Book of Common Prayer

⁷ The end of all things is upon us. You must keep sober, then, and self-disciplined for your prayers. ⁸ Above all, keep absolutely firm in your love for one another, because “love covers a multitude of sins.” ⁹ Be hospitable to one another without complaining. ¹⁰ Just as each of you has received a gift, so you should use it for ministry one to another, as good stewards of God’s many-sided grace. ¹¹ If anyone speaks, they should do so as speaking God’s oracles. If anyone ministers, they should do it as in the strength which God grants, so that God may be glorified in all things through Jesus the Messiah, to whom be glory and power forever and ever. Amen.

Jesus and Peter

¹⁵ So when they had eaten breakfast, Jesus spoke to Simon Peter.

“Simon, son of John,” he said, “do you love me more than these?”

“Yes, Master,” he said. “You know I’m your friend.”

“Well, then,” he said, “feed my lambs.”

¹⁶ “Simon, son of John,” said Jesus again, for a second time, “do you love me?”

“Yes, Master,” he said. “You know I’m your friend.”

“Well, then,” he said, “look after my sheep.”

¹⁷ “Simon, son of John,” said Jesus a third time, “are you my friend?”

Peter was upset that on this third time Jesus asked, “Are you my friend?”

“Master,” he said, “you know everything! You know I’m your friend!”

“Well, then,” said Jesus, “feed my sheep.

¹⁸ “I’m telling you the solemn truth,” he went on. “When you were young, you put on your own clothes and went about wherever you wanted. But when you are old, you’ll stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you up and take you where you don’t want to go.”

¹⁹ He said this to indicate the sort of death by which Peter would bring God glory. And when he had said this, he added, “Follow me!”

The beloved disciple

²⁰ Peter turned and saw, following them, the disciple that Jesus loved. This was the disciple who had leaned back against Jesus’ chest at the supper, and had asked, “Master, who is it that’s going to betray you?”

²¹ “Master,” said Peter to Jesus, seeing him there, “what about him?”

²² “If it’s my intention,” replied Jesus, “that he should remain here until I come, what’s that got to do with you? You must follow me!”

²³ So the rumor went around the Christian family that this disciple wouldn’t die. But Jesus didn’t say he wouldn’t die. What he said, rather, was this: “If it’s my intention that he should remain here until I come, what’s that got to do with you?”

²⁴ (This is the disciple who is giving evidence about these things, and who wrote them down. We know that his evidence is true.)

²⁵ There are many other things which Jesus did. If they were written down one by one, I don’t think the world itself would be able to contain the books that would be written.