Prayer for Mercy
15 nLook down from heaven and see,
from your holy and beautiful1 habitation.
Where are your zeal and your might?
The stirring of your inner parts and your compassion
are held back from me.
16 For you are our Father,
though Abraham does not know us,
and Israel does not acknowledge us;
you, O Lord, are our Father,
our Redeemer from of old is your name.
17 O Lord, why do you make us wander from your ways
and oharden our heart, so that we fear you not?
Return for the sake of your servants,
the tribes of your heritage.
18 Your holy people held possession for a little while;2
our adversaries have trampled down your sanctuary.
19 We have become like those over whom you have never ruled,
like those who are not called by your name.
1 Oh that you would rend the heavens and pcome down,
that the mountains might quake at your presence—
2 3 as when fire kindles brushwood
and the fire causes water to boil—
to make your name known to your adversaries,
and that the nations might tremble at your presence!
3 When you did awesome things that we did not look for,
you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence.
4 From of old qno one has heard
or perceived by the ear,
no eye has seen a God besides you,
who acts for those who wait for him.
5 You meet him who joyfully works righteousness,
those who remember you in your ways.
Behold, you were angry, and we sinned;
in our sins we have been a long time, and shall we be saved?4
6 We have all become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.
We all fade like a leaf,
and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
7 There is no one who calls upon your name,
who rouses himself to take hold of you;
for you have rhidden your face from us,
and have made us melt in5 the hand of our iniquities.
8 But now, O Lord, you are our sFather;
we are the tclay, and you are our potter;
we are all the work of your hand.
9 Be not so uterribly angry, O Lord,
and vremember not iniquity forever.
Behold, please look, we are all your people.
Qualifications for Overseers
1 bThe saying is trustworthy: cIf anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. 2 Therefore an doverseer1 must be above reproach, ethe husband of one wife,2 sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, 3 not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. 4 He must fmanage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, 5 for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, ghow will he care for God’s church? 6 He must not be a recent convert, or he may become hpuffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil. 7 Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a isnare of the devil.
Qualifications for Deacons
8 jDeacons likewise must be dignified, not double-tongued,3 not addicted to much wine, not greedy for dishonest gain. 9 They must khold the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience. 10 And llet them also be tested first; then let them serve as deacons if they prove themselves blameless. 11 Their wives likewise4 must be dignified, not slanderers, but sober-minded, faithful in all things. 12 Let deacons each be mthe husband of one wife, managing their children and their own households well. 13 For those who serve well as deacons gain a good standing for themselves and also great nconfidence in the faith that is in Christ Jesus.
The Mystery of Godliness
14 oI hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these things to you so that, 15 if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the phousehold of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth. 16 Great indeed, we qconfess, is the mystery of godliness:
He5 was rmanifested sin the flesh,
seen by uangels,
vproclaimed among the nations,
believed on in the world,
wtaken up in glory.
The Authority of Jesus Challenged
27 jAnd they came again to Jerusalem. And as he was walking in the temple, the chief priests and the scribes and the elders came to him, 28 and they said to him, “By what kauthority are you doing these things, or who gave you this authority to do them?” 29 Jesus said to them, “I will ask you one question; answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things. 30 Was the baptism of John from heaven or from man? Answer me.” 31 And they discussed it with one another, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ‘Why then did you lnot believe him?’ 32 But shall we say, ‘From man’?”—they were afraid of the people, for they all held that John really was a mprophet. 33 So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” And Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”
The Parable of the Tenants
1 nAnd he began to speak to them in parables. o“A man planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a pit for the winepress and built a tower, and leased it to tenants and pwent into another country. 2 When the season came, he sent a servant1 to the tenants to get from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. 3 And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. 4 Again he sent to them another servant, and they struck him on the head and treated him shamefully. 5 And he sent another, and him they qkilled. And so with many others: some they beat, and some they killed. 6 He had still one other, a rbeloved son. sFinally he sent him to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 7 But those tenants said to one another, ‘This is the their. Come, let us ukill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ 8 And they took him and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard. 9 What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the tenants and vgive the vineyard to others. 10 Have you not read this Scripture:
w“‘The stone that the builders rejected
11 this was the Lord’s doing,
and it is marvelous in our eyes’?”
12 And they were seeking to arrest him but feared the people, for they perceived that he had told the parable against them. So they left him and went away.
