◀ All Reading Plans / Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary) / Wisdom 12:13 16-19 (God’s sovereignty); or Isaiah 44:6-8 (There is no other God); Psalm 86:11-17 (Teach me your ways); Romans 8:12-25 (The revealing of the children of God); Matthew 13:24-30 36-43 (The parable of the weeds) (New English Translation)

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July 23, 2023

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Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Daily Bible readings that follow the church liturgical year, with thematically matched Old and New Testament readings.

Duration: 1245 days

Error: 'Wisdom 12:13' not found for the version: New English Translation

Error: 'Wisdom 12:16-19' not found for the version: New English Translation

Isaiah 44:6-8

The Absurdity of Idolatry

⁶This is what the Lord, Israel’s king, says,
their Protector,^[a] the Lord of Heaven’s Armies:
“I am the first and I am the last,
there is no God but me.
⁷Who is like me? Let him make his claim!^[b]
Let him announce it and explain it to me—
since I established an ancient people^[c]—
let them announce future events.^[d]
⁸Don’t panic! Don’t be afraid!^[e]
Did I not tell you beforehand and decree it?
You are my witnesses! Is there any God but me?
There is no other sheltering rock;^[f] I know of none.

Psalm 86:11-17

¹¹O Lord, teach me how you want me to live.^[a]
Then I will obey your commands.^[b]
Make me wholeheartedly committed to you.^[c]
¹²O Lord, my God, I will give you thanks with my whole heart.
I will honor your name continually.^[d]
¹³For you will extend your great loyal love to me,^[e]
and will deliver my life^[f] from the depths of Sheol.^[g]
¹⁴O God, arrogant men attack me;^[h]
a gang^[i] of ruthless men, who do not respect you, seek my life.^[j]
¹⁵But you, O Lord, are a compassionate and merciful God.
You are patient^[k] and demonstrate great loyal love and faithfulness.^[l]
¹⁶Turn toward me and have mercy on me.
Give your servant your strength.
Deliver this son of your female servant.^[m]
¹⁷Show me evidence of your favor.^[n]
Then those who hate me will see it and be ashamed,^[o]
for you, O Lord, will help me and comfort me.^[p]

Footnotes

Psalm 86:11 tn Heb “teach me your way.” The Lord’s “way” refers here to the moral principles he expects the psalmist to follow. See Pss 25:4; 27:11.
Psalm 86:11 tn Heb “I will walk in your truth.” The Lord’s commandments are referred to as “truth” here because they are a trustworthy and accurate expression of the divine will. See Ps 25:5.
Psalm 86:11 tn Heb “Bind my heart to the fearing of your name.” The verb translated “bind” occurs only here in the Piel stem. It appears twice in the Qal, meaning “be joined” in both cases (Gen 49:6; Isa 14:20). To “fear” God’s name means to have a healthy respect for him which in turn motivates one to obey his commands (see Pss 61:5; 102:15).
Psalm 86:12 tn Or “forever.”
Psalm 86:13 tn Heb “for your loyal love [is] great over me.”
Psalm 86:13 tn Or “for he will have delivered my life.” The verb form indicates a future perfect here.
Psalm 86:13 tn Or “lower Sheol.”
Psalm 86:14 tn Heb “rise up against me.”
Psalm 86:14 tn Or “assembly.”
Psalm 86:14 tn Heb “seek my life and do not set you before them.” See Ps 54:3.
Psalm 86:15 tn Heb “slow to anger.”
Psalm 86:15 tn Heb “and great of loyal love and faithfulness.”sn The psalmist’s confession of faith in this verse echoes Exod 34:6.
Psalm 86:16 tn Heb “the son of your female servant.” The phrase “son of a female servant” (see also Ps 116:16) is used of a son born to a secondary wife or concubine (Exod 23:12). In some cases the child’s father is the master of the house (see Gen 21:10, 13; Judg 9:18). The phrase may be used metaphorically and idiomatically to emphasize the psalmist’s humility before the Lord and his status as the Lord’s servant. Or it may be a reference to the psalmist’s own mother who also was a servant of the Lord.
Psalm 86:17 tn Heb “Work with me a sign for good.” The expression “work a sign” also occurs in Judg 6:17.
Psalm 86:17 tn After the imperative in the preceding line (“work”), the prefixed verb forms with prefixed vav (ו) conjunctive indicate purpose or result.
Psalm 86:17 tn The perfect verbal forms are understood here as dramatic/rhetorical, expressing the psalmist’s certitude that such a sign from the Lord will be followed by his intervention. Another option is to understand the forms as future perfects (“for you, O Lord, will have helped me and comforted me”).

