Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
He exhorts them to meekness and longsuffering, to love and peace. Everyone is to serve and edify the other with the gift that God has given him, to beware of strange doctrine, to lay aside the old life of greedy desires, and to walk in a new life.
4 I therefore, who am in bonds for the Lord’s sake, exhort you to walk worthy of the calling wherein you are called, 2 in all humbleness of mind, and meekness and longsuffering, forbearing one another through love; 3 and to be diligent to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, 4 being one body and one spirit, even as you are called in one hope of your calling. 5 Let there be but one Lord, one faith, one baptism: 6 one God and Father of all, who is above all, through all, and in you all.
7 To every one of us grace is given according to the nature and scope of the gift of Christ. 8 Therefore he says: He ascended up on high, and has led captivity captive, and has given gifts to men. 9 That he ascended, what does it mean but that he also descended first, into the lowest parts of the earth? 10 He who descended is the same also who ascended up, even above all heavens, to fulfil all things. 11 And the very same made some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some shepherds, and some teachers, 12 so that the saints may have all things necessary to work and minister for the edifying of the body of Christ, 13 until we every one (in the unity of faith and the knowledge of the Son of God) grow up to be perfect in the maturity of the fullness of Christ; 14 so that we henceforth would no longer be children, wavering and carried with every wind of doctrine by the wiliness of men, and craftiness whereby they lay in wait for us, to deceive us.
15 But let us follow the truth in love, and in all things grow in him who is the head; that is to say, Christ. 16 In him all the body is coupled and knit together in every joint, and one ministers to another (according to the divine working, as every part has its role), and advances the body for the edifying of itself in love.
24 Then, when the people saw that Jesus was not there nor his disciples, they also set off in boats and went to Capernaum seeking for Jesus.
25 And when they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, Rabbi, when did you come here? 26 Jesus answered them and said, Truly truly I say to you, you seek me not because you saw the miracles, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. 27 Labour not for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures unto everlasting life, which food the Son of man will give to you. For him has God the Father sealed.
28 Then they said to him, What should we do so that we can work the works of God? 29 Jesus answered and said to them, This is the work of God: to believe on him whom he has sent.
30 They said to him, What sign will you show then, so that we can see and believe you? What work do you do? 31 Our fathers ate manna in the desert, as it is written: He gave them bread from heaven to eat.
32 Jesus said to them, Truly truly I say to you, Moses did not give you bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.
34 Then they said to him, Lord, give us this bread forevermore.
35 And Jesus said to them, I am that bread of life. He who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes on me shall never thirst.
Copyright © 2016 by Ruth Magnusson (Davis). Includes emendations to February 2022. All rights reserved.