One Year Bible.

Create in Me a Clean Heart, O God

¹For the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. When Nathan the prophet came to him after his adultery with Bathsheba.

Have mercy on me, O God,

according to Your loving devotion;

according to Your great compassion,

blot out my transgressions.

²Wash me clean of my iniquity

and cleanse me from my sin.

³For I know my transgressions,

and my sin is always before me.

⁴Against You, You only, have I sinned

and done what is evil in Your sight,

so that You may be proved right when You speak

and blameless when You judge.

⁵Surely I was brought forth in iniquity;

I was sinful when my mother conceived me.

⁶Surely You desire truth in the inmost being;

You teach me wisdom in the inmost place.

⁷Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean;

wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.

⁸Let me hear joy and gladness;

let the bones You have crushed rejoice.

⁹Hide Your face from my sins

and blot out all my iniquities.

¹⁰Create in me a clean heart, O God,

and renew a right spirit within me.

¹¹Cast me not away from Your presence;

take not Your Holy Spirit from me.

¹²Restore to me the joy of Your salvation,

and sustain me with a willing spirit.

¹³Then I will teach transgressors Your ways,

and sinners will return to You.

¹⁴Deliver me from bloodguilt, O God,

the God of my salvation,

and my tongue will sing of Your righteousness.

¹⁵O Lord, open my lips,

and my mouth will declare Your praise.

¹⁶For You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;

You take no pleasure in burnt offerings.

¹⁷The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;

a broken and a contrite heart,

O God, You will not despise.

¹⁸In Your good pleasure, cause Zion to prosper;

build up the walls of Jerusalem.

¹⁹Then You will delight in righteous sacrifices,

in whole burnt offerings;

then bulls will be offered on Your altar.

Woes to Scribes and Pharisees

¹Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to His disciples: ²“The scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. ³So practice and observe everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. ⁴They tie up heavy, burdensome loads and lay them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.

⁵All their deeds are done for men to see. They broaden their phylacteries and lengthen their tassels. ⁶They love the places of honor at banquets, the chief seats in the synagogues, ⁷the greetings in the marketplaces, and the title of ‘Rabbi’ by which they are addressed.

⁸But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have one Teacher, and you are all brothers. ⁹And do not call anyone on earth your father, for you have one Father, who is in heaven. ¹⁰Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one Instructor, the Christ. ¹¹The greatest among you shall be your servant. ¹²For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

¹³Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let in those who wish to enter.

¹⁵Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You traverse land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are.

¹⁶Woe to you, blind guides! You say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.’ ¹⁷You blind fools! Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes it sacred? ¹⁸And you say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gift on it, he is bound by his oath.’ ¹⁹You blind men! Which is greater: the gift, or the altar that makes it sacred? ²⁰So then, he who swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. ²¹And he who swears by the temple swears by it and by the One who dwells in it. ²²And he who swears by heaven swears by God’s throne and by the One who sits on it.

²³Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You pay tithes of mint, dill, and cumin. But you have disregarded the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy, and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. ²⁴You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.

²⁵Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. ²⁶Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, so that the outside may become clean as well.

²⁷Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and every kind of impurity. ²⁸In the same way, on the outside you appear to be righteous, but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.

²⁹Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous. ³⁰And you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partners with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ ³¹So you testify against yourselves that you are the sons of those who murdered the prophets. ³²Fill up, then, the measure of the sin of your fathers. ³³You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape the sentence of hell?

³⁴Because of this, I am sending you prophets and wise men and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify, and others you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town. ³⁵And so upon you will come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. ³⁶Truly I tell you, all these things will come upon this generation.

Lament over Jerusalem

³⁷O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those sent to her, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were unwilling! ³⁸Look, your house is left to you desolate. ³⁹For I tell you that you will not see Me again until you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.’”

Love

¹If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a ringing gong or a clanging cymbal. ²If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have absolute faith so as to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. ³If I give all I possess to the poor and exult in the surrender of my body, but have not love, I gain nothing.

