Book of Common Prayer

13 Keep on loving your Christian brothers.

² Take strangers to your home and care for them. Some people who have done this found out the strangers were angels.

³ Remember those who are in prison as if you were in prison with them. And remember those who are having troubles, as if you were having the same troubles.

⁴ Everyone must respect marriage. And the bed must be kept clean. God will punish those who use their bodies for wrong sex.

⁵ Do not let the love of money control your life. Be satisfied with what you have. God himself has said, `I will never be away from you. I will never leave you alone.'

⁶ So we can be strong and say, `The Lord will help me. I will not be afraid. What can men do to me?'

⁷ Remember your leaders. They have told you the word of God. Think about the way they lived and died, and keep on believing as they did.

⁸ Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and for ever.

⁹ Do not listen to all kinds of different teaching and strange things. It is better to have a heart that is strong because of God's blessing than a heart that is thinking about different kinds of food. Different kinds of food do not help people who put their trust in them.

¹⁰ We have a sacrifice. But priests who serve God on earth have no right to eat from this sacrifice.

¹¹ The high priest takes into the Most Holy Place the blood of animals that are sacrificed. He gives it to God to pay for the wrong things people have done. The bodies of these animals are burned outside the town.

¹² So also Jesus was put to death outside the town. Then he could make the people holy by his own blood.

¹³ So let us go to him outside the town and take the shame as he did.

¹⁴ Here we do not have a city that will last for ever, but we are looking for the city that will come.

¹⁵ Let us always give a sacrifice of praise to God through Jesus. We do it by thanking him for all that he has done and also by talking about him. That is the sacrifice we make with our lips to his name.

¹⁶ But do not forget to do good things for people, and to give what you have to those who need it. These are sacrifices that please God.

³⁷ The last day of the feast was a big day. On that day Jesus stood up and shouted, `If anyone is thirsty, he may come to me and drink.

³⁸ If anyone believes in me, the holy writings say, "Rivers of water that give life will flow out of his heart." '

³⁹ This is what Jesus meant: those who believe in him would receive the Spirit. At that time no one had received the Holy Spirit because Jesus had not yet been lifted up to heaven

⁴⁰ When some of the people heard this they said, `Truly, this is the Prophet.'

⁴¹ Other people said, `This is the Christ.' But some said, `The Christ will not come from Galilee. Shall Christ come out of Galilee?

⁴² Do not the holy writings say that Christ will be of David's family? Will he not come from Bethlehem where David lived?'

⁴³ The people did not all say the same thing about him.

⁴⁴ Some of them wanted to catch Jesus, but no one put hands on him.

⁴⁵ The soldiers came back to the chief priests and the Pharisees. They asked the soldiers, `Why did you not bring him?'

⁴⁶ The soldiers replied, `No person has ever talked like he does!'

⁴⁷ The Pharisees said, `Has he fooled you also?

⁴⁸ None of the rulers and none of the Pharisees have believed on him, have they?

⁴⁹ These poor people do not know the law. They will die!'

⁵⁰ Nicodemus, the man who came to Jesus by night, was one of them.

⁵¹ He said, `Is it right to judge any man by our law before we hear him and learn what he has done?'

⁵² They answered him, `Are you from Galilee also? Study what is written. You will see that no prophet is to come from Galilee.'