Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

The Law of the Lord

119 Happy are those whose way is without blame, who walk in the Law of the Lord. ² Happy are those who keep His Law and look for Him with all their heart. ³ They also do not sin, but walk in His ways. ⁴ You have set down Laws that we should always obey. ⁵ O, that my ways may be always in keeping with Your Law! ⁶ Then I will not be put to shame when I respect Your Word. ⁷ I will praise You with a heart that is right when I learn how right You judge. ⁸ I will obey Your Law. Do not leave me all alone.

³⁴ ‘Then the land will be like new because of its Days of Rest while it lies waste and you are in the land of those who hate you. Then the land will rest and have new life because of the Days of Rest. ³⁵ As long as it lies waste it will have the rest it did not have on your Days of Rest, while you were living in it. ³⁶ Of those of you who are left in the lands of those who hate you, I will make their hearts weak. The sound of a leaf blown by the wind will make them run away even when no one is going after them. They will run away as if it were a sword, and they will fall. ³⁷ They will fall over each other as if running from the sword, when no one is going after them. You will have no strength to stand up in front of those who hate you. ³⁸ You will die among the nations. The land of those who hate you will eat you up. ³⁹ So those of you who are left will waste away in the lands of those who hate you, because of their sins. Also because of the sins of their fathers, they will waste away with them.

⁴⁰ ‘If they tell their sins and the sins of their fathers which they did when they were not faithful to Me and were against Me with anger, ⁴¹ (I also was angry with them and brought them into the land of those who hate them) if their sinful heart loses its pride and they are willing to turn away from their sin, ⁴² I will remember My agreement with Jacob, My agreement with Isaac, and My agreement with Abraham. And I will remember the land. ⁴³ But the land will be left behind them and become better with its Days of Rest while it lies empty without them. During this time they will turn away from their sin because they had not done what I told them to do and their soul hated My Laws. ⁴⁴ Yet even when they are in the land of those who hate them, I will not turn away from them. I will not hate them enough to destroy them and break My agreement with them. For I am the Lord their God. ⁴⁵ But because of them I will remember the agreement with their fathers, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the eyes of the nations, to be their God. I am the Lord.’”

⁴⁶ These are the Laws which the Lord made between Himself and the people of Israel through Moses at Mount Sinai.

⁷ Dear friends, I am not writing a new Law for you to obey. It is an old Law you have had from the beginning. The old Law is the Word that you have heard. ⁸ And yet it is a new Law that I am writing to you. It is truth. It was seen in Christ and it is seen in you also. The darkness is passing away and the true Light shines instead. ⁹ Whoever says he is in the light but hates his brother is still in darkness. ¹⁰ But whoever loves his brother is in the light. And there will be no reason to sin because of him. ¹¹ Whoever hates his brother is not in the light but lives in darkness. He does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

Do Not Love the World

¹² I am writing to you, my children, for your sins have been forgiven because of Christ’s name. ¹³ I am writing to you, fathers, because you know Him Who has been from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have power over the devil. I have written to you, young boys and girls, because you have learned to know the Father. ¹⁴ I have written to you, fathers, because you know Him Who has been from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, because you are strong. You have kept God’s Word in your hearts. You have power over the devil.

¹⁵ Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the Father’s love is not in him. ¹⁶ For everything that is in the world does not come from the Father. The desires of our flesh and the things our eyes see and want and the pride of this life come from the world. ¹⁷ The world and all its desires will pass away. But the man who obeys God and does what He wants done will live forever.