Book of Common Prayer
The practical life of God’s people
13 Let the family continue to care for one another. 2 Don’t forget to be hospitable; by that means, some people have entertained angels without realizing it. 3 Remember people in prison, as though you were in prison with them. When you think of people who are having a difficult time, remember that you too live in a frail body.
4 Let marriage be honored by everyone; let the marriage bed remain undefiled. God will judge those who misbehave sexually or commit adultery.
5 Keep your life free from love of money; be content with what you have. He himself has said, after all, “I will never, ever, leave you or forsake you.” 6 That’s why we can be cheerfully confident, and say, “The Lord is helping me; I’m not going to be afraid; what can anyone do to me?”
7 Remember your leaders, who spoke God’s word to you. Look carefully at how their lives reached their goal, and imitate their faith. 8 Jesus the Messiah is the same, yesterday, today and forever.
Outside the old city, seeking the new
9 Don’t let yourselves be carried off by strange teachings of whatever sort. The heart needs to be strengthened by grace, you see, not by rules about what to eat, which don’t do any good to those who observe them.
10 We have an altar from which those who minister in the Tabernacle are not allowed to eat. 11 For the bodies of the animals whose blood is taken into the sanctuary by the high priest as a sin-offering are burned outside the camp. 12 That’s why Jesus too suffered outside the gate, so that he might make the people holy with his own blood. 13 So, then, let’s go out to him, outside the camp, bearing his shame. 14 Here, you see, we have no city that lasts; we are looking for the one that is still to come.
15 Our part, then, is this: to bring, through him, a continual sacrifice of praise to God—that is, lips that confess his name, and do so fruitfully. 16 Don’t neglect to do good, and to let “fellowship” mean what it says. God really enjoys sacrifices of that kind!
37 On the last day of the festival, the great final celebration, Jesus stood up and shouted out, “If anybody’s thirsty, they should come to me and have a drink! 38 Anyone who believes in me will have rivers of living water flowing out of their heart, just like the Bible says!”
39 He said this about the spirit, which people who believed in him were to receive. The spirit wasn’t available yet, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
Where does the Messiah come from?
40 When they heard these words, some people in the crowd said, “This man really is ‘the Prophet’!”
41 “He’s the Messiah!” said some others.
But some of them replied, “The Messiah doesn’t come from Galilee, does he? 42 Doesn’t the Bible say that the Messiah is descended from David, and comes from Bethlehem, the city where David was?”
43 So there was a division in the crowd because of him. 44 Some of them wanted to arrest him, but nobody laid hands on him.
45 So the servants went back to the chief priests and the Pharisees.
“Why didn’t you get him?” they asked.
46 “No man ever spoke like this!” the servants replied.
47 “You don’t mean to say you’ve been taken in too?” answered the Pharisees. 48 “None of the rulers or the Pharisees have believed in him, have they? 49 But this rabble that doesn’t know the law—a curse on them!”
50 Nicodemus, who went to Jesus earlier, and who was one of their own number, spoke up.
51 “Our law doesn’t condemn a man, does it, unless first you hear his side of the story and find out what he’s doing?”
52 “Oh, so you’re from Galilee too, are you?” they answered him. “Check it out and see! No prophet ever rises up from Galilee!”
Scripture quotations from The New Testament for Everyone are copyright © Nicholas Thomas Wright 2011, 2018, 2019.