Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Psalm 11

For the worship leader. A song of David.

¹³ King Solomon assembled forced laborers from all over Israel—30,000 men in all. ¹⁴ He sent them to Lebanon in cycles—10,000 men per month. They stayed in Lebanon for an entire month, then they were able to return home for two months. Adoniram was the head administrator of the workers.

¹⁵ Solomon enlisted 70,000 men to transport the materials and 80,000 stonecutters to quarry, carve, and dress stone from the mountains. ¹⁶ These numbers do not include Solomon’s 3,300^[a] agents who were head administrators over the project and the workers. ¹⁷ The king gave instructions, and the workers laid the giant, expensive stones to form the foundation of the temple. ¹⁸ Both Solomon’s construction workers and Hiram’s skilled workers, along with the Gebalites, cut the materials to make the timber and stones ready for the temple.

²¹ And the Spirit makes it possible to submit humbly to one another out of respect for the Anointed. ²² Wives, it should be no different with your husbands. Submit to them as you do to the Lord, ²³ for God has given husbands a sacred duty to lead as the Anointed leads the church and serves as the head. (The church is His body; He is her Savior.) ²⁴ So wives should submit to their husbands, respectfully, in all things, just as the church yields to the Anointed One.

^25-26 Husbands, you must love your wives so deeply, purely, and sacrificially that we can understand it only when we compare it to the love the Anointed One has for His bride, the church. We know He gave Himself up completely to make her His own, washing her clean of all her impurity with water and the powerful presence of His word. ²⁷ He has given Himself so that He can present the church as His radiant bride, unstained, unwrinkled, and unblemished—completely free from all impurity—holy and innocent before Him. ²⁸ So husbands should care for their wives as if their lives depended on it, the same way they care for their own bodies. As you love her, you ultimately are loving part of yourself (remember, you are one flesh). ²⁹ No one really hates his own body; he takes care to feed and love it, just as the Anointed takes care of His church, ³⁰ because we are living members of His body. ³¹ “And this is the reason a man leaves his father and his mother and is united with his wife; the two come together as one flesh.”^{[a] 32} There is a great mystery reflected in this Scripture, and I say that it has to do with the marriage of the Anointed One and the church. ³³ Nevertheless, each husband is to love and protect his own wife as if she were his very heart, and each wife is to respect her own husband.

6 Now to you, children, obey your parents in the Lord because this is right in God’s eyes. ² This is the first commandment onto which He added a promise: “Honor your father and your mother, and ³ if you do, you will live long and well in this land.”^[b]

⁴ And, fathers, do not drive your children mad, but nurture them in the discipline and teaching that come from the Lord.

⁵ Slaves, respect and fear your earthly masters. Obey and serve them with the same sincerity of heart as you serve the Anointed One. ⁶ Don’t put on a show just because they are looking (as if you were a people pleaser); but as a slave of the Anointed, do the will of God from your heart. ⁷ Serve them in good faith as if you were serving the Lord, not men, ⁸ because all good deeds are gifted back from the Lord, and they are yours whether you are a slave or not.

⁹ Masters, hear this: act in kind to your slaves. Stop terrorizing and threatening them. Don’t forget that you have a Master in heaven who does not take sides or pick favorites.