Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Psalm 116

¹⁵ Then Rahab lowered them by a rope through the window, for her home was set into the wall where she lived. ¹⁶ She said to them, “Go to the hill country so that the pursuers do not find you. Hide there three days until the pursuers return. After that, you can go on your way.”

¹⁷ The men said to her, “We will be free from this oath that you have made us swear, ¹⁸ unless, when we come into the land, you tie this red cord to the window through which you let us down. You must bring your father, your mother, your brothers, and all who belong to your father’s household into your home. ¹⁹ Anyone who comes out of the doors of your house into the street is responsible for his own blood, and we will be innocent. Yet for anyone who stays with you inside the house, we are responsible for his blood if someone should lay a hand on him. ²⁰ But if you tell about this business of ours, then we will be released from the oath that you have made us swear.”

²¹ She said, “Let it be so, according to your words.”

Then she sent them off, and they departed. Then she tied the red cord in the window.

²² They went and came to the hill country. They stayed there three days, until the pursuers returned. The pursuers had sought them all along the way but had not found them. ²³ So the two men returned. They descended from the hill country. They crossed the river, came to Joshua son of Nun, and told him all that they had discovered. ²⁴ They said to Joshua, “The Lord has surely given the whole land into our hands! Indeed, all the inhabitants of the land melt in terror before us.”

¹⁷ So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.

¹⁸ But a man may say, “You have faith and I have works.”

Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. ¹⁹ You believe that there is one God; you do well. The demons also believe and tremble.

²⁰ But do you want to be shown, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead? ²¹ Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? ²² Do you see how faith worked with his works, and by works faith was made perfect? ²³ The Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness,”^[a] and he was called the friend of God. ²⁴ You see then how by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.

²⁵ Likewise, was not Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way? ²⁶ As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead.