Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
161 [a]The powerful persecute me without cause,
but it is your word that awes my heart.[b]
162 I rejoice in your word
like one who discovers a great treasure.
163 Falsehood I abhor and detest,
but I love your law.
164 Seven times[c] a day I praise you
for your righteous judgments.
165 Those who love your law have great peace;[d]
they encounter no stumbling blocks.
166 I await your salvation, O Lord,
and I carry out your precepts.
167 I obey your statutes,
for I love them dearly.
168 I obey your commands and your statutes;
indeed, all my ways are known to you.[e]
Taw
17 The word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, 18 “Get up, and go down to meet Ahab, the king of Israel, who is in Samaria. He is now in the vineyard of Naboth. He had gone down there to take possession of it. 19 Then say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord: “Have you killed someone to take possession of his property?” ’ Say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord: “In the place where the dogs licked up the blood of Naboth, the dogs will lick up your blood as well.” ’ ”
20 Ahab said to Elijah, “So you have found me, my enemy.” He answered, “I have found you because you have sold yourself to do what was evil in the sight of the Lord: 21 ‘Behold, I will bring disaster down upon you. I will consume your descendants and I will cut off from Ahab all of those who pee against the wall, whether slave or free. 22 I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha, the son of Ahijah, because you have provoked me to anger and have caused Israel to sin.’ 23 And of Jezebel the Lord says, ‘The dogs will devour Jezebel by the walls of Jezreel.’ 24 Those who belong to Ahab and who die in the city will be eaten by dogs, and those who die in the field will be eaten by the birds of the air.”
25 There was no one like Ahab who sold himself to do what was evil in the sight of the Lord, urged on by Jezebel, his wife. 26 He was detestable in the way that he followed after idols, just as the Amorites had whom the Lord had cast out from before the Israelites.
27 When Ahab heard these things, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, and fasted. He lay in sackcloth, and went around in mourning. 28 The word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, 29 “Have you seen how Ahab has humbled himself before me? Because he has humbled himself before me, I will not bring the disaster during his days. I will bring disaster upon his house during the days of his son.”
Chapter 4
The Spirit of the Antichrist in the World[a]
1 Beloved,
do not trust every spirit,
but test the spirits
to see whether they are from God.
For many false prophets
have gone out into the world.
2 This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God:
every spirit that acknowledges
that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh[b]
is from God,
3 and every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus
is not from God.
This is the spirit of the Antichrist,
about whose coming you have been told,
and that it is already in the world.
4 Dear children,
you are from God[c]
and you have conquered them,
for the one who is in you is greater
than the one who is in the world.
5 They are from the world;
therefore, what they say is from the world,
and the world listens to them.
6 We are from God.
Anyone who knows God listens to us,
while anyone who is not from God
refuses to listen to us.
This is how we can distinguish
the spirit of truth from the spirit of falsehood.[d]
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