Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Beth

²¹ “When you make a promise to the Lord your God, don’t be slow to pay everything you promised. The Lord your God will demand that you pay it. You will sin if you don’t pay what you promised. ²² If you don’t make a promise, you are not sinning. ²³ But you must do what you say you will do. If you choose to make a promise to the Lord your God, you must do what you promised.

²⁴ “When you go through another person’s vineyard, you may eat as many grapes as you want. But you cannot put any of the grapes in your basket. ²⁵ When you go through another person’s field of grain, you may eat all the grain you can pick with your hands. But you cannot use a sickle to cut that person’s grain and take it with you.

24 “A man might marry a woman, and then find some secret thing about her that he does not like. If that man is not pleased with her, he must write the divorce papers and give them to her. Then he must send her from his house. ² When she has left his house, she may go and become another man’s wife. ^3-4 But suppose the new husband also does not like her and sends her away. If that man divorces her, the first husband may not take her again to be his wife. Or if the new husband dies, her first husband may not take her again to be his wife. She has become unclean to him. If he married her again, he would be doing something the Lord hates. You must not sin like this in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

¹⁰ “When you give someone any kind of loan, you must not go into their house to get security. ¹¹ You must stand outside. Then the person who you gave the loan to will bring out the security to you. ¹² If he is a poor man, then he might give the clothes that keep him warm. You must not keep that security overnight. ¹³ You must give his security back to him every evening. Then he will have clothes to sleep in. He will bless you, and the Lord your God will accept this as living right and doing good.

¹⁴ “You must not cheat a hired servant who is poor and needy. It does not matter if he is an Israelite or if he is a foreigner living in one of your cities. ¹⁵ Give him his pay every day before sunset, because he is poor and depends on the money. If you don’t pay him, he will complain against you to the Lord, and you will be guilty of sin.

Love All People

2 My dear brothers and sisters, you are believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ. So don’t treat some people better than others. ² Suppose someone comes into your meeting wearing very nice clothes and a gold ring. At the same time a poor person comes in wearing old, dirty clothes. ³ You show special attention to the person wearing nice clothes. You say, “Sit here in this good seat.” But you say to the poor person, “Stand there!” or “Sit on the floor by our feet!” ⁴ Doesn’t this show that you think some people are more important than others? You set yourselves up as judges—judges who make bad decisions.

⁵ Listen, my dear brothers and sisters. God chose the poor people in the world to be rich in faith. He chose them to receive the kingdom God promised to those who love him. ⁶ But you show no respect to those who are poor. And you know that the rich are the ones who always try to control your lives. And they are the ones who take you to court. ⁷ And the rich are the ones who insult the wonderful name of Christ, the name by which you are known.

⁸ One law rules over all other laws. This royal law is found in the Scriptures: “Love your neighbor^[a] the same as you love yourself.”^[b] If you obey this law, you are doing right. ⁹ But if you are treating one person as more important than another, you are sinning. You are guilty of breaking God’s law.

¹⁰ You might follow all of God’s law. But if you fail to obey only one command, you are guilty of breaking all the commands in that law. ¹¹ God said, “Don’t commit adultery.”^[c] The same God also said, “Don’t kill.”^[d] So if you don’t commit adultery, but you kill someone, you are guilty of breaking all of God’s law.

¹² You will be judged by the law that makes people free. You should remember this in everything you say and do. ¹³ Yes, you must show mercy to others. If you do not show mercy, then God will not show mercy to you when he judges you. But the one who shows mercy can stand without fear before the Judge.