be equally guilty. ¹⁸ Don’t seek vengeance. Don’t bear a grudge; but love your neighbor as yourself, for I am Jehovah.

^33-34 Just tell me what to do and I will do it, Lord. As long as I live I’ll wholeheartedly obey. ³⁵ Make me walk along the right paths, for I know how delightful they really are.

³⁶ Help me to prefer obedience to making money! ³⁷ Turn me away from wanting any other plan than yours.^[a] Revive my heart toward you. ³⁸ Reassure me that your promises are for me, for I trust and revere you.

³⁹ How I dread being mocked for obeying, for your laws are right and good. ^40-42 I long to obey them! Therefore in fairness renew my life, for this was your promise—yes, Lord, to save me! Now spare me by your kindness and your love. Then I will have an answer for those who taunt me, for I trust your promises.

¹⁰ God, in his kindness, has taught me how to be an expert builder. I have laid the foundation and Apollos has built on it. But he who builds on the foundation must be very careful. ¹¹ And no one can ever lay any other real foundation than that one we already have—Jesus Christ.

¹⁶ Don’t you realize that all of you together are the house of God, and that the Spirit of God lives among you in his house? ¹⁷ If anyone defiles and spoils God’s home, God will destroy him. For God’s home is holy and clean, and you are that home.

¹⁸ Stop fooling yourselves. If you count yourself above average in intelligence, as judged by this world’s standards, you had better put this all aside and be a fool rather than let it hold you back from the true wisdom from above. ¹⁹ For the wisdom of this world is foolishness to God. As it says in the book of Job, God uses man’s own brilliance to trap him; he stumbles over his own “wisdom” and falls. ²⁰ And again, in the book of Psalms, we are told that the Lord knows full well how the human mind reasons and how foolish and futile it is.

²¹ So don’t be proud of following the wise men of this world.^[a] For God has already given you everything you need. ²² He has given you Paul and Apollos and Peter as your helpers. He has given you the whole world to use, and life and even death are your servants. He has given you all of the present and all of the future. All are yours, ²³ and you belong to Christ, and Christ is God’s.

³⁸ “The law of Moses says, ‘If a man gouges out another’s eye, he must pay with his own eye. If a tooth gets knocked out, knock out the tooth^[a] of the one who did it.’ ³⁹ But I say: Don’t resist violence! If you are slapped on one cheek, turn the other too. ⁴⁰ If you are ordered to court, and your shirt is taken from you, give your coat too. ⁴¹ If the military demand that you carry their gear for a mile, carry it two. ⁴² Give to those who ask, and don’t turn away from those who want to borrow.

⁴³ “There is a saying, ‘Love your friends and hate your enemies.’ ⁴⁴ But I say: Love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! ⁴⁵ In that way you will be acting as true sons of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust too. ⁴⁶ If you love only those who love you, what good is that? Even scoundrels do that much. ⁴⁷ If you are friendly only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even the heathen do that. ⁴⁸ But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.