Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Thanksgiving for the gospel’s work
1 Paul, an apostle of Messiah Jesus by God’s purpose, and Timothy my brother; 2 to God’s holy people in Colossae, the Messiah’s faithful family; grace to you and peace, from God our father.
3 We always thank God, the father of our Lord, Messiah Jesus, when we pray for you, 4 because we’ve heard of your faith in Messiah Jesus and the love you have for all God’s holy people, 5 because of the hope which is kept safe for you in the heavenly places. You heard about this before in the word of truth, the gospel 6 which has arrived on your doorstep—just as, in fact, it’s producing fruit and growing in all the world, as it has been among you, from the day you heard it and came to know the grace of God in truth. 7 That’s how you learnt it from Epaphras our beloved fellow slave. He’s a loyal and faithful servant of the Messiah on your behalf. 8 He it was who gave us the news about your love in the spirit.
Prayer for wisdom and gratitude
9 For this reason, from the day we heard it, we haven’t stopped praying for you. We’re asking God to fill you with the knowledge of what he wants in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. 10 This will mean that you’ll be able to conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the Lord, and so give him real delight, as you bear fruit in every good work and grow up in the knowledge of God. 11 I pray that you’ll be given all possible strength, according to the power of his glory, so that you’ll have complete patience and become truly steadfast and joyful.
12 And I pray that you will learn to give thanks to the father, who has made you fit to share the inheritance of God’s holy ones in the light. 13 He has delivered us from the power of darkness, and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved son. 14 He is the one in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
The parable of the good Samaritan
25 A lawyer got up and put Jesus on the spot.
“Teacher,” he said, “what should I do to inherit the life of the coming age?”
26 “Well,” replied Jesus, “what is written in the law? What’s your interpretation of it?”
27 “You shall love the Lord your God,” he replied, “with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your understanding; and your neighbor as yourself.”
28 “Well said!” replied Jesus. “Do that and you will live.”
29 “Ah,” said the lawyer, wanting to win the point, “but who is my neighbor?”
30 Jesus rose to the challenge. “Once upon a time,” he said, “a man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and was set upon by brigands. They stripped him and beat him and ran off leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down that road, and when he saw him he went past on the opposite side. 32 So too a Levite came by the place; he saw him too, and went past on the opposite side.
33 “But a traveling Samaritan came to where he was. When he saw him he was filled with pity. 34 He came over to him and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine. Then he put him on his own beast, took him to an inn, and looked after him. 35 The next morning, as he was going on his way, he gave the innkeeper two dinars. ‘Take care of him,’ he said, ‘and on my way back I’ll pay you whatever else you need to spend on him.’
36 “Which of these three do you think turned out to be the neighbor of the man who was set upon by the brigands?”
37 “The one who showed mercy on him,” came the reply.
“Well,” Jesus said to him, “you go and do the same.”
Scripture quotations from The New Testament for Everyone are copyright © Nicholas Thomas Wright 2011, 2018, 2019.