Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

A song to sing as we climb.

¹⁰ So listen to me, my child, and accept my teaching. If you do, the years of your life will be many.

¹¹ I am teaching you to be wise, so that you will know the right way to live. ¹² As you walk through life, nothing will stop you. Even when you run, you will not fall.

¹³ Keep hold of my teaching. Do not forget it. Keep it safe because it will give you a good life.

¹⁴ Do not join with wicked or evil people. Do not do the things that they do. ¹⁵ Keep away from them! Be sure to keep to your own good way of life.

¹⁶ Wicked people have to do evil things. They cannot go to sleep unless they have been cruel to someone that day. ¹⁷ Evil acts are their food. Violence is their drink.

¹⁸ The life of righteous people is like the sun at dawn. It gets brighter and brighter until midday. ¹⁹ But the life of wicked people is like a very dark road. They cannot even see what causes them to fall.

²⁰ My child, listen carefully to my teaching and to everything that I tell you. ²¹ Never forget my words. Keep them safe in your mind. ²² They will give true life to anyone who takes hold of them. They will give health to your whole body.

²³ Be very careful to keep your mind safe. The thoughts that you think make you the person that you are.

²⁴ Never tell lies or try to deceive other people.

²⁵ Look straight in front of you to see clearly where you are going. ²⁶ Decide carefully where you are going in life. Then you will be on a good, safe path. ²⁷ Do not walk off your path, to the right side or the left side. Keep away from everything that is evil.

¹² The Gentiles do not have God's Law that he gave to Moses.^[a] If Gentiles do wrong things, God will punish them. But he will not use his Law when he judges the Gentiles. But the Jews do have God's Law. So, if Jews do wrong things, God will use his Law to judge them. The Law will show that they have done wrong things. ¹³ Who does God accept as right with himself? It is those people who obey his Law. It is not the people who only know his Law but do not obey them.

¹⁴ The Gentiles do not have God's Law. But they may still do the right things that the Law teaches. They do right things because of what they themselves think is right. In that way they are showing that they have a certain law in their minds, even though they do not know God's Law. ¹⁵ Those people show that they know what is right. It is as if God has written his Law deep inside them. Their thoughts tell them the difference between what is right and what is wrong. Sometimes their thoughts say: ‘You did something that is wrong.’ And sometimes their thoughts say: ‘You did what is right.’

¹⁶ That is the message that I tell people. God knows everything that people think secretly. One day he will judge everyone. He has given Jesus Christ the authority to do that.