Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Praise to God for His Everlasting Mercy

²⁰ Then God said, “Let the waters abound with an abundance of living ^[a]creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the face of the ^[b]firmament of the heavens.” ²¹ So ^(A)God created great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which the waters abounded, according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. ²² And God blessed them, saying, ^(B)“Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” ²³ So the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

²⁴ Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind: cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth, each according to its kind”; and it was so. ²⁵ And God made the beast of the earth according to its kind, cattle according to its kind, and everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

²⁶ Then God said, ^(C)“Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; ^(D)let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over ^[c]all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” ²⁷ So God created man ^(E)in His own image; in the image of God He created him; ^(F)male and female He created them. ²⁸ Then God blessed them, and God said to them, ^(G)“Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and ^(H)subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that ^[d]moves on the earth.”

²⁹ And God said, “See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; ^(I)to you it shall be for food. ³⁰ Also, to ^(J)every beast of the earth, to every ^(K)bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is ^[e]life, I have given every green herb for food”; and it was so. ³¹ Then ^(L)God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

The Garden of Eden

2 Thus the heavens and the earth, and ^(M)all the host of them, were finished. ^2 (N)And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. ³ Then God ^(O)blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.

^4 (P)This is the ^[f]history of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens,

Our Final Victory

⁵⁰ Now this I say, brethren, that ^(A)flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption. ⁵¹ Behold, I tell you a ^[a]mystery: ^(B)We shall not all sleep, ^(C)but we shall all be changed— ⁵² in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. ^(D)For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. ⁵³ For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and ^(E)this mortal must put on immortality. ⁵⁴ So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: ^(F)“Death is swallowed up in victory.”

⁵⁶ The sting of death is sin, and ^(H)the strength of sin is the law. ^57 (I)But thanks be to God, who gives us ^(J)the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

^58 (K)Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing ^(L)that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.