Romans 8:12-25

¹²So then,^[a] brothers and sisters,^[b] we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh ¹³(for if you live according to the flesh, you will^[c] die),^[d] but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live. ¹⁴For all who are led by the Spirit of God are^[e] the sons of God. ¹⁵For you did not receive the spirit of slavery leading again to fear,^[f] but you received the Spirit of adoption,^[g] by whom^[h] we cry, “Abba,^[i] Father.” ¹⁶The Spirit himself bears witness to^[j] our spirit that we are God’s children. ¹⁷And if children, then heirs (namely, heirs of God and also fellow heirs with Christ)^[k]—if indeed we suffer with him so we may also be glorified with him.

¹⁸For I consider that our present sufferings cannot even be compared^[l] to the coming glory that will be revealed to us. ¹⁹For the creation eagerly waits for the revelation of the sons of God. ²⁰For the creation was subjected to futility—not willingly but because of God^[m] who subjected it—in hope ²¹that the creation itself will also be set free from the bondage of decay into the glorious freedom of God’s children. ²²For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers together until now. ²³Not only this, but we ourselves also, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit,^[n] groan inwardly as we eagerly await our adoption,^[o] the redemption of our bodies.^[p] ²⁴For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope, because who hopes for what he sees? ²⁵But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with endurance.^[q]

Footnotes

Romans 8:12 tn There is a double connective here that cannot be easily preserved in English: “consequently therefore,” emphasizing the conclusion of what he has been arguing.
Romans 8:12 tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:13.
Romans 8:13 tn Grk “are about to, are certainly going to.”
Romans 8:13 sn This remark is parenthetical to Paul’s argument.
Romans 8:14 tn Grk “For as many as are being led by the Spirit of God, these are.”
Romans 8:15 tn Grk “slavery again to fear.”
Romans 8:15 tn The Greek term υἱοθεσία (huiothesia) was originally a legal technical term for adoption as a son with full rights of inheritance. BDAG 1024 s.v. notes, “a legal t.t. of ‘adoption’ of children, in our lit., i.e. in Paul, only in a transferred sense of a transcendent filial relationship between God and humans (with the legal aspect, not gender specificity, as major semantic component).”
Romans 8:15 tn Or “in that.”
Romans 8:15 tn The term “Abba” is the Greek transliteration of the Aramaic אַבָּא (’abba’), literally meaning “my father” but taken over simply as “father,” used in prayer and in the family circle, and later taken over by the early Greek-speaking Christians (BDAG 1 s.v. ἀββα).sn This Aramaic word is found three times in the New Testament (Mark 14:36; Rom 8:15; Gal 4:6), and in each case is followed by its Greek equivalent, which is translated “father.” It is a term expressing warm affection and filial confidence. It has no perfect equivalent in English. It has passed into European languages as an ecclesiastical term, “abbot.” Over the past fifty years a lot has been written about this term and Jesus’ use of it. Joachim Jeremias argued that Jesus routinely addressed God using this Aramaic word, and he also noted this was a “child’s word,” leading many to conclude its modern equivalent was “Daddy.” This conclusion Jeremias soon modified (the term on occasion is used of an adult son addressing his father) but the simplistic equation of abba with “Daddy” is still heard in some circles today. Nevertheless, the term does express a high degree of closeness with reverence, and in addition to the family circle could be used by disciples of a much loved and revered teacher.
Romans 8:16 tn Or possibly “with.” ExSyn 160-61, however, notes the following: “At issue, grammatically, is whether the Spirit testifies alongside of our spirit (dat. of association), or whether he testifies to our spirit (indirect object) that we are God’s children. If the former, the one receiving this testimony is unstated (is it God? or believers?). If the latter, the believer receives the testimony and hence is assured of salvation via the inner witness of the Spirit. The first view has the advantage of a σύν- (sun-) prefixed verb, which might be expected to take an accompanying dat. of association (and is supported by NEB, JB, etc.). But there are three reasons why πνεύματι (pneumati) should not be taken as association: (1) Grammatically, a dat. with a σύν- prefixed verb does not necessarily indicate association. This, of course, does not preclude such here, but this fact at least opens up the alternatives in this text. (2) Lexically, though συμμαρτυρέω (summartureō) originally bore an associative idea, it developed in the direction of merely intensifying μαρτυρέω (martureō). This is surely the case in the only other NT text with a dat. (Rom 9:1). (3) Contextually, a dat. of association does not seem to support Paul’s argument: ‘What standing has our spirit in this matter? Of itself it surely has no right at all to testify to our being sons of God’ [C. E. B. Cranfield, Romans [ICC], 1:403]. In sum, Rom 8:16 seems to be secure as a text in which the believer’s assurance of salvation is based on the inner witness of the Spirit. The implications of this for one’s soteriology are profound: The objective data, as helpful as they are, cannot by themselves provide assurance of salvation; the believer also needs (and receives) an existential, ongoing encounter with God’s Spirit in order to gain that familial comfort.”
Romans 8:17 tn Grk “on the one hand, heirs of God; on the other hand, fellow heirs with Christ.” Some prefer to render v. 17 as follows: “And if children, then heirs—that is, heirs of God. Also fellow heirs with Christ if indeed we suffer with him so we may also be glorified with him.” Such a translation suggests two distinct inheritances, one coming to all of God’s children, the other coming only to those who suffer with Christ. The difficulty of this view, however, is that it ignores the correlative conjunctions μέν…δέ (men…de, “on the one hand…on the other hand”): The construction strongly suggests that the inheritances cannot be separated since both explain “then heirs.” For this reason, the preferred translation puts this explanation in parentheses.
Romans 8:18 tn Grk “are not worthy [to be compared].”
Romans 8:20 tn Grk “because of the one”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
Romans 8:23 tn Or “who have the Spirit as firstfruits.” The genitive πνεύματος (pneumatos) can be understood here as possessive (“the firstfruits belonging to the Spirit”) although it is much more likely that this is a genitive of apposition (“the firstfruits, namely, the Spirit”); cf. TEV, NLT.
Romans 8:23 tn See the note on “adoption” in v. 15.
Romans 8:23 tn Grk “body.”
Romans 8:25 tn Or “perseverance.”

