Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
What the Lord Demands
A psalm of David.
15 Lord, who may enter your Holy Tent?
Who may live on your holy mountain?
2 Only those who are innocent
and who do what is right.
Such people speak the truth from their hearts
3 and do not tell lies about others.
They do no wrong to their neighbors
and do not gossip.
4 They do not respect hateful people
but honor those who honor the Lord.
They keep their promises to their neighbors,
even when it hurts.
5 They do not charge interest on money they lend
and do not take money to hurt innocent people.
Whoever does all these things will never be destroyed.
Abram and Lot Separate
13 So Abram, his wife, and Lot left Egypt, taking everything they owned, and traveled to southern Canaan. 2 Abram was very rich in cattle, silver, and gold.
3 He left southern Canaan and went back to Bethel where he had camped before, between Bethel and Ai, 4 and where he had built an altar. So he worshiped the Lord there.
5 During this time Lot was traveling with Abram, and Lot also had flocks, herds, and tents. 6 Abram and Lot had so many animals that the land could not support both of them together, 7 so Abram’s herdsmen and Lot’s herdsmen began to argue. The Canaanites and the Perizzites were living in the land at this time.
8 Abram said to Lot, “There should be no arguing between you and me, or between your herdsmen and mine, because we are brothers. 9 We should separate. The whole land is there in front of you. If you go to the left, I will go to the right. If you go to the right, I will go to the left.”
10 Lot looked all around and saw the whole Jordan Valley and that there was much water there. It was like the Lord’s garden, like the land of Egypt in the direction of Zoar. (This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.) 11 So Lot chose to move east and live in the Jordan Valley. In this way Abram and Lot separated. 12 Abram lived in the land of Canaan, but Lot lived among the cities in the Jordan Valley, very near to Sodom. 13 Now the people of Sodom were very evil and were always sinning against the Lord.
14 After Lot left, the Lord said to Abram, “Look all around you—to the north and south and east and west. 15 All this land that you see I will give to you and your descendants forever. 16 I will make your descendants as many as the dust of the earth. If anyone could count the dust on the earth, he could count your people. 17 Get up! Walk through all this land because I am now giving it to you.”
18 So Abram moved his tents and went to live near the great trees of Mamre at the city of Hebron. There he built an altar to the Lord.
The Love of Christ
14 So I bow in prayer before the Father 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth gets its true name. 16 I ask the Father in his great glory to give you the power to be strong inwardly through his Spirit. 17 I pray that Christ will live in your hearts by faith and that your life will be strong in love and be built on love. 18 And I pray that you and all God’s holy people will have the power to understand the greatness of Christ’s love—how wide and how long and how high and how deep that love is. 19 Christ’s love is greater than anyone can ever know, but I pray that you will be able to know that love. Then you can be filled with the fullness of God.
20 With God’s power working in us, God can do much, much more than anything we can ask or imagine. 21 To him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus for all time, forever and ever. Amen.
The Holy Bible, New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.