Book of Common Prayer

Good news about the new king

1 Paul, a slave of the Messiah, King Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for God’s good news, ² which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the sacred writings— ³ the good news about his son, who was descended from David’s seed in terms of flesh, ⁴ and who was marked out powerfully as God’s son in terms of the spirit of holiness by the resurrection of the dead: Jesus, the royal Messiah, our Lord!

⁵ Through him we have received grace and apostleship to bring about believing obedience among all the nations for the sake of his name. ⁶ That includes you, too, who are called by Jesus the Messiah.

⁷ This letter comes to all in Rome who love God, all who are called to be his holy people. Grace and peace to you from God our father, and Messiah Jesus, the Lord.

Paul longs to see the Roman Christians

⁸ Let me say first that I thank my God for all of you, through Jesus the king, because all the world has heard the news of your faith. ⁹ God is my witness—the God I worship in my spirit in the good news of his son—that I never stop remembering you ¹⁰ in my prayers. I ask God again and again that somehow at last I may now be able, in his good purposes, to come to you. ¹¹ I’m longing to see you! I want to share with you some spiritual blessing to give you strength; ¹² that is, I want to encourage you, and be encouraged by you, in the faith you and I share. ¹³ I don’t want you to be unaware, my dear family, that I’ve often made plans to come to you; it’s just that up to now something has always got in the way. I want to bear some fruit among you, as I have been doing among the other nations.

Good news, salvation and the justice of God

¹⁴ I am under obligation to Greeks and barbarians alike, you see; both to the wise and to the foolish. ¹⁵ That’s why I’m eager to announce the good news to you, too, in Rome.

Sower and reaper rejoice together

²⁷ Just then Jesus’ disciples came up. They were astonished that he was talking with a woman; but nobody said “What did you want?” or “Why were you talking with her?” ²⁸ So the woman left her water-jar, went into the town and spoke to the people.

²⁹ “Come on!” she said. “Come and see a man who told me everything I ever did! You don’t think he can be the Messiah, do you?”

³⁰ So they left the town and were coming out to him.

³¹ Meanwhile the disciples were nagging him.

“Come on, Rabbi!” they were saying. “You must have something to eat!”

³² “I’ve got food to eat that you know nothing about,” he said.

³³ “Nobody’s brought him anything to eat, have they?” said the disciples to one another.

³⁴ “My food,” replied Jesus, “is to do the will of the one who sent me, and to finish his work! ³⁵ Don’t you have a saying, ‘Another four months, then comes harvest’? Well, let me tell you, raise your eyes and see! The fields are white! It’s harvest time already! ³⁶ The reaper earns his pay, and gathers crops for the life of God’s coming age, so that sower and reaper can celebrate together. ³⁷ This is where that saying comes true, ‘One sows, another reaps.’ ³⁸ I sent you to reap what you didn’t work for. Others did the hard work, and you’ve come into the results.”

³⁹ Several Samaritans from that town believed in Jesus because of what the woman said in evidence about him, “He told me everything I did.” ⁴⁰ So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them. And he stayed there two days.

⁴¹ Many more believed because of what he said.

⁴² “We believe, too,” they said to the woman, “but it’s no longer because of what you told us. We’ve heard him ourselves! We know that he really is the one! He’s the savior of the world!”