Lectionary 23, Year C

¹⁵ Behold, I have set before you today life and prosperity, and death and evil. ¹⁶ For I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in his ways and to keep his commandments, his statutes, and his ordinances, that you may live and multiply, and that the LORD your God may bless you in the land where you go in to possess it. ¹⁷ But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away and worship other gods, and serve them, ¹⁸ I declare to you today that you will surely perish. You will not prolong your days in the land where you pass over the Jordan to go in to possess it. ¹⁹ I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Therefore choose life, that you may live, you and your descendants, ²⁰ to love the LORD your God, to obey his voice, and to cling to him; for he is your life, and the length of your days, that you may dwell in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.

¹ Blessed is the man who doesn’t walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand on the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers; ² but his delight is in the LORD’s law. On his law he meditates day and night. ³ He will be like a tree planted by the streams of water, that produces its fruit in its season, whose leaf also does not wither. Whatever he does shall prosper. ⁴ The wicked are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind drives away. ⁵ Therefore the wicked shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. ⁶ For the LORD knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked shall perish.

¹ Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, to Philemon, our beloved fellow worker, ² to the beloved Apphia, to Archippus our fellow soldier, and to the assembly in your house: ³ Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. ⁴ I thank my God always, making mention of you in my prayers, ⁵ hearing of your love and of the faith which you have toward the Lord Jesus, and toward all the saints, ⁶ that the fellowship of your faith may become effective in the knowledge of every good thing which is in us in Christ Jesus. ⁷ For we have much joy and comfort in your love, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you, brother. ⁸ Therefore though I have all boldness in Christ to command you that which is appropriate, ⁹ yet for love’s sake I rather beg, being such a one as Paul, the aged, but also a prisoner of Jesus Christ. ¹⁰ I beg you for my child, whom I have become the father of in my chains, Onesimus, ¹¹ who once was useless to you, but now is useful to you and to me. ¹² I am sending him back. Therefore receive him, that is, my own heart, ¹³ whom I desired to keep with me, that on your behalf he might serve me in my chains for the Good News. ¹⁴ But I was willing to do nothing without your consent, that your goodness would not be as of necessity, but of free will. ¹⁵ For perhaps he was therefore separated from you for a while, that you would have him forever, ¹⁶ no longer as a slave, but more than a slave, a beloved brother, especially to me, but how much rather to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord. ¹⁷ If then you count me a partner, receive him as you would receive me. ¹⁸ But if he has wronged you at all or owes you anything, put that to my account. ¹⁹ I, Paul, write this with my own hand: I will repay it (not to mention to you that you owe to me even your own self besides). ²⁰ Yes, brother, let me have joy from you in the Lord. Refresh my heart in the Lord. ²¹ Having confidence in your obedience, I write to you, knowing that you will do even beyond what I say.