How then shall we live

How then shall we live, and what then should we do?

If someone has none, then give one of your two.

Take nothing by force; do not threaten or goad.

Collect nothing more than what your work is owed,

 

How then shall we live, and what then shall we do?

Bear fruit of repentance; give God what is due.

Claim not to inherit some virtue or worth,

But make your heart open for godly new birth.

 

How then shall we live, and what then shall we do?

Rejoice in the Lord and rejoice again too.

Let gentleness from your example be clear,

And know in all truth that the Lord now is near.

 

How then shall we live, and what then shall we do?

Give nothing to worry, but hold what is true: 

That God who surpasses all that we can know

Will guard heart and mind as in Jesus we grow.

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, January 2021, after Luke 3:7-18 and Philippians 4:4-7 

(Advent 3C)

MUSIC: Tune CRADLE SONG, William James Kirkpatrick, 1895

 

Part of the Advent Hymnary project