Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Praise the Lord!

¹⁵ “I will abandon my people until they have suffered enough for their sins and come looking for me. Perhaps in their suffering they will try to find me.”

The People's Insincere Repentance

6 The people say, “Let's return to the Lord! He has hurt us, but he will be sure to heal us; he has wounded us, but he will bandage our wounds, won't he? ² In two or three days he will revive us, and we will live in his presence. ³ Let us try to know the Lord. He will come to us as surely as the day dawns, as surely as the spring rains fall upon the earth.”

⁴ But the Lord says, “Israel and Judah, what am I going to do with you? Your love for me disappears as quickly as morning mist; it is like dew, that vanishes early in the day. ⁵ That is why I have sent my prophets to you with my message of judgment and destruction. What I want from you is plain and clear: ^6 (A)I want your constant love, not your animal sacrifices. I would rather have my people know me than burn offerings to me.

¹ From the Elder—

To the dear Lady and to her children,^[a] whom I truly love. And I am not the only one, but all who know the truth love you, ² because the truth remains in us and will be with us forever.

³ May God the Father and Jesus Christ, the Father's Son, give us grace, mercy, and peace; may they be ours in truth and love.

Truth and Love

⁴ How happy I was to find that some of your children live in the truth, just as the Father commanded us. ^5 (A)And so I ask you, dear Lady: let us all love one another. This is no new command I am writing you; it is the command which we have had from the beginning. ⁶ This love I speak of means that we must live in obedience to God's commands. The command, as you have all heard from the beginning, is that you must all live in love.