Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

³ May God show you his kindness and peace which come from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

⁴ I am always thanking God for the blessings he has given you through Jesus Christ.

⁵ He has made you rich in all ways, in all that you say and in all you know.

⁶ Christ has done for you just what he promised to do.

⁷ You have every blessing you need while you wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to come again.

⁸ And right to the end Jesus Christ will surely keep you safe. Then no one will find anything wrong about you on the day our Lord Jesus Christ comes.

⁹ God never fails anyone. It is he who called you to belong to his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

²⁴ `In that time of trouble, the sun will be dark. The moon will not shine.

²⁵ The stars will fall from the sky. And the powers in the sky will be shaken.

²⁶ Then people will see the sign of the Son of Man in the clouds. He will have much power and be very great.

²⁷ He will send out the angels to gather his chosen people. They will gather them from everywhere all over the earth.

²⁸ `Learn a lesson from the fig tree. As soon as its branches begin to grow and the leaves come, then you know it will soon be the warm time of the year.

²⁹ `It is the same when you see all these things. You will know that the time is very near, right at the door.

³⁰ I tell you the truth. The people who are living then will not die before all these things happen.

³¹ The sky and the earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

³² `But no one knows the day or the hour when the Son of Man will come. Even the angels in heaven and the Son do not know. Only the Father knows.

³³ So watch! Stay awake and talk with God. You do not know when the time will be.

³⁴ It is like a man who went to a country far away. He left his home and told each one of his servants what work he must do. Then he told the man who guards the door to watch.

³⁵ So watch! You do not know when the master of the house will come. You do not know if he will come in the evening, or at midnight, or when the cock calls, or in the morning.

³⁶ Watch, so that you will not be sleeping if he comes quickly.

³⁷ What I say to you I say to everybody, and this is "Watch".'