Book of Common Prayer
Warning signs on the wrong road
2 So where do you come into it all? Well, you were dead because of your offenses and sins! 2 That was the road you used to travel, keeping in step with this world’s “present age”; in step, too, with the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is, even now, at work among people whose whole lives consist of disobeying God. 3 Actually, that’s how all of us used to behave, conditioned by physical desires. We used to do what our flesh and our minds were urging us to do. What was the result? We too were subject to wrath in our natural state, just like everyone else.
4 But when it comes to mercy, God is rich! He had such great love for us that 5 he took us at the very point where we were dead through our offenses, and made us alive together with the Messiah (yes, you are saved by sheer grace!). 6 He raised us up with him, and made us sit with him—in the heavenly places, in Messiah Jesus! 7 This was so that in the ages to come he could show just how unbelievably rich his grace is, the kindness he has shown us in Messiah Jesus.
Grace, not works
8 How has this all come about? You have been saved by grace, through faith! This doesn’t happen on your own initiative; it’s God’s gift. 9 It isn’t on the basis of works, so no one is able to boast. 10 This is the explanation: God has made us what we are. God has created us in Messiah Jesus for the good works that he prepared, ahead of time, as the road we must travel.
29 They came out of the synagogue, and went at once (with James and John) into Simon and Andrew’s house. 30 Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told Jesus about her right away. 31 He went in, took her by the hand, and raised her up. The fever left her, and she waited on them.
32 When the sun went down and evening came, they brought to Jesus everyone who was ill, including the demon-possessed. 33 The whole town was gathered around the door. 34 Jesus healed many people suffering from all kinds of diseases, and cast out many demons. He didn’t allow the demons to speak, because they knew him.
The healing of a man with a skin disease
35 Very early—in the middle of the night, actually—Jesus got up and went out, off to a lonely place, and prayed. 36 Simon, and those with him, followed. 37 When they found him, they said, “Everyone is looking for you!”
38 “Let’s go off to the other towns around here,” Jesus replied, “so that I can tell the news to people there too. That’s why I came out.”
39 So he went into their synagogues, throughout the whole of Galilee, telling the news and casting out demons.
40 A man with a virulent skin disease came up to him. He knelt down and begged him, “If you want to, you can make me clean!”
41 Jesus was deeply moved. He reached out his hand and touched him, and said to him, “I do want to: be clean!” 42 The disease left him at once, and he was clean.
43 Jesus sent him away at once, with this stern warning: 44 “Mind you don’t say anything to anyone! Just go and show yourself to the priest, and make the offering Moses commanded, to purify yourself and to give them a sign.”
45 But the man went out and began to spread the news far and wide. He did this so effectively that Jesus couldn’t any longer go publicly into a town. He stayed out in the open country, and people came to him from all around.
Scripture quotations from The New Testament for Everyone are copyright © Nicholas Thomas Wright 2011, 2018, 2019.