Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

1 Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy send greetings to the church people in the city of Thessalonica. This church belongs to God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

² May God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, in their kindness, give you much happiness and peace.

³ My brothers, we thank God for you always. It is the right thing to do. You trust him more and more. You all love each other more and more.

⁴ So we are proud of you. We tell the churches of God about you because you are standing strong and you keep on believing in God. Your troubles and hard times do not stop you.

¹¹ That is why we always talk to God about you. We want our God to make you fit for the good work to which he called you. We ask him to finish his good work of faith which trusts in his power.

¹² In that way you will make the name of our Lord Jesus Christ great. And he will make you great. This will be because of the kindness of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

19 Jesus came to the city of Jericho and was passing through it.

² A man named Zacchaeus was there. He was the head tax collector, and he was a rich man.

³ He wanted to see who Jesus was but he could not see him because he was a short man and there were many people around him.

⁴ So he ran ahead and climbed into a tree to see Jesus, for he was coming that way.

⁵ When Jesus came to the tree, he looked up. He said, `Zacchaeus, come down right now. I must stay at your house today.'

⁶ So Zacchaeus came down right then. He was glad to have Jesus come in his house.

⁷ When all the people saw this, they did not like it. They said, `He has gone to visit a bad man.'

⁸ Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, `Look, Lord, I will give to the poor people half of all I have. And if I have cheated anyone, I will give him back four times as much as I took.'

⁹ Jesus said to him, `The head of this house has been saved today! He also is a son of Abraham.

¹⁰ The Son of Man came to look for and to save those who are lost.'