Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

David Marries Bathsheba

²⁶ Bathsheba heard that her husband Uriah had died, so she mourned for him. ²⁷ After her time of sadness, David sent servants to bring her to his house. She became David’s wife and gave birth to a son for David. But the Lord did not like what David had done.

Nathan Speaks to David

12 The Lord sent Nathan to David. Nathan went to him and said, “There were two men in a city. One man was rich, but the other man was poor. ² The rich man had lots of sheep and cattle. ³ But the poor man had nothing except one little female lamb that he bought. The poor man fed the lamb, and the lamb grew up with this poor man and his children. She ate from the poor man’s food and drank from his cup. The lamb slept on the poor man’s chest. The lamb was like a daughter to the poor man.

⁴ “Then a traveler stopped to visit the rich man. The rich man wanted to give food to the traveler, but he did not want to take any of his own sheep or cattle to feed the traveler. No, the rich man took the lamb from the poor man and cooked it for his visitor.”

⁵ David became very angry with the rich man. He said to Nathan, “As the Lord lives, the man who did this should die! ⁶ He must pay four times the price of the lamb because he did this terrible thing and because he had no mercy.”

Nathan Tells David About His Sin

⁷ Then Nathan said to David, “You are that rich man! This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘I chose^[a] you to be the king of Israel. I saved you from Saul. ⁸ I let you take his family and his wives, and I made you king of Israel and Judah. As if that had not been enough, I would have given you more and more. ⁹ So why did you ignore my command? Why did you do what I say is wrong? You let the Ammonites kill Uriah the Hittite, and you took his wife. It is as if you yourself killed Uriah in war. ¹⁰ So your family will never have peace! When you took Uriah’s wife, you showed that you did not respect me.’

¹¹ “This is what the Lord says: ‘I am bringing trouble against you. This trouble will come from your own family. I will take your wives from you and give them to someone who is very close to you. He will have sexual relations with your wives, and everyone will know it!^{[b] 12} You had sexual relations with Bathsheba in secret, but I will punish you so that all the people of Israel can see it.’”^[c]

¹³ Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.”

Nathan said to David, “The Lord will forgive you, even for this sin. You will not die.

To the director: A song of David written when Nathan the prophet came to him after David’s sin with Bathsheba.

The Unity of the Body

4 So, as a prisoner for the Lord, I beg you to live the way God’s people should live, because he chose you to be his. ² Always be humble and gentle. Be patient and accept each other with love. ³ You are joined together with peace through the Spirit. Do all you can to continue as you are, letting peace hold you together. ⁴ There is one body and one Spirit, and God chose you to have one hope. ⁵ There is one Lord, one faith, and one baptism. ⁶ There is one God and Father of us all, who rules over everyone. He works through all of us and in all of us.

⁷ Christ gave each one of us a special gift. Everyone received what he wanted to give them. ⁸ That is why the Scriptures say,

⁹ When it says, “He went up,” what does it mean? It means that he first came down low to earth. ¹⁰ So Christ came down, and he is the same one who went up. He went up above the highest heaven in order to fill everything with himself. ¹¹ And that same Christ gave these gifts to people: He made some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to go and tell the Good News, and some to care for and teach God’s people.^{[a] 12} Christ gave these gifts to prepare God’s holy people for the work of serving, to make the body of Christ stronger. ¹³ This work must continue until we are all joined together in what we believe and in what we know about the Son of God. Our goal is to become like a full-grown man—to look just like Christ and have all his perfection.

¹⁴ Then we will no longer be like babies. We will not be people who are always changing like a ship that the waves carry one way and then another. We will not be influenced by every new teaching we hear from people who are trying to deceive us—those who make clever plans and use every kind of trick to fool others into following the wrong way. ¹⁵ No, we will speak the truth with love. We will grow to be like Christ in every way. He is the head, ¹⁶ and the whole body depends on him. All the parts of the body are joined and held together, with each part doing its own work. This causes the whole body to grow and to be stronger in love.

²⁴ The people saw that Jesus and his followers were not there now. So they got into the boats and went to Capernaum to find Jesus.

Jesus, the Bread of Life

²⁵ The people found Jesus on the other side of the lake. They asked him, “Teacher, when did you come here?”

²⁶ He answered, “Why are you looking for me? Is it because you saw miraculous signs? The truth is, you are looking for me because you ate the bread and were satisfied. ²⁷ But earthly food spoils and ruins. So don’t work to get that kind of food. But work to get the food that stays good and gives you eternal life. The Son of Man will give you that food. He is the only one qualified by God the Father to give it to you.”

²⁸ The people asked Jesus, “What does God want us to do?”

²⁹ Jesus answered, “The work God wants you to do is this: to believe in the one he sent.”

³⁰ So the people asked, “What miraculous sign will you do for us? If we can see you do a miracle, then we will believe you. What will you do? ³¹ Our ancestors were given manna to eat in the desert. As the Scriptures say, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’^[a]”

³² Jesus said, “I can assure you that Moses was not the one who gave your people bread from heaven. But my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. ³³ God’s bread is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

³⁴ The people said, “Sir, from now on give us bread like that.”

³⁵ Then Jesus said, “I am the bread that gives life. No one who comes to me will ever be hungry. No one who believes in me will ever be thirsty.