Matthew 13:24-30

The Parable of the Weeds

²⁴He presented them with another parable:^[a] “The kingdom of heaven is like a person who sowed good seed in his field. ²⁵But while everyone was sleeping, an enemy came and sowed darnel^[b] among the wheat and went away. ²⁶When^[c] the plants sprouted and produced grain, then the darnel also appeared. ²⁷So the slaves^[d] of the landowner^[e] came and said to him, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Then where did the darnel come from?’ ²⁸He said, ‘An enemy has done this!’ So^[f] the slaves replied, ‘Do you want us to go and gather it?’ ²⁹But he said, ‘No, since in gathering the darnel you may uproot the wheat along with it. ³⁰Let both grow together until the harvest. At^[g] harvest time I will tell the reapers, “First collect the darnel and tie it in bundles to be burned, but then gather^[h] the wheat into my barn.”’”

Matthew 13:36-43

Explanation for the Disciples

³⁶Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples came to him saying, “Explain to us the parable of the darnel^[a] in the field.” ³⁷He^[b] answered, “The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. ³⁸The field is the world and the good seed are the people^[c] of the kingdom. The poisonous weeds^[d] are the people^[e] of the evil one, ³⁹and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. ⁴⁰As^[f] the poisonous weeds^[g] are collected and burned with fire, so it will be at the end of the age. ⁴¹The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather from his kingdom everything that causes sin as well as all lawbreakers.^[h] ⁴²They will throw them into the fiery furnace,^[i] where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. ⁴³Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.^[j] The one who has ears had better listen!^[k]

New English Translation (NET)

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Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

The Absurdity of Idolatry

Footnotes

Footnotes

Footnotes

The Parable of the Weeds

Footnotes

Explanation for the Disciples

Footnotes