Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Prayer for Relief from Contempt
A Song of Ascents.
123 Unto You (A)I lift up my eyes,
O You (B)who dwell in the heavens.
2 Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their masters,
As the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress,
(C)So our eyes look to the Lord our God,
Until He has mercy on us.
3 Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on us!
For we are exceedingly filled with contempt.
4 Our soul is exceedingly filled
With the scorn of those who are at ease,
With the contempt of the proud.
16 “Therefore (A)do not pray for this people, nor lift up a cry or prayer for them, nor make intercession to Me; (B)for I will not hear you. 17 Do you not see what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 18 (C)The children gather wood, the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead dough, to make cakes for the queen of heaven; and they (D)pour out drink offerings to other gods, that they may provoke Me to anger. 19 (E)Do they provoke Me to anger?” says the Lord. “Do they not provoke themselves, to the shame of their own faces?”
20 Therefore thus says the Lord God: “Behold, My anger and My fury will be poured out on this place—on man and on beast, on the trees of the field and on the fruit of the ground. And it will burn and not be quenched.”
21 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: (F)“Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat meat. 22 (G)For I did not speak to your fathers, or command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices. 23 But this is what I commanded them, saying, (H)‘Obey My voice, and (I)I will be your God, and you shall be My people. And walk in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well with you.’ 24 (J)Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but (K)followed[a] the counsels and the [b]dictates of their evil hearts, and (L)went[c] backward and not forward. 25 Since the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have even (M)sent to you all My servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them. 26 (N)Yet they did not obey Me or incline their ear, but (O)stiffened their neck. (P)They did worse than their fathers.
Reality of Paul’s Authority
7 (A)Do you look at things according to the outward appearance? (B)If anyone is convinced in himself that he is Christ’s, let him again consider this in himself, that just as he is Christ’s, even [a]so (C)we are Christ’s. 8 For even if I should boast somewhat more (D)about our authority, which the Lord gave [b]us for [c]edification and not for your destruction, (E)I shall not be ashamed— 9 lest I seem to terrify you by letters. 10 “For his letters,” they say, “are weighty and powerful, but (F)his bodily presence is weak, and his (G)speech contemptible.” 11 Let such a person consider this, that what we are in word by letters when we are absent, such we will also be in deed when we are present.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.