Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

¹⁶⁹ Let my mournful cry and supplication come [near] before You, O Lord; give me understanding (discernment and comprehension) according to Your word [of assurance and promise].

¹⁷⁰ Let my supplication come before You; deliver me according to Your word!

¹⁷¹ My lips shall pour forth praise [with thanksgiving and renewed trust] when You teach me Your statutes.

¹⁷² My tongue shall sing [praise for the fulfillment] of Your word, for all Your commandments are righteous.

¹⁷³ Let Your hand be ready to help me, for I have chosen Your precepts.

¹⁷⁴ I have longed for Your salvation, O Lord, and Your law is my delight.

¹⁷⁵ Let me live that I may praise You, and let Your decrees help me.

¹⁷⁶ I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek, inquire for, and demand Your servant, for I do not forget Your commandments.^(A)

¹¹ Now there dwelt an old prophet in Bethel; and his sons came and told him all that the man of God had done that day in Bethel; the words which he had spoken to the king they told also to their father.

¹² Their father asked them, Which way did he go? For his sons had seen which way the man of God who came from Judah had gone.

¹³ He said to his sons, Saddle the donkey for me. So they saddled the donkey and he rode on it

¹⁴ And went after the man of God. And he found him sitting under an oak, and he said to him, Are you the man of God who came from Judah? And he said, I am.

¹⁵ Then he said to him, Come home with me and eat bread.

¹⁶ He said, I may not return with you or go in with you, neither will I eat bread or drink water with you in this place.

¹⁷ For I was told by the word of the Lord, You shall not eat bread or drink water there or return by the way that you came.

¹⁸ He answered, I am a prophet also, as you are. And an angel spoke to me by the word of the Lord, saying, Bring him back with you to your house, that he may eat bread and drink water. But he lied to him.

¹⁹ So the man from Judah went back with him and ate and drank water in his house.

²⁰ And as they sat at the table, the word of the Lord came to the prophet who brought him back.

²¹ And he cried to the man of God who came from Judah, Thus says the Lord: Because you have disobeyed the word of the Lord and have not kept the command which the Lord your God commanded you,

²² But have come back and have eaten bread and drunk water in the place of which the Lord said to you, Eat no bread and drink no water—your corpse shall not come to the tomb of your fathers.

²³ And after the prophet of the house had eaten bread and drunk, he saddled the donkey for the man he had brought back.

²⁴ And when he had gone, a lion met him by the road and slew him, and his corpse was cast in the way, and the donkey stood by it; the lion also stood by the corpse.

²⁵ And behold, men passed by and saw the corpse thrown in the road, and the lion standing by the corpse, and they came and told it in the city where the old prophet dwelt.

3 If then you have been raised with Christ [to a new life, thus sharing His resurrection from the dead], aim at and seek the [rich, eternal treasures] that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.^(A)

² And set your minds and keep them set on what is above (the higher things), not on the things that are on the earth.

³ For [as far as this world is concerned] you have died, and your [new, real] life is hidden with Christ in God.

⁴ When Christ, Who is our life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in [the splendor of His] glory.

⁵ So kill (deaden, ^[a]deprive of power) the evil desire lurking in your members [those animal impulses and all that is earthly in you that is employed in sin]: sexual vice, impurity, sensual appetites, unholy desires, and all greed and covetousness, for that is idolatry (the deifying of self and other created things instead of God).

⁶ It is on account of these [very sins] that the [holy] anger of God is ever coming upon the sons of disobedience (those who are obstinately opposed to the divine will),

⁷ Among whom you also once walked, when you were living in and addicted to [such practices].

⁸ But now put away and rid yourselves [completely] of all these things: anger, rage, bad feeling toward others, curses and slander, and foulmouthed abuse and shameful utterances from your lips!

⁹ Do not lie to one another, for you have stripped off the old (unregenerate) self with its evil practices,

¹⁰ And have clothed yourselves with the new [spiritual self], which is [ever in the process of being] renewed and remolded into [fuller and more perfect ^[b]knowledge upon] knowledge after the image (the likeness) of Him Who created it.^(B)

¹¹ [In this new creation all distinctions vanish.] There ^[c]is no room for and there can be neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, [nor difference between nations whether alien] barbarians or Scythians [^[d]who are the most savage of all], nor slave or free man; but Christ is all and in all [^[e]everything and everywhere, to all men, without distinction of person].