Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

The judgment seat of the Messiah

⁶ So we are always confident: we know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. ⁷ We live our lives by faith, you see, not by sight. ⁸ We are confident, and we would much prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. ⁹ So we work hard, as a point of honor, to please him, whether we are at home or away. ¹⁰ For we must all appear before the judgment seat of the Messiah, so that each may receive what has been done through the body, whether good or bad.

The Messiah’s love makes us press on

¹¹ So we know the fear of the Lord; and that’s why we are persuading people—but we are open to God, and open as well, I hope, to your consciences. ¹² We aren’t trying to recommend ourselves again! We are giving you a chance to be proud of us, to have something to say to those who take pride in appearances rather than in people’s hearts.

¹³ If we are beside ourselves, you see, it’s for God; and if we are in our right mind, it’s for you.

¹⁴ For the Messiah’s love makes us press on. We have come to the conviction that one died for all, and therefore all died. ¹⁵ And he died for all in order that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised on their behalf.

New creation, new ministry

¹⁶ From this moment on, therefore, we don’t regard anybody from a merely human point of view. Even if we once regarded the Messiah that way, we don’t do so any longer. ¹⁷ Thus, if anyone is in the Messiah, there is a new creation! Old things have gone, and look—everything has become new!

More seed parables

²⁶ “This is what God’s kingdom is like,” said Jesus. “Once upon a time a man sowed seed on the ground. ²⁷ Every night he went to bed; every day he got up; and the seed sprouted and grew without him knowing how it did it. ²⁸ The ground produces crops by itself: first the stalk, then the ear, then the complete corn in the ear. ²⁹ But when the crop is ready, in goes the sickle at once, because harvest has arrived.

³⁰ “What shall we say God’s kingdom is like?” he said. “What picture shall we give of it? ³¹ It’s like a grain of mustard seed. When it’s sown on the ground, it’s the smallest of all the seeds on the earth. ³² But when it’s sown, it springs up and becomes the biggest of all shrubs. It grows large branches, so that ‘the birds of the air make their nests’ within its shade.”

³³ He used to tell them a lot of parables like this, speaking the word as much as they were able to hear. ³⁴ He never spoke except in parables. But he explained everything to his own disciples in private.