Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
11 Keep up your reputation, God;
Forgive my bad life;
It’s been a very bad life.
12 My question: What are God-worshipers like?
Your answer: Arrows aimed at God’s bull’s-eye.
13 They settle down in a promising place;
Their kids inherit a prosperous farm.
14 God-friendship is for God-worshipers;
They are the ones he confides in.
15 If I keep my eyes on God,
I won’t trip over my own feet.
16 Look at me and help me!
I’m all alone and in big trouble.
17 My heart and mind are fighting each other;
Call a truce to this civil war.
18 Take a hard look at my life of hard labor,
Then lift this ton of sin.
19 Do you see how many people
Have it in for me?
How viciously they hate me?
20 Keep watch over me and keep me out of trouble;
Don’t let me down when I run to you.
If You Quit Listening
19 Better to be poor and honest
than a rich person no one can trust.
2 Ignorant zeal is worthless;
haste makes waste.
3 People ruin their lives by their own stupidity,
so why does God always get blamed?
4 Wealth attracts friends as honey draws flies,
but poor people are avoided like a plague.
5 Perjury won’t go unpunished.
Would you let a liar go free?
6 Lots of people flock around a generous person;
everyone’s a friend to the philanthropist.
7 When you’re down on your luck, even your family avoids you—
yes, even your best friends wish you’d get lost.
If they see you coming, they look the other way—
out of sight, out of mind.
8 Grow a wise heart—you’ll do yourself a favor;
keep a clear head—you’ll find a good life.
9 The person who tells lies gets caught;
the person who spreads rumors is ruined.
10 Blockheads shouldn’t live on easy street
any more than workers should give orders to their boss.
11 Smart people know how to hold their tongue;
their grandeur is to forgive and forget.
12 Mean-tempered leaders are like mad dogs;
the good-natured are like fresh morning dew.
13 A parent is worn to a frazzle by an irresponsible child;
a nagging spouse is a leaky faucet.
14 House and land are handed down from parents,
but a congenial spouse comes straight from God.
15 Life collapses on loafers;
lazybones go hungry.
16 Keep the rules and keep your life;
careless living kills.
17 Mercy to the needy is a loan to God,
and God pays back those loans in full.
11 For this is the original message we heard: We should love each other.
12-13 We must not be like Cain, who joined the Evil One and then killed his brother. And why did he kill him? Because he was deep in the practice of evil, while the acts of his brother were righteous. So don’t be surprised, friends, when the world hates you. This has been going on a long time.
14-15 The way we know we’ve been transferred from death to life is that we love our brothers and sisters. Anyone who doesn’t love is as good as dead. Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know very well that eternal life and murder don’t go together.
16-17 This is how we’ve come to understand and experience love: Christ sacrificed his life for us. This is why we ought to live sacrificially for our fellow believers, and not just be out for ourselves. If you see some brother or sister in need and have the means to do something about it but turn a cold shoulder and do nothing, what happens to God’s love? It disappears. And you made it disappear.
Copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson