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Judah’s Song of Victory

26On that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah:
We have a strong city;
   he sets up victory
   like walls and bulwarks.
² Open the gates,
   so that the righteous nation that keeps faith
   may enter in.
³ Those of steadfast mind you keep in peace—
   in peace because they trust in you.
⁴ Trust in the Lord for ever,
   for in the Lord God ^*
   you have an everlasting rock.
⁵ For he has brought low
   the inhabitants of the height;
   the lofty city he lays low.
He lays it low to the ground,
   casts it to the dust.
⁶ The foot tramples it,
   the feet of the poor,
   the steps of the needy.

⁷ The way of the righteous is level;
   O Just One, you make smooth the path of the righteous.
⁸ In the path of your judgements,
   O Lord, we wait for you;
your name and your renown
   are the soul’s desire.
⁹ My soul yearns for you in the night,
   my spirit within me earnestly seeks you.
For when your judgements are in the earth,
   the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.

16 From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view;^* even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view,^* we know him no longer in that way. ¹⁷So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! ¹⁸All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; ¹⁹that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself,^* not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. ²⁰So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. ²¹For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

6As we work together with him,^* we urge you also not to accept the grace of God in vain. ²For he says,
‘At an acceptable time I have listened to you,
   and on a day of salvation I have helped you.’
See, now is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation!

Jesus the Light of the World

12 Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.’ ¹³Then the Pharisees said to him, ‘You are testifying on your own behalf; your testimony is not valid.’ ¹⁴Jesus answered, ‘Even if I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is valid because I know where I have come from and where I am going, but you do not know where I come from or where I am going. ¹⁵You judge by human standards;^* I judge no one. ¹⁶Yet even if I do judge, my judgement is valid; for it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father^* who sent me. ¹⁷In your law it is written that the testimony of two witnesses is valid. ¹⁸I testify on my own behalf, and the Father who sent me testifies on my behalf.’ ¹⁹Then they said to him, ‘Where is your Father?’ Jesus answered, ‘You know neither me nor my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father also.’