Book of Common Prayer

¹⁸ My son Timothy, here is what I tell you to do. And it is what the prophets said about you before. Remember their words, and fight like a good soldier.

¹⁹ Keep on believing. Do only what you know is right. Some people have not done that and they have stopped believing.

²⁰ Hymenaeus and Alexander are among them. I have given them to Satan so that they will be punished and learn not to teach things that do not respect God.

2 First of all, I want God's people to do this. They must talk to God for all the people. They must ask God to help them. They must ask God to give them what they need. They must thank God for all that he gives them.

² They must talk to God for all the kings and all rulers. They must do this so that we may live in peace and quiet, so that we may please God and do what is right.

³ This is a good thing. And God, our Saviour, is pleased when people do it.

⁴ He wants all people to be saved and to know what is true.

⁵ There is one God. There is also one man who can open the way between God and all people. That man is Christ Jesus.

⁶ He gave his life to set all men free. This matter was told at the right time.

⁷ I was chosen to tell about this and to be an apostle. I am telling the truth. I am not lying. I was chosen to teach people who are not Jews. I must teach them to believe and to know what is true.

⁸ So I want men in every place to talk to God. They must have clean lives when they lift up their hands to talk to God. They must not be angry. They must have faith in God.

¹⁰ Jesus was teaching in one of the meeting houses on the Sabbath day.

¹¹ A woman was there who had a spirit that had made her sick for eighteen years. She had to bend down all the time and could not stand up straight.

¹² Jesus saw her and called her to come to him. Then he said, `Woman, you are healed. You are not sick any longer.'

¹³ Jesus put his hands on her, and right away she stood up straight. And she praised God.

¹⁴ The ruler of the meeting house was angry because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath day. He said to the people, `There are six days to work. You should come to be healed on those days, and not on the Sabbath day.'

¹⁵ The Lord said to him, `You are not true to yourselves! Every one of you unties his cow or horse and takes it to the water to drink on the Sabbath day. Do you not?

¹⁶ This woman belongs to Abraham's family. Satan has tied her for eighteen years. Is it not right that she should be set free on the Sabbath day?'

¹⁷ When he said that, all those who had talked against him were ashamed. All the other people were very glad for all the wonderful things Jesus did.