Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

The Law of the Lord

^34-35 Then the land will enjoy the years of complete rest that you would not give it; it will lie abandoned and get its rest while you are in exile in the land of your enemies.

³⁶ “I will make those of you who are in exile so terrified that the sound of a leaf blowing in the wind will make you run. You will run as if you were being pursued in battle, and you will fall when there is no enemy near you. ³⁷ You will stumble over one another when no one is chasing you, and you will be unable to fight against any enemy. ³⁸ You will die in exile, swallowed up by the land of your enemies. ³⁹ The few of you who survive in the land of your enemies will waste away because of your own sin and the sin of your ancestors.

⁴⁰ “But your descendants will confess their sins and the sins of their ancestors, who resisted me and rebelled against me, ⁴¹ and caused me to turn against them and send them into exile in the land of their enemies. At last, when your descendants are humbled and they have paid the penalty for their sin and rebellion, ^42 (A)I will remember my covenant with Jacob and with Isaac and with Abraham, and I will renew my promise to give my people the land. ⁴³ First, however, the land must be rid of its people, so that it can enjoy its complete rest, and they must pay the full penalty for having rejected my laws and my commands. ⁴⁴ But even then, when they are still in the land of their enemies, I will not completely abandon them or destroy them. That would put an end to my covenant with them, and I am the Lord their God. ⁴⁵ I will renew the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I showed all the nations my power by bringing my people out of Egypt, in order that I, the Lord, might be their God.”

⁴⁶ All these are the laws and commands that the Lord gave to Moses on Mount Sinai for the people of Israel.

The New Command

^7 (A)My dear friends, this command I am writing you is not new; it is the old command, the one you have had from the very beginning. The old command is the message you have already heard. ⁸ However, the command I now write you is new, because its truth is seen in Christ and also in you. For the darkness is passing away, and the real light is already shining.

⁹ If we say that we are in the light, yet hate others, we are in the darkness to this very hour. ¹⁰ If we love others, we live in the light, and so there is nothing in us that will cause someone else^[a] to sin. ¹¹ But if we hate others, we are in the darkness; we walk in it and do not know where we are going, because the darkness has made us blind.

¹² I write to you, my children, because your sins are forgiven for the sake of Christ. ¹³ I write to you, fathers, because you know him who has existed from the beginning. I write to you, young people, because you have defeated the Evil One.

¹⁴ I write to you, my children, because you know the Father. I write to you, fathers, because you know him who has existed from the beginning. I write to you, young people, because you are strong; the word of God lives in you, and you have defeated the Evil One.

¹⁵ Do not love the world or anything that belongs to the world. If you love the world, you do not love the Father. ¹⁶ Everything that belongs to the world—what the sinful self desires, what people see and want, and everything in this world that people are so proud of—none of this comes from the Father; it all comes from the world. ¹⁷ The world and everything in it that people desire is passing away; but those who do the will of God live forever.