Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Unity in everything
2 So if our shared life in the Messiah brings you any comfort; if love still has the power to make you cheerful; if we really do have a partnership in the spirit; if your hearts are at all moved with affection and sympathy— 2 then make my joy complete! Bring your thinking into line with one another.
Here’s how to do it. Hold on to the same love; bring your innermost lives into harmony; fix your minds on the same object. 3 Never act out of selfish ambition or vanity; instead, regard everybody else as your superior. 4 Look after each other’s best interests, not your own.
The mind of the Messiah
5 This is how you should think among yourselves—with the mind that you have because you belong to the Messiah, Jesus:
6 Who, though in God’s form, did not
regard his equality with God
as something he ought to exploit.
7 Instead, he emptied himself,
and received the form of a slave,
being born in the likeness of humans.
And then, having human appearance,
8 he humbled himself, and became
obedient even to death,
yes, even the death of the cross.
9 And so God has greatly exalted him,
and to him in his favor has given
the name which is over all names:
10 That now at the name of Jesus
every knee within heaven shall bow—
on earth, too, and under the earth;
11 And every tongue shall confess
that Jesus, Messiah, is Lord,
to the glory of God, the father.
How salvation is worked out
12 So, my dear people: you always did what I said, so please now carry on in the same way, not just as though I was there with you, but much more because I’m not! Your task now is to work at bringing about your own salvation; and naturally you’ll be taking this with utter seriousness. 13 After all, God himself is the one who’s at work among you, who provides both the will and the energy to enable you to do what pleases him.
The question about John
23 Jesus went into the Temple. As he was teaching, the chief priests and the elders of the people came up to him.
“By what right are you doing these things?” they asked him. “Who gave you this right?”
24 “I’m going to ask you one question, too,” replied Jesus, “and if you tell me the answer then I’ll tell you by what right I’m doing these things. 25 Where did John’s baptism come from? Was it from heaven, or from this world?”
They debated this among themselves. “If we say ‘from heaven,’ ” they said, “he’s going to say to us, ‘So why didn’t you believe him?’ 26 But if we say ‘from this world,’ we’ll have to watch out for the crowd, because they all reckon that John was a prophet.”
27 So they answered Jesus, “We don’t know.”
“Well, then,” said Jesus, “nor will I tell you by what right I’m doing these things.
28 “What d’you think?” he went on. “Once upon a time there was a man who had two sons.
“He went to the first one and said, ‘Now then, my boy, off you go and do a day’s work in the vineyard.’
29 “ ‘Don’t want to,’ replied the son; but afterwards he thought better of it and went.
30 “He went to the other son and said the same thing.
“ ‘Certainly, Master,’ he said; but he didn’t go.
31 “So which of the two did what his father wanted?”
“The first,” they answered.
“I’m telling you the truth,” Jesus said to them. “The tax-collectors and prostitutes are going into God’s kingdom ahead of you! 32 Yes: John came to you, in accordance with God’s righteous covenant plan, and you didn’t believe him—but the tax-collectors and prostitutes believed him. But when you saw it, you didn’t think better of it afterwards and believe him.”
Scripture quotations from The New Testament for Everyone are copyright © Nicholas Thomas Wright 2011, 2018, 2019.