Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Gimel

²¹ You can charge a foreigner interest, but you cannot charge a brother interest. For this you will be blessed by the Lord, your God, in everything that you undertake in the land that you are entering to possess.

²² If you make a vow to the Lord, your God, do not be lax in paying it off, for the Lord, your God, will certainly require it of you, and you would be guilty of a sin. ²³ But if you fail to make a vow, there is no sin. ²⁴ Whatever your lips utter, you must do, for you have vowed a freewill offering to the Lord, your God, with your own mouth.

²⁵ If you enter your neighbor’s vineyard, you can eat as many grapes as you want, but you are not to put any in a basket. ²⁶ If you enter your neighbor’s grain fields, you can pluck the kernels with your hands, but you are not to take a sickle to your neighbor’s standing grain.

Chapter 24

Marriage Laws.^{[a] 1} If a man marries a woman, and after they are married she becomes displeasing to him because he has discovered something indecent about her, and he writes a bill of divorce and puts it in her hand, and he sends her forth from his house, ² then after she has left his house, she can become the wife of another man. ³ If this second husband is displeased with her and writes her a bill of divorce and he puts it in her hand and he sends her forth from his house, or if the second man who took her to be his wife should die, ⁴ then her first husband who had sent her away cannot take her back to be his wife again, for she has been defiled. This would be an abomination to the Lord. You shall not cause the sin to come upon the land that the Lord, your God, is giving to you as an inheritance.

¹⁰ Be willing to lend your brother anything, and do not go to his house to obtain his pledge against the loan. ¹¹ Stand outside his house, and the man to whom you made the loan will bring the pledge out to you. ¹² If a man is poor, you are not to keep his pledge overnight. ¹³ You are to return his pledge to him when the sun goes down so that he can sleep in his own garment and bless you. This is righteous to the Lord, your God.

¹⁴ You shall not oppress a hired hand who is poor and needy, whether he be one of your brethren or a foreigner who lives on the land within your town gates. ¹⁵ You are to give him his wages on the same day before the sun goes down, for he is poor and he has his heart set on it. Otherwise he might cry out against you to the Lord and it would be your sin.

Chapter 2

Rich and Poor in the Christian Assembly.^{[a] 1} My brethren, since you are believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, you must never practice favoritism. ² Suppose a man wearing a gold ring and expensive clothes comes into your assembly as well as a poor man dressed in shabby clothes. ³ If you lavish special attention on the one wearing the expensive clothes and say, “Please sit in this good seat,” while to the poor man you say, “Stand over there,” or “Sit on the floor at my feet,” ⁴ have you not shown favoritism among yourselves and judged by wrongful standards?

⁵ Listen to me, my beloved brethren. Did not God choose those who are poor^[b] in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he promised to those who love him? ⁶ But you have humiliated the poor man. Furthermore, is it not the rich who oppress you? Are they not the ones who drag you into court? ⁷ Is it not they who blaspheme the noble name that was invoked over you?

⁸ You will be doing well if you truly observe the sovereign law enjoined in Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” ⁹ However, if you show partiality, you are committing a sin and stand convicted by the law as lawbreakers. ¹⁰ For whoever observes the whole Law but trips up on a single point is held guilty of breaking all of it.

¹¹ The one who said, “You shall not commit adultery,” also said, “You shall not kill.” Now if you do not commit adultery but you do kill, you have become a lawbreaker. ¹² Therefore, always speak and act as those who will be judged by the law of freedom. ¹³ For judgment will be without mercy to the one who has not shown mercy, but mercy triumphs over judgment.