Book of Common Prayer
The weak and the strong
14 Welcome someone who is weak in faith, but not in order to have disputes on difficult points. 2 One person believes it is all right to eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. 3 The one who eats should not despise the one who doesn’t, and the one who doesn’t should not condemn the one who does—because God has welcomed them.
4 Who do you think you are to judge someone else’s servants? They stand or fall before their own master. And stand they will, because the master can make them stand.
5 One person reckons one day more important than another. Someone else regards all days as equally important. Each person must make up their own mind. 6 The one who celebrates the day does so in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, does so in honor of the Lord, and gives thanks to God; the one who does not eat abstains in honor of the Lord, and gives thanks to God.
The final judgment is the only one that counts
7 We none of us live to ourselves; we none of us die to ourselves. 8 If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, then, whether we live or whether we die, we belong to the Lord. 9 That is why the Messiah died and came back to life, so that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.
10 You, then: why do you condemn your fellow Christian? Or you: why do you despise a fellow Christian? We must all appear before the judgment seat of God, 11 as the Bible says:
As I live, says the Lord, to me every knee shall bow,
and every tongue shall give praise to God.
12 So then, we must each give an account of ourselves to God.
Jesus is arrested
47 While Jesus was still speaking, there was Judas, one of the Twelve. He had come with a large crowd, with swords and clubs, from the chief priests and the elders of the people. 48 The one who was intending to betray him gave them a sign: “The one I kiss—that’s him! Grab hold of him!”
49 So he went up at once to Jesus and said “Greetings, Teacher!” and kissed him.
50 “My friend,” said Jesus, “what have you come to do?”
Then they came and laid hands on Jesus, and arrested him.
51 At that, one of the men with Jesus reached out his hand, drew his sword and hit the high priest’s slave, cutting off his ear.
52 “Put your sword back where it belongs!” said Jesus to him. “People who use the sword die by the sword! 53 Don’t you realize that I could call on my father and have him send me more than twelve legions of angels, just like that? 54 But how then can the Bible come true when it says this has to happen?”
55 At that time Jesus said to the crowds, “Have you really come out with swords and sticks to arrest me, as if I were some kind of brigand? I sat there teaching in the Temple every day, and you didn’t lay hands on me! 56 But all this has happened so that the writings of the prophets would be fulfilled.”
Then all the disciples abandoned him and ran away.
Scripture quotations from The New Testament for Everyone are copyright © Nicholas Thomas Wright 2011, 2018, 2019.