Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
22 Then Paul stood in the middle of the Areopagus, and said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious. 23 For as I passed by and looked up at your objects of worship, I found an altar with this inscription:
TO THE UNKNOWN GOD.
Whom you therefore unknowingly worship, Him I proclaim to you.
24 “God who made the world and all things in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by hands. 25 Nor is He served by men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives all men life and breath and all things. 26 He has made from one blood every nation of men to live on the entire face of the earth, having appointed fixed times and the boundaries of their habitation, 27 that they should seek the Lord so perhaps they might reach for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us. 28 ‘For in Him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are His offspring.’
29 “Therefore since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to suppose that the Deity is like gold or silver or stone or an engraved work of art or an image of the reflection of man. 30 God overlooked the times of ignorance, but now He commands all men everywhere to repent. 31 For He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by a Man whom He has appointed, having given assurance of this to all men by raising Him from the dead.”
8 Oh, bless our God, you people,
and make the voice of His praise to be heard,
9 who keeps our soul among the living,
and does not allow our feet to slip.
10 For You, O God, have proved us;
You have refined us, as silver is refined.
11 You brought us into the net;
You placed distress on our backs.
12 You have allowed people to ride over our heads;
we went through fire and through water;
but You brought us out into a well-watered place.
13 I will go into Your house with burnt offerings;
I will fulfill my vows to You,
14 which my lips have uttered,
and my mouth spoke when I was in trouble.
15 I will offer You burnt sacrifices of fat animals,
with the incense of rams;
I will offer bulls with goats. Selah
16 Come and hear, all you who fear God,
and I will declare what He has done for my soul.
17 I cried to Him with my mouth,
and He was extolled with my tongue.
18 If I regard iniquity in my heart,
the Lord will not hear me;
19 but certainly God has heard me;
He has attended to the voice of my prayer.
20 Blessed be God,
who has not turned away my prayer,
nor His mercy from me.
13 Who is he who will harm you if you follow that which is good? 14 But even if you suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed. “Do not be afraid of their terror, do not be troubled.”[a] 15 But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts. Always be ready to give an answer to every man who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you, with gentleness and fear. 16 Have a good conscience so that evildoers who speak evil of you and falsely accuse your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed. 17 For it is better, if it is the will of God, that you suffer for doing good than for doing evil. 18 For Christ also has once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive by the Spirit, 19 by whom He also went and preached to the spirits in prison, 20 who in times past were disobedient, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water. 21 Figuratively this is like baptism, which also saves us now. It is not washing off the dirt from the body, but a response to God from a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels and authorities and powers being made subject to Him.
The Promise of the Spirit
15 “If you love Me, keep My commandments. 16 I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Counselor, that He may be with you forever: 17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, for it does not see Him, neither does it know Him. But you know Him, for He lives with you, and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you fatherless. I will come to you. 19 Yet a little while and the world will see Me no more. But you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also. 20 On that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you are in Me, and I am in you. 21 He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father. And I will love him and will reveal Myself to him.”
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.