Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

To the director: A song of David.

¹³ King Solomon forced 30,000 men of Israel to help in this work. ¹⁴ He chose a man named Adoniram to be in charge of them. Solomon divided the men into three groups with 10,000 men in each group. Each group worked one month in Lebanon and then went home for two months. ¹⁵ Solomon also forced 80,000 men to work in the hill country cutting stone. There were also 70,000 men to carry the stones. ¹⁶ There were 3300 men to supervise the workers. ¹⁷ King Solomon commanded them to cut large, expensive stones for the foundation of the Temple. ¹⁸ Then Solomon and Hiram’s builders and the men from Byblos^[a] carved the stones and prepared them and the logs for use in building the Temple.

Wives and Husbands

²¹ Be willing to serve each other out of respect for Christ.

²² Wives, be willing to serve your husbands the same as the Lord. ²³ A husband is the head of his wife, just as Christ is the head of the church. Christ is the Savior of the church, which is his body. ²⁴ The church serves under Christ, so it is the same with you wives. You should be willing to serve your husbands in everything.

²⁵ Husbands, love your wives the same as Christ loved the church and gave his life for it. ²⁶ He died to make the church holy. He used the telling of the Good News to make the church clean by washing it with water. ²⁷ Christ died so that he could give the church to himself like a bride in all her beauty. He died so that the church could be holy and without fault, with no evil or sin or any other thing wrong in it.

²⁸ And husbands should love their wives like that. They should love their wives as they love their own bodies. The man who loves his wife loves himself, ²⁹ because no one ever hates his own body, but feeds and takes care of it. And that is what Christ does for the church ³⁰ because we are parts of his body. ³¹ The Scriptures say, “That is why a man will leave his father and mother and join his wife, and the two people will become one.”^{[a] 32} That secret truth is very important—I am talking about Christ and the church. ³³ But each one of you must love his wife as he loves himself. And a wife must respect her husband.

Children and Parents

6 Children, obey your parents the way the Lord wants, because this is the right thing to do. ² The command says, “You must respect your father and mother.”^[b] This is the first command that has a promise with it. ³ And this is the promise: “Then all will go well with you, and you will have a long life on the earth.”^[c]

⁴ Fathers, don’t make your children angry, but raise them with the kind of teaching and training you learn from the Lord.

Slaves and Masters

⁵ Slaves, obey your masters here on earth with fear and respect. And do this with a heart that is true, just as you obey Christ. ⁶ You must do this not just to please your masters while they are watching, but all the time. Since you are really slaves of Christ, you must do with all your heart what God wants. ⁷ Do your work, and be happy to do it. Work as though it is the Lord you are serving, not just an earthly master. ⁸ Remember that the Lord will give everyone a reward for doing good. Everyone, slave or free, will get a reward for the good things they do.

⁹ Masters, in the same way, be good to your slaves. Don’t say things to scare them. You know that the one who is your Master and their Master is in heaven, and he treats everyone the same.