Book of Common Prayer
Living in a pagan world
11 My beloved ones, I beg you—strangers and resident aliens as you are—to hold back from the fleshly desires that wage war against your true lives. 12 Keep up good conduct among the pagans, so that when they speak against you as evildoers they will observe your good deeds and praise God on the day of his royal arrival.
13 Be subject to every human institution, for the sake of the Lord: whether to the emperor as supreme, 14 or to governors as sent by him to punish evildoers and praise those who do good. 15 This, you see, is God’s will. He wants you to behave well and so to silence foolish and ignorant people. 16 Live as free people (though don’t use your freedom as a veil to hide evil!), but as slaves of God. 17 Do honor to all people; love the family; reverence God; honor the emperor.
Suffering as the Messiah did
18 Let slaves obey their masters with all respect, not only the good and kind ones but also the unkind ones. 19 It is to your credit, you see, if because of a godly conscience you put up with unjust and painful suffering. 20 After all, what credit is it if you do something wrong, are beaten for it, and take it patiently? But if you do what is right, suffer for it, and bear it patiently, this is to your credit before God.
21 This, after all, is what came with the terms of your call, because
the Messiah, too, suffered on your behalf,
leaving behind a pattern for you
so that you should follow the way he walked.
22 He committed no sin,
nor was there any deceit in his mouth.
23 When he was insulted, he didn’t insult in return,
when he suffered, he didn’t threaten,
but he gave himself up to the one who judges justly.
24 He himself bore our sins
in his body on the cross,
so that we might be free from sins
and live for righteousness.
It is by his wound that you are healed.
25 For you were going astray like sheep,
but now you have returned to the shepherd
and guardian of your true lives.
The workers in the vineyard
20 “So you see,” Jesus continued, “the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. 2 He agreed with the workers to give them a dinar a day, and sent them off to his vineyard.
3 “He went out again in the middle of the morning, and saw some others standing in the market-place with nothing to do.
4 “ ‘You too can go to the vineyard,’ he said, ‘and I’ll give you what’s right.’ 5 So off they went.
“He went out again about midday, and then in the middle of the afternoon, and did the same. 6 Then, with only an hour of the day left, he went out and found other people standing there.
“ ‘Why are you standing here all day with nothing to do?’ he asked them.
7 “ ‘Because no one has hired us,’ they replied. “ ‘Well,’ he said, ‘you too can go into the vineyard.’
8 “When evening came, the vineyard-owner said to his servant, ‘Call the workers and give them their pay. Start with the last, and go on to the first.’
9 “So the ones who had worked for one hour came, and each of them received a dinar. 10 When the first ones came, they thought they would get something more; but they, too, each received a dinar.
11 “When they had been given it, they grumbled against the landowner. 12 ‘This lot who came in last,’ they said, ‘have only worked for one hour—and they’ve been put on a level with us! And we did all the hard work, all day, and in the heat as well!’
13 “ ‘My friend,’ he said to one of them, ‘I’m not doing you any wrong. You agreed with me on one dinar, didn’t you? 14 Take it! It’s yours! And be on your way. I want to give this fellow who came at the end the same as you. 15 Or are you suggesting that I’m not allowed to do what I like with my own money? Or are you giving me the evil eye because I’m good?’
16 “So those at the back will be at the front, and the front ones at the back.”
Scripture quotations from The New Testament for Everyone are copyright © Nicholas Thomas Wright 2011, 2018, 2019.