Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Elisha Follows Elijah

¹⁹ So he departed from there, and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he was with the twelfth. Then Elijah passed by him and threw his ^(A)mantle on him. ²⁰ And he left the oxen and ran after Elijah, and said, ^(B)“Please let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you.”

And he said to him, “Go back again, for what have I done to you?”

²¹ So Elisha turned back from him, and took a yoke of oxen and slaughtered them and ^(C)boiled their flesh, using the oxen’s equipment, and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he arose and followed Elijah, and became his servant.

Preeminence of Christ

^9 (A)For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask ^(B)that you may be filled with ^(C)the knowledge of His will ^(D)in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; ^10 (E)that you may walk worthy of the Lord, ^(F)fully pleasing Him, ^(G)being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the ^(H)knowledge of God; ^11 (I)strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, ^(J)for all patience and longsuffering ^(K)with joy; ^12 (L)giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of ^(M)the inheritance of the saints in the light. ¹³ He has delivered us from ^(N)the power of darkness ^(O)and ^[a]conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, ^14 (P)in whom we have redemption ^[b]through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.