Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

⁸ In the cool of the evening, the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking around in the garden. So they hid from the Lord God among the trees in the garden. ⁹ The Lord God called to the man and asked him, “Where are you?”

¹⁰ He answered, “I heard you in the garden. I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.”

¹¹ God asked, “Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat fruit from the tree I commanded you not to eat from?”

¹² The man answered, “That woman, the one you gave me, gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”

¹³ Then the Lord God asked the woman, “What have you done?”

“The snake deceived me, and I ate,” the woman answered.

¹⁴ So the Lord God said to the snake, “Because you have done this,

A song for going up to worship.

¹³ The following is written, “I believed; therefore, I spoke.” We have that same spirit of faith. We also believe; therefore, we also speak. ¹⁴ We know that the one who brought the Lord Jesus back to life will also bring us back to life through Jesus. He will present us to God together with you.

¹⁵ All this is for your sake so that, as God’s kindness ^[a] overflows in the lives of many people, it will produce even more thanksgiving to the glory of God. ¹⁶ That is why we are not discouraged. Though outwardly we are wearing out, inwardly we are renewed day by day. ¹⁷ Our suffering is light and temporary and is producing for us an eternal glory that is greater than anything we can imagine. ¹⁸ We don’t look for things that can be seen but for things that can’t be seen. Things that can be seen are only temporary. But things that can’t be seen last forever.

Faith Guides Our Lives

5 We know that if the life we live here on earth is ever taken down like a tent, we still have a building from God. It is an eternal house in heaven that isn’t made by human hands.

Jesus Is Accused of Working with Beelzebul^(A)

²⁰ Then Jesus went home. Another crowd gathered so that Jesus and his disciples could not even eat. ²¹ When his family heard about it, they went to get him. They said, “He’s out of his mind!”

²² The experts in Moses’ Teachings who had come from Jerusalem said, “Beelzebul is in him,” and “He forces demons out of people with the help of the ruler of demons.”

²³ Jesus called them together and used this illustration: “How can Satan force out Satan? ²⁴ If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot last. ²⁵ And if a household is divided against itself, that household will not last. ²⁶ So if Satan rebels against himself and is divided, he cannot last. That will be the end of him.

²⁷ “No one can go into a strong man’s house and steal his property. First he must tie up the strong man. Then he can go through the strong man’s house and steal his property.

²⁸ “I can guarantee this truth: People will be forgiven for any sin or curse. ²⁹ But whoever curses the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven. He is guilty of an everlasting sin.” ³⁰ Jesus said this because the experts in Moses’ Teachings had said that he had an evil spirit.

The True Family of Jesus^(B)

³¹ Then his mother and his brothers arrived. They stood outside and sent someone to ask him to come out. ³² The crowd sitting around Jesus told him, “Your mother and your brothers are outside looking for you.”

³³ He replied to them, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” ³⁴ Then looking at those who sat in a circle around him, he said, “Look, here are my mother and my brothers. ³⁵ Whoever does what God wants is my brother and sister and mother.”