Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

⁵ Then the prophet Jeremiah spoke to Hananiah the prophet in the presence of the priests and all the people who were standing in the house of the Lord, ⁶ and the prophet Jeremiah said, ^(A)“Amen! May the Lord do so; may the Lord make the words that you have prophesied come true, and bring back to this place from Babylon the vessels of the house of the Lord, and all the exiles. ⁷ Yet hear now this word that I speak in your hearing and in the hearing of all the people. ^8 (B)The prophets who preceded you and me from ancient times prophesied war, famine, and pestilence against many countries and great kingdoms. ^9 (C)As for the prophet who prophesies peace, when the word of that prophet comes to pass, then it will be known that the Lord has truly sent the prophet.”

I Will Sing of the Steadfast Love of the Lord

A Maskil^[a] of ^(A)Ethan the Ezrahite.

¹² Let not ^(A)sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. ^13 (B)Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but ^(C)present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. ¹⁴ For ^(D)sin ^(E)will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

Slaves to Righteousness

¹⁵ What then? ^(F)Are we to sin ^(G)because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! ¹⁶ Do you not know that if you present yourselves ^(H)to anyone as obedient slaves,^[a] you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? ¹⁷ But ^(I)thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the ^(J)standard of teaching to which you were committed, ¹⁸ and, ^(K)having been set free from sin, ^(L)have become slaves of righteousness. ^19 (M)I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For ^(N)just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members ^(O)as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.

^20 (P)For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. ^21 (Q)But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things ^(R)of which you are now ashamed? ^(S)For the end of those things is death. ²² But now that you ^(T)have been set free from sin and ^(U)have become slaves of God, ^(V)the fruit you get leads to sanctification and ^(W)its end, eternal life. ^23 (X)For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Rewards

^40 (A)“Whoever receives you receives me, and ^(B)whoever receives me receives him who sent me. ^41 (C)The one who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet's reward, and the one who receives a righteous person because he is a righteous person will receive a righteous person's reward. ⁴² And ^(D)whoever gives one of ^(E)these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward.”