Book of Common Prayer
Rescued by God’s power
17 But you, my beloved ones, remember the words that were spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus the Messiah. 18 “In the last time,” they said to you, “there will be scornful people who follow their own ungodly desires.” 19 These are the people who cause divisions. They are living on the merely human level; they do not have the spirit. 20 But you, beloved ones, build yourselves up in your most holy faith. Pray in the holy spirit. 21 Keep yourselves in the love of God, as you wait for our Lord Jesus the Messiah to show you the mercy which leads to the life of the age to come.
22 With some people who are wavering, you must show mercy. 23 Some you must rescue, snatching them from the fire. To others you must show mercy, but with fear, hating even the clothes that have been defiled by the flesh.
24 Now to the one who is able to keep you standing upright, and to present you before his glory, undefiled and joyful— 25 to the one and only God, our savior through Jesus the Messiah our Lord, be glory, majesty, power and authority before all the ages, and now, and to all the ages to come. Amen.
The preaching of John the Baptist
3 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate was governor of Judaea, Herod was tetrarch of Galilee; his brother Philip was tetrarch of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene. 2 Annas and Caiaphas were the high priests.
At that time, the word of God came to John, the son of Zechariah, in the wilderness. 3 He went through all the region of the Jordan, announcing a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 4 This is what is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet:
A voice shouting in the wilderness:
get ready a path for the Lord,
make the roads straight for him!
5 Every valley shall be filled in,
and every mountain and hill shall be flattened,
the twisted paths will be straightened out,
and the rough roads smoothed off,
6 and all that lives shall see God’s rescue.
7 “You brood of vipers,” John used to say to the crowds who came out to be baptized by him. “Who told you to escape from the coming anger? 8 You’d better prove your repentance by bearing the proper fruit! Don’t start saying to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father’; let me tell you, God can raise up children for Abraham from these stones! 9 The axe is already standing by the roots of the tree—so every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.”
Scripture quotations from The New Testament for Everyone are copyright © Nicholas Thomas Wright 2011, 2018, 2019.