⁴Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no account of wrongs. ⁶Love takes no pleasure in evil, but rejoices in the truth. ⁷It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

⁸Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be restrained; where there is knowledge, it will be dismissed. ⁹For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰but when the perfect comes, the partial passes away.

¹¹When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I set aside childish ways. ¹²Now we see but a dim reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

¹³And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love; but the greatest of these is love.

Prophecy and Tongues

¹Earnestly pursue love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy. ²For he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men, but to God. Indeed, no one understands him; he utters mysteries in the Spirit. ³But he who prophesies speaks to men for their edification, encouragement, and comfort. ⁴The one who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but the one who prophesies edifies the church.

⁵I wish that all of you could speak in tongues, but I would rather have you prophesy. He who prophesies is greater than one who speaks in tongues, unless he interprets so that the church may be edified.

⁶Now, brothers, if I come to you speaking in tongues, how will I benefit you, unless I bring you some revelation or knowledge or prophecy or teaching? ⁷Even in the case of lifeless instruments, such as the flute or harp, how will anyone recognize the tune they are playing unless the notes are distinct? ⁸Again, if the trumpet sounds a muffled call, who will prepare for battle? ⁹So it is with you. Unless you speak intelligible words with your tongue, how will anyone know what you are saying? You will just be speaking into the air.

¹⁰Assuredly, there are many different languages in the world, yet none of them is without meaning. ¹¹If, then, I do not know the meaning of someone’s language, I am a foreigner to the speaker, and he is a foreigner to me.

¹²It is the same with you. Since you are eager to have spiritual gifts, strive to excel in gifts that build up the church. ¹³Therefore, the one who speaks in a tongue should pray that he may interpret. ¹⁴For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful.

¹⁵What then shall I do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my mind. I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my mind. ¹⁶Otherwise, if you speak a blessing in spirit, how can someone who is uninstructed say “Amen” to your thanksgiving, since he does not know what you are saying? ¹⁷You may be giving thanks well enough, but the other one is not edified.

¹⁸I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. ¹⁹But in the church, I would rather speak five coherent words to instruct others than ten thousand words in a tongue.

²⁰Brothers, stop thinking like children. In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be mature. ²¹It is written in the Law:

“By strange tongues and foreign lips

I will speak to this people,

but even then they will not listen to Me,

says the Lord.”

²²Tongues, then, are a sign, not for believers, but for unbelievers. Prophecy, however, is for believers, not for unbelievers.

²³So if the whole church comes together and everyone speaks in tongues, and some who are uninstructed or some unbelievers come in, will they not say that you are out of your minds? ²⁴But if an unbeliever or uninstructed person comes in while everyone is prophesying, he will be convicted and called to account by all, ²⁵and the secrets of his heart will be made known. So he will fall facedown and worship God, proclaiming, “God is truly among you!”

Orderly Worship

²⁶What then shall we say, brothers? When you come together, everyone has a psalm or a teaching, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. All of these must be done to build up the church.

²⁷If anyone speaks in a tongue, two, or at most three, should speak in turn, and someone must interpret. ²⁸But if there is no interpreter, he should remain silent in the church and speak only to himself and God.

²⁹Two or three prophets should speak, and the others should weigh carefully what is said. ³⁰And if a revelation comes to someone who is seated, the first speaker should stop. ³¹For you can all prophesy in turn so that everyone may be instructed and encouraged. ³²The spirits of prophets are subject to prophets. ³³For God is not a God of disorder, but of peace— as in all the churches of the saints.

³⁴Women are to be silent in the churches. They are not permitted to speak, but must be in submission, as the law says. ³⁵If they wish to inquire about something, they are to ask their own husbands at home; for it is dishonorable for a woman to speak in the church.

³⁶Did the word of God originate with you? Or are you the only ones it has reached? ³⁷If anyone considers himself a prophet or spiritual person, let him acknowledge that what I am writing you is the Lord’s command. ³⁸But if anyone ignores this, he himself will be ignored.

³⁹So, my brothers, be eager to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues. ⁴⁰But everything must be done in a proper and orderly manner.