Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

He exhorts us to love, to be ready to take people in, to be thoughtful of persons in adversity, to maintain wedlock, to avoid covetousness, to make much of those who preach God’s word, to beware of other teaching, to be content to suffer rebuke with Christ, to be thankful to God, and to be obedient to those who have the oversight of us.

13 Let brotherly love continue. ² Be not forgetful to lodge strangers, for by so doing some have received angels into their houses unawares. ³ Remember those who are in bonds, even as though you were bound with them. Be mindful of those who are in adversity, as persons who are yourselves also yet in your bodies.

⁴ Let wedlock be had in honour in all points, and let the bedchamber be undefiled. For whorekeepers and adulterers God will judge.

⁵ Let your living be without covetousness, and be content with what you have already. For he has truly said: I will not fail you nor forsake you. ⁶ Therefore we may boldly say: The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man does to me.

⁷ Remember those who have the oversight of you, who have declared to you the word of God. See that you look upon the way they live out their life, and follow their faith.

⁸ Jesus Christ continues the same yesterday and today and forever. ⁹ Do not be carried about with other and different teaching. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace, and not with foods which have not profited those who have been occupied in them.

¹⁰ We have an altar from which those who serve in the tabernacle may not eat. ¹¹ For the bodies of those beasts whose blood is brought into the holy place by the high priest to purge sin, are burnt outside the tents. ¹² Therefore Jesus, to sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate.

¹³ Let us go forth therefore out of the tents and suffer rebuke with him. ¹⁴ For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come. ¹⁵ For by him we offer the sacrifice of laud always to God; that is to say, the fruit of those lips that confess his name.

¹⁶ To do good and to distribute to the poor, do not forget. For with such sacrifices, God is pleased.