Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

The Passover

12 ^(A)The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron in Egypt: ² “This month is to be the first month of the year for you. ³ Give these instructions to the whole community of Israel: On the tenth day of this month each man must choose either a lamb or a young goat for his household. ⁴ If his family is too small to eat a whole animal, he and his next-door neighbor may share an animal, in proportion to the number of people and the amount that each person can eat. ⁵ You may choose either a sheep or a goat, but it must be a one-year-old male without any defects. ⁶ Then, on the evening of the fourteenth day of the month, the whole community of Israel will kill the animals. ⁷ The people are to take some of the blood and put it on the doorposts and above the doors of the houses in which the animals are to be eaten. ⁸ That night the meat is to be roasted, and eaten with bitter herbs and with bread made without yeast. ⁹ Do not eat any of it raw or boiled, but eat it roasted whole, including the head, the legs, and the internal organs. ¹⁰ You must not leave any of it until morning; if any is left over, it must be burned. ¹¹ You are to eat it quickly, for you are to be dressed for travel, with your sandals on your feet and your walking stick in your hand. It is the Passover Festival to honor me, the Lord.

¹² “On that night I will go through the land of Egypt, killing every first-born male, both human and animal, and punishing all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. ¹³ The blood on the doorposts will be a sign to mark the houses in which you live. When I see the blood, I will pass over you and will not harm you when I punish the Egyptians. ^14 (B)You must celebrate this day as a religious festival to remind you of what I, the Lord, have done. Celebrate it for all time to come.”

A Hymn of Praise

Duties toward One Another

⁸ Be under obligation to no one—the only obligation you have is to love one another. Whoever does this has obeyed the Law. ^9 (A)The commandments, “Do not commit adultery; do not commit murder; do not steal; do not desire what belongs to someone else”—all these, and any others besides, are summed up in the one command, “Love your neighbor as you love yourself.” ¹⁰ If you love others, you will never do them wrong; to love, then, is to obey the whole Law.

¹¹ You must do this, because you know that the time has come for you to wake up from your sleep. For the moment when we will be saved is closer now than it was when we first believed. ¹² The night is nearly over, day is almost here. Let us stop doing the things that belong to the dark, and let us take up weapons for fighting in the light. ¹³ Let us conduct ourselves properly, as people who live in the light of day—no orgies or drunkenness, no immorality or indecency, no fighting or jealousy. ¹⁴ But take up the weapons of the Lord Jesus Christ, and stop paying attention to your sinful nature and satisfying its desires.

When Someone Sins

^15 (A)“If your brother sins against you,^[a] go to him and show him his fault. But do it privately, just between yourselves. If he listens to you, you have won your brother back. ^16 (B)But if he will not listen to you, take one or two other persons with you, so that ‘every accusation may be upheld by the testimony of two or more witnesses,’ as the scripture says. ¹⁷ And if he will not listen to them, then tell the whole thing to the church. Finally, if he will not listen to the church, treat him as though he were a pagan or a tax collector.

Prohibiting and Permitting

^18 (C)“And so I tell all of you: what you prohibit on earth will be prohibited in heaven, and what you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven.

¹⁹ “And I tell you more: whenever two of you on earth agree about anything you pray for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. ²⁰ For where two or three come together in my name, I am there with them.”