Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Philip and the Ethiopian
26 An angel of the Lord spoke to Philip.
“Get up and go south,” he said. “Go to the desert road that runs down from Jerusalem to Gaza.”
27 So he got up and went. Lo and behold, there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace (the queen of Ethiopia), who was in charge of her whole treasury. He had come to Jerusalem to worship, 28 and was on his way back home. He was sitting in his chariot and reading the prophet Isaiah.
29 “Go up and join his chariot,” said the spirit to Philip. 30 So Philip ran up, and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah.
“Do you understand what you’re reading?” he asked.
31 “How can I,” he replied, “unless someone gives me some help?”
So he invited Philip to get up and sit beside him. 32 The biblical passage he was reading was this one:
He was led like a sheep to the slaughter
and as a lamb is silent before its shearers,
so he does not open his mouth.
33 In his humiliation, judgment was taken away from him.
Who can explain his generation?
For his life was taken away from the earth.
34 “Tell me,” said the eunuch to Philip, “who is the prophet talking about? Himself or someone else?”
35 Then Philip took a deep breath and, starting from this biblical passage, told him the good news about Jesus.
36 As they were going along the road, they came to some water.
“Look!” said the eunuch. “Here is some water! What’s to stop me being baptized?”
38 So he gave orders for the chariot to stop, and both of them went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch together, and he baptized him. 39 When they came up out of the water, the spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away, and the eunuch didn’t see him anymore, but went on his way rejoicing. 40 Philip, however, turned up at Azotus. He went through all the towns, announcing the good news, until he came to Caesarea.
God’s love
7 Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God, and all who love are fathered by God and know God. 8 The one who does not love has not known God, because God is love. 9 This is how God’s love has appeared among us: God sent his only son into the world, so that we should live through him. 10 Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the sacrifice that would atone for our sins. 11 Beloved, if that’s how God loved us, we ought to love one another in the same way. 12 Nobody has ever seen God. If we love one another, God abides in us and his love is completed in us. 13 That is how we know that we abide in him, and he in us, because he has given us a portion of his spirit. 14 And we have seen and bear witness that the father sent the son to be the world’s savior. 15 Anyone who confesses that Jesus is God’s son, God abides in them and they abide in God. 16 And we have known and have believed the love which God has for us.
God is love; those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. 17 This is what makes love complete for us, so that we may have boldness and confidence on the day of judgment, because just as he is, so are we within this world. 18 There is no fear in love; complete love drives out fear. Fear has to do with punishment, and anyone who is afraid has not been completed in love. 19 We love, because he first loved us. 20 If someone says, “I love God,” but hates their brother or sister, that person is a liar. Someone who doesn’t love a brother or sister whom they have seen, how can they love God, whom they haven’t seen? 21 This is the command we have from him: anyone who loves God should love their brother or sister too.
The true vine
15 “I am the true vine,” said Jesus, “and my father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t bear fruit; and he prunes every branch that does bear fruit, so that it can bear more fruit. 3 You are already clean. That’s because of the word that I’ve spoken to you.
4 “Remain in me, and I will remain in you! The branch can’t bear fruit by itself, but only if it remains in the vine. In the same way, you can’t bear fruit unless you remain in me. 5 I am the vine, you are the branches. People who remain in me, and I in them, are the ones who bear plenty of fruit. Without me, you see, you can’t do anything.
6 “If people don’t remain in me, they are thrown out, like a branch, and they wither. People collect the branches and put them on the fire, and they are burned. 7 If you remain in me, and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want, and it will happen for you. 8 My father is glorified in this: that you bear plenty of fruit, and so become my disciples.”
Scripture quotations from The New Testament for Everyone are copyright © Nicholas Thomas Wright 2011, 2018, 2019.