Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

¹⁵ So she let them down by a rope from her window since her house was built into the city wall. (She lived in the city wall.) ¹⁶ She told them, “Go to the mountains so that the men who are pursuing you will not find you. Hide there for three days until they return to Jericho. Then you can go on your way.”

¹⁷ The men told her, “We will be free from the oath which you made us swear, ⌞if you tell anyone what we’re doing here⌟. ¹⁸ When we invade your land, tie this red cord in the window through which you let us down. Also, gather your father, mother, brothers, and all your father’s family into your house. ¹⁹ Whoever leaves your house will be responsible for his own life. We will be free from that responsibility. But we will take responsibility if anyone inside your house is harmed. ²⁰ If you tell anyone what we’re doing here, we will be free from the oath which you made us swear.”

²¹ “I agree,” she said. So she let them go and tied the red cord in the window.

²² The men went to the mountains and stayed there for three days until the king’s men returned to Jericho. The king’s men had searched for them all along the road but had not found them. ²³ Then the two spies came down out of the mountains, crossed the Jordan River, and returned to Joshua, son of Nun. They told him everything that had happened to them. ²⁴ They told Joshua, “The Lord has given us the whole country. The people who live there are deathly afraid of us.”

¹⁷ In the same way, faith by itself is dead if it doesn’t cause you to do any good things.

¹⁸ Another person might say, “You have faith, but I do good things.” Show me your faith apart from the good things you do. I will show you my faith by the good things I do. ¹⁹ You believe that there is one God. That’s fine! The demons also believe that, and they tremble with fear.

²⁰ You fool! Do you have to be shown that faith which does nothing is useless? ²¹ Didn’t our ancestor Abraham receive God’s approval as a result of what he did when he offered his son Isaac as a sacrifice on the altar? ²² You see that Abraham’s faith and what he did worked together. His faith was shown to be genuine by what he did. ²³ The Scripture passage came true. It says, “Abraham believed God, and that faith was regarded as the basis of Abraham’s approval by God.” So Abraham was called God’s friend. ²⁴ You see that a person receives God’s approval because of what he does, not only because of what he believes. ²⁵ The same is true of the prostitute Rahab who welcomed the spies and sent them away on another road. She received God’s approval because of what she did.

²⁶ A body that doesn’t breathe ^[a] is dead. In the same way faith that does nothing is dead.