Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

13 Keep on loving your Christian brothers.

² Take strangers to your home and care for them. Some people who have done this found out the strangers were angels.

³ Remember those who are in prison as if you were in prison with them. And remember those who are having troubles, as if you were having the same troubles.

⁴ Everyone must respect marriage. And the bed must be kept clean. God will punish those who use their bodies for wrong sex.

⁵ Do not let the love of money control your life. Be satisfied with what you have. God himself has said, `I will never be away from you. I will never leave you alone.'

⁶ So we can be strong and say, `The Lord will help me. I will not be afraid. What can men do to me?'

⁷ Remember your leaders. They have told you the word of God. Think about the way they lived and died, and keep on believing as they did.

⁸ Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and for ever.

⁹ Do not listen to all kinds of different teaching and strange things. It is better to have a heart that is strong because of God's blessing than a heart that is thinking about different kinds of food. Different kinds of food do not help people who put their trust in them.

¹⁰ We have a sacrifice. But priests who serve God on earth have no right to eat from this sacrifice.

¹¹ The high priest takes into the Most Holy Place the blood of animals that are sacrificed. He gives it to God to pay for the wrong things people have done. The bodies of these animals are burned outside the town.

¹² So also Jesus was put to death outside the town. Then he could make the people holy by his own blood.

¹³ So let us go to him outside the town and take the shame as he did.

¹⁴ Here we do not have a city that will last for ever, but we are looking for the city that will come.

¹⁵ Let us always give a sacrifice of praise to God through Jesus. We do it by thanking him for all that he has done and also by talking about him. That is the sacrifice we make with our lips to his name.

¹⁶ But do not forget to do good things for people, and to give what you have to those who need it. These are sacrifices that please God.