Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Waw

^10 (A)“I myself stayed on the mountain, as at the first time, for forty days and forty nights, ^(B)and the Lord listened to me that time also. The Lord was unwilling to destroy you. ^11 (C)And the Lord said to me, ‘Arise, go on your journey at the head of the people, so that they may go in and possess the land, which I swore to their fathers to give them.’

Circumcise Your Heart

¹² “And now, Israel, ^(D)what does the Lord your God require of you, but ^(E)to fear the Lord your God, ^(F)to walk in all his ways, ^(G)to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, ¹³ and ^(H)to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you today ^(I)for your good? ¹⁴ Behold, ^(J)to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, ^(K)the earth with all that is in it. ¹⁵ Yet ^(L)the Lord set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples, as you are this day. ¹⁶ Circumcise therefore ^(M)the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer ^(N)stubborn. ¹⁷ For the Lord your God is ^(O)God of gods and ^(P)Lord of lords, ^(Q)the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is ^(R)not partial and takes no bribe. ^18 (S)He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. ^19 (T)Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. ^20 (U)You shall fear the Lord your God. You shall serve him and ^(V)hold fast to him, and ^(W)by his name you shall swear. ^21 (X)He is your praise. He is your God, ^(Y)who has done for you these great and terrifying things that your eyes have seen. ²² Your fathers went down to Egypt ^(Z)seventy persons, and now the Lord your God has made you ^(AA)as numerous as the stars of heaven.

Faith Without Works Is Dead

¹⁴ What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith ^(A)but does not have works? Can that faith save him? ^15 (B)If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, ^16 (C)and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled”, without giving them the things needed for the body, what good^[a] is that? ¹⁷ So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

¹⁸ But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith ^(D)apart from your works, and I will show you my faith ^(E)by my works. ^19 (F)You believe that God is one; you do well. Even ^(G)the demons believe—and shudder! ²⁰ Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? ^21 (H)Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? ²² You see that ^(I)faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed ^(J)by his works; ²³ and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, ^(K)“Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a ^(L)friend of God. ²⁴ You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. ²⁵ And in the same way was not also ^(M)Rahab the prostitute justified by works ^(N)when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? ²⁶ For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.