Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

ת Taw

¹¹ Now there lived an old prophet in Bethel, and his sons came and told him all that the man of God had done that day in Bethel. They also told their father the words that he had spoken to the king. ¹² Their father said to them, “What way did he go?” For his sons had seen the way the man of God who came from Judah had gone. ¹³ He said to his sons, “Saddle my donkey.” So they saddled the donkey for him, and he rode on it. ¹⁴ He went after the man of God and 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, nor will I eat bread nor drink water with you in this place, ¹⁷ for I was commanded by the word of the Lord: You shall eat no bread and drink no water there nor return by the way you came.”

¹⁸ He said to him, “I am a prophet like you, and an angel spoke to me by the word of the Lord, saying, ‘Bring him back with you into your house so that he may eat bread and drink water.’ ” But he had lied to him. ¹⁹ So he went back with him to his house and ate bread and drank water.

²⁰ Then as they sat at the table, the word of the Lord came to the prophet who brought him back, ²¹ and he cried out to the man of God who came from Judah, saying, “Thus says the Lord: Since you have disobeyed the mouth of the Lord and have not kept the commandment that the Lord your God commanded you, ²² but instead came back and have eaten bread and drunk water in the place of which the Lord told you to eat no bread and drink no water, your carcass will not be buried in the tomb of your fathers!”

²³ After he had eaten bread and had drunk, he saddled the donkey for the prophet whom he had brought back. ²⁴ As he was going, a lion met him on the way and killed him, and his body was thrown in the road, and both the donkey and lion stood by it. ²⁵ Some men passed by and saw the body thrown in the road with the lion standing by the body, and they came and told the story in the city where the old prophet lived.

3 If you then were raised with Christ, desire those things which are above, where Christ sits at the right hand of God. ² Set your affection on things above, not on things on earth. ³ For you are dead, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. ⁴ When Christ who is our life shall appear, then you also shall appear with Him in glory.

⁵ Therefore put to death the parts of your earthly nature: sexual immorality, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. ⁶ Because of these things, the wrath of God comes on the sons of disobedience. ⁷ You also once walked in these, when you lived in them. ⁸ But now you must also put away all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, and filthy language out of your mouth. ⁹ Do not lie one to another, since you have put off the old nature with its deeds, ¹⁰ and have embraced the new nature, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him who created it, ¹¹ where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all.