Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Psalm 116

¹ I love the Lord, because He has heard [and now hears] my voice and my supplications.

² Because He has inclined His ear to me, therefore will I call upon Him as long as I live.

³ The cords and sorrows of death were around me, and the terrors of Sheol (the place of the dead) had laid hold of me; I suffered anguish and grief (trouble and sorrow).

⁴ Then called I upon the name of the Lord: O Lord, I beseech You, save my life and deliver me!

⁵ Gracious is the Lord, and [rigidly] righteous; yes, our God is merciful.

⁶ The Lord preserves the simple; I was brought low, and He helped and saved me.

⁷ Return to your rest, O my soul, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.^(A)

⁸ For You have delivered my life from death, my eyes from tears, and my feet from stumbling and falling.

⁹ I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living.

¹⁵ Then she let them down by a rope through the window, for her house was built into the [town] wall so that she dwelt in the wall.

¹⁶ And she said to them, Get to the mountain, lest the pursuers meet you; hide yourselves there three days until the pursuers have returned; and afterward you may go your way.

¹⁷ The men said to her, We will be blameless of this oath you have made us swear. [The responsibility is now yours.]

¹⁸ Behold, when we come into the land, you shall bind this scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down, and you shall bring your father and mother, your brothers, and all your father’s household into your house.

¹⁹ And if anyone goes out of the doors of your house into the street, his blood shall be upon his head, and we will be guiltless; but if a hand is laid upon anyone who is with you in the house, his blood shall be on our head.

²⁰ But if you tell this business of ours, we shall be guiltless of your oath which you made us swear.

²¹ And she said, According to your words, so it is. Then she sent them away and they departed; and she bound the ^[a]scarlet cord in the window.

²² They left and went to the mountain and stayed there three days, until the pursuers returned, who had searched all along the way without finding them.

²³ So the two men descended from the mountain, passed over [the Jordan], and came to Joshua son of Nun, and told him all that had befallen them.

²⁴ They said to Joshua, Truly the Lord has given all the land into our hands; for all the inhabitants of the country are faint because of us.

¹⁷ So also faith, if it does not have works (deeds and actions of obedience to back it up), by itself is destitute of power (inoperative, dead).

¹⁸ But someone will say [to you then], You [say you] have faith, and I have [good] works. Now you show me your [alleged] faith apart from any [good] works [if you can], and I by [good] works [of obedience] will show you my faith.

¹⁹ You believe that God is one; you do well. So do the demons believe and shudder [in terror and horror such as ^[a]make a man’s hair stand on end and contract the surface of his skin]!

²⁰ Are you willing to be shown [proof], you foolish (unproductive, spiritually deficient) fellow, that faith apart from [good] works is inactive and ineffective and worthless?

²¹ Was not our forefather Abraham [shown to be] justified (made acceptable to God) by [his] works when he brought to the altar as an offering his [own] son Isaac?^(A)

²² You see that [his] faith was cooperating with his works, and [his] faith was completed and reached its supreme expression [when he implemented it] by [good] works.

²³ And [so] the Scripture was fulfilled that says, Abraham believed in (adhered to, trusted in, and relied on) God, and this was accounted to him as righteousness (as conformity to God’s will in thought and deed), and he was called God’s friend.^(B)

²⁴ You see that a man is justified (pronounced righteous before God) through what he does and not alone through faith [through works of obedience as well as by what he believes].

²⁵ So also with Rahab the harlot—was she not shown to be justified (pronounced righteous before God) by [good] deeds when she took in the scouts (spies) and sent them away by a different route?^(C)

²⁶ For as the human body apart from the spirit is lifeless, so faith apart from [its] works of obedience is also dead.