Book of Common Prayer
God’s complete armor
10 What else is there to say? Just this: be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of his power. 11 Put on God’s complete armor. Then you’ll be able to stand firm against the devil’s trickery. 12 The warfare we’re engaged in, you see, isn’t against flesh and blood. It’s against the leaders, against the authorities, against the powers that rule the world in this dark age, against the wicked spiritual elements in the heavenly places.
13 For this reason, you must take up God’s complete armor. Then, when wickedness grabs its moment, you’ll be able to withstand, to do what needs to be done, and still to be on your feet when it’s all over. 14 So stand firm! Put the belt of truth round your waist; put on justice as your breastplate; 15 for shoes on your feet, ready for battle, take the good news of peace. 16 With it all, take the shield of faith; if you’ve got that, you’ll be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the spirit, which is God’s word.
Prayer and peace
18 Pray on every occasion in the spirit, with every type of prayer and intercession. You’ll need to keep awake and alert for this, with all perseverance and intercession for all God’s holy ones— 19 and also for me! Please pray that God will give me his words to speak when I open my mouth, so that I can make known, loud and clear, the secret truth of the gospel. 20 That, after all, is why I’m a chained-up ambassador! Pray that I may announce it boldly; that’s what I’m duty-bound to do.
21 It’s important that you should know how things are with me, and what I’m up to; so our dear brother Tychicus will tell you about it. He is a loyal servant in the Lord. 22 I’ve sent him to you with this in mind, so that you may know how things are with us, and so that he may encourage your hearts.
23 Peace be to the whole family, and love with faith, from God the father and the Lord Jesus, the Messiah. 24 Grace be with all who love our Lord, Messiah Jesus, with a love that never dies!
The healing of the demoniac
5 So they came over the sea to the land of the Gerasenes. 2 When they got out of the boat, they were suddenly confronted by a man with an unclean spirit. 3 He was emerging from a graveyard, which was where he lived. Nobody had been able to tie him up, not even with a chain; 4 he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he used to tear up the chains and snap the shackles. No one had the strength to tame him. 5 On and on, night and day, he used to shout out in the graveyard and on the hillside, and slash himself with stones.
6 When he saw Jesus a long way away, he ran and threw himself down in front of him.
7 “Why you and me, Jesus?” he shouted at the top of his voice. “Why you and me, son of the High God? By God, stop torturing me!”— 8 this last, because Jesus was saying to him, “Unclean spirit, come out of him!”
9 “What’s your name?” Jesus asked him.
“Legion,” he replied. “That’s my name—there are lots of us!” 10 And he implored Jesus not to send them out of the country.
11 It so happened that right there, near the hillside, was a sizable herd of pigs. They were grazing.
12 “Send us to the pigs,” begged the spirits, “so that we can enter them.”
13 So Jesus gave them permission. The unclean spirits came out and went into the pigs. The herd rushed down the steep slope into the sea—about two thousand of them!—and were drowned.
14 The herdsmen fled. They told it in the town, they told it in the countryside, and people came to see what had happened. 15 They came to Jesus; and there they saw the man who had been demon-possessed, who had had the “legion,” seated, clothed and stone-cold sober. They were afraid. 16 The people who had seen it all told them what had happened to the man—and to the pigs. 17 And they began to beg Jesus to leave their district.
18 Jesus was getting back into the boat, when the man asked if he could go with him. 19 Jesus wouldn’t let him.
“Go back home,” he said. “Go to your people and tell them what the Lord has done for you. Tell them how he had pity on you.”
20 He went off, and began to announce in the Ten Towns what Jesus had done for him. Everyone was astonished.
Scripture quotations from The New Testament for Everyone are copyright © Nicholas Thomas Wright 2011, 2018, 2019.