Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

19 The heavens are telling the glory of God; they are a marvelous display of his craftsmanship. ² Day and night they keep on telling about God. ^3-4 Without a sound or word, silent in the skies, their message reaches out to all the world. The sun lives in the heavens where God placed it ⁵ and moves out across the skies as radiant as a bridegroom^[a] going to his wedding, or as joyous as an athlete looking forward to a race! ⁶ The sun crosses the heavens from end to end, and nothing can hide from its heat.

^7-8 God’s laws are perfect. They protect us, make us wise, and give us joy and light. ⁹ God’s laws are pure, eternal, just.^{[b] 10} They are more desirable than gold. They are sweeter than honey dripping from a honeycomb. ¹¹ For they warn us away from harm and give success to those who obey them.

¹² But how can I ever know what sins are lurking in my heart? Cleanse me from these hidden faults. ¹³ And keep me from deliberate wrongs; help me to stop doing them. Only then can I be free of guilt and innocent of some great crime.

¹⁴ May my spoken words and unspoken thoughts be pleasing even to you, O Lord my Rock and my Redeemer.

²⁴ Some men are so lazy they won’t even feed themselves!

²⁵ Punish a mocker and others will learn from his example. Reprove a wise man, and he will be the wiser.

²⁶ A son who mistreats his father or mother is a public disgrace.

²⁷ Stop listening to teaching that contradicts what you know is right.

²⁸ A worthless witness cares nothing for truth—he enjoys his sinning too much.

²⁹ Mockers and rebels shall be severely punished.

¹⁷ So you see, it isn’t enough just to have faith. You must also do good to prove that you have it. Faith that doesn’t show itself by good works is no faith at all—it is dead and useless.

¹⁸ But someone may well argue, “You say the way to God is by faith alone, plus nothing; well, I say that good works are important too, for without good works you can’t prove whether you have faith or not; but anyone can see that I have faith by the way I act.”

¹⁹ Are there still some among you who hold that “only believing” is enough? Believing in one God? Well, remember that the demons believe this too—so strongly that they tremble in terror! ²⁰ Fool! When will you ever learn that “believing” is useless without doing what God wants you to? Faith that does not result in good deeds is not real faith.

²¹ Don’t you remember that even our father Abraham was declared good because of what he did when he was willing to obey God, even if it meant offering his son Isaac to die on the altar? ²² You see, he was trusting God so much that he was willing to do whatever God told him to; his faith was made complete by what he did—by his actions, his good deeds. ²³ And so it happened just as the Scriptures say, that Abraham trusted God, and the Lord declared him good in God’s sight, and he was even called “the friend of God.” ²⁴ So you see, a man is saved by what he does, as well as by what he believes.

²⁵ Rahab, the prostitute, is another example of this. She was saved because of what she did when she hid those messengers and sent them safely away by a different road. ²⁶ Just as the body is dead when there is no spirit in it, so faith is dead if it is not the kind that results in good deeds.