Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

⁷ “Now, mortal man, I am making you a lookout for the nation of Israel. You must pass on to them the warnings I give you. ⁸ If I announce that an evil person is going to die but you do not warn him to change his ways so that he can save his life, then he will die, still a sinner, and I will hold you responsible for his death. ⁹ If you do warn an evil person and he doesn't stop sinning, he will die, still a sinner, but your life will be spared.”

Individual Responsibility

¹⁰ The Lord spoke to me. “Mortal man,” he said, “repeat to the Israelites what they are saying: ‘We are burdened with our sins and the wrongs we have done. We are wasting away. How can we live?’ ¹¹ Tell them that as surely as I, the Sovereign Lord, am the living God, I do not enjoy seeing sinners die. I would rather see them stop sinning and live. Israel, stop the evil you are doing. Why do you want to die?

A Prayer for Understanding

Duties toward One Another

⁸ Be under obligation to no one—the only obligation you have is to love one another. Whoever does this has obeyed the Law. ^9 (A)The commandments, “Do not commit adultery; do not commit murder; do not steal; do not desire what belongs to someone else”—all these, and any others besides, are summed up in the one command, “Love your neighbor as you love yourself.” ¹⁰ If you love others, you will never do them wrong; to love, then, is to obey the whole Law.

¹¹ You must do this, because you know that the time has come for you to wake up from your sleep. For the moment when we will be saved is closer now than it was when we first believed. ¹² The night is nearly over, day is almost here. Let us stop doing the things that belong to the dark, and let us take up weapons for fighting in the light. ¹³ Let us conduct ourselves properly, as people who live in the light of day—no orgies or drunkenness, no immorality or indecency, no fighting or jealousy. ¹⁴ But take up the weapons of the Lord Jesus Christ, and stop paying attention to your sinful nature and satisfying its desires.

When Someone Sins

^15 (A)“If your brother sins against you,^[a] go to him and show him his fault. But do it privately, just between yourselves. If he listens to you, you have won your brother back. ^16 (B)But if he will not listen to you, take one or two other persons with you, so that ‘every accusation may be upheld by the testimony of two or more witnesses,’ as the scripture says. ¹⁷ And if he will not listen to them, then tell the whole thing to the church. Finally, if he will not listen to the church, treat him as though he were a pagan or a tax collector.

Prohibiting and Permitting

^18 (C)“And so I tell all of you: what you prohibit on earth will be prohibited in heaven, and what you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven.

¹⁹ “And I tell you more: whenever two of you on earth agree about anything you pray for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. ²⁰ For where two or three come together in my name, I am there with them.”