Book of Common Prayer
3 So if you were raised to life with the Messiah, search for the things that are above, where the Messiah is seated at God’s right hand! 2 Think about the things that are above, not the things that belong on the earth. 3 Don’t you see: you died, and your life has been hidden with the Messiah, in God! 4 When the Messiah is revealed (and he is your life, remember), then you too will be revealed with him in glory.
Old clothes, new clothes
5 So, then, you must kill off the parts of you that belong on the earth: illicit sexual behavior, uncleanness, passion, evil desire and greed (which is a form of idolatry). 6 It’s because of these things that God’s wrath comes on the children of disobedience. 7 You too used to behave like that, once, when your life consisted of that sort of thing.
8 But now you must put away the lot of them: anger, rage, wickedness, blasphemy, dirty talk coming out of your mouth. 9 Don’t tell lies to each other! You have stripped off the old human nature, complete with its patterns of behavior, 10 and you have put on the new one—which is being renewed in the image of the creator, bringing you into possession of new knowledge. 11 In this new humanity there is no question of “Greek and Jew,” or “circumcised and uncircumcised,” of “barbarian, Scythian,” or “slave and free.” The Messiah is everything and in everything!
The healing of the centurion’s servant
7 When Jesus had finished saying all these words in the hearing of the people, he went into Capernaum.
2 There was a centurion who had a slave who was particularly precious to him. This slave was ill, at the point of death. 3 The centurion heard about Jesus, and sent some Jewish elders to him, to ask him to come and rescue his slave. 4 They approached Jesus and begged him eagerly.
“He deserves a favor like this from you,” they said. 5 “He loves our people, and he himself built us our synagogue.”
6 Jesus went with them.
When he was not far off from the house, the centurion sent friends to him with a further message.
“Master,” he said, “don’t trouble yourself. I don’t deserve to have you come under my roof. 7 That’s why I didn’t think myself worthy to come to you in person. But—just say the word, and my slave will be healed. 8 You see, I’m used to living under authority, and I have soldiers reporting to me. I say to this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; to another one, ‘Come,’ and he comes; and to my slave, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”
9 When Jesus heard this he was astonished.
“Let me tell you,” he said, turning to the crowd that was following him, “I haven’t found faith of this kind, even in Israel.”
10 The people who had been sent to him went back to the house. There they found the slave in good health.
The raising of the widow’s son
11 Not long afterwards, Jesus went to a town called Nain. His disciples went with him, and so did a large crowd. 12 As he got near to the gate of the city, a young man was being carried out dead. He was the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. There was a substantial crowd of the townspeople with her.
13 When the master saw her, he was very sorry for her. “Don’t cry,” he said to her. 14 Then he went up and touched the bier, and the people carrying it stood still.
“Young fellow,” he said, “I’m telling you—get up!” 15 The dead man sat up and began to speak, and he gave him to his mother.
16 Terror came over all of them. They praised God.
“A great prophet has risen among us!” they said. “God has visited his people!”
17 This report went out about him in the whole of Judaea and the surrounding countryside.
Scripture quotations from The New Testament for Everyone are copyright © Nicholas Thomas Wright 2011, 2018, 2019.