Book of Common Prayer

David wrote this song to ask God not to forget him.

Lord, please remember me^[a]

DALETH

HE

WAW

²⁵ One day, you will have lived in the land for a long time. You will have children and grandchildren. Remember that you still must not make any kind of image as your idol. That would be a sin. Do not do any evil things that will cause the Lord your God to become angry. ²⁶ I am warning you today, as everyone on earth and everyone in heaven hears what I say. If you do not obey this command, you will soon die. You will not live long in the land that is your home on the other side of the Jordan River. You will die very soon. ²⁷ The Lord will send you out of that land to live among other nations. Only a few of you will continue to be alive. ²⁸ Among those nations, you will worship gods that men have made from wood and stone. Those gods cannot see or hear or eat or smell anything.

²⁹ But even in those places, if you look for the Lord your God, you will find him. If you want to serve him with everything that you think and with everything that you do, you will find him. ³⁰ When trouble happens to you in the future, you will turn back to him. When all these bad things happen to you, you will obey God again. ³¹ That is because the Lord your God is very kind. So he will not leave you alone. He will never destroy you. He will never forget the covenant that he made with your ancestors. That was a serious promise that he made to them.

²³ God will show that what I say is true! He knows my thoughts. Why did I decide not to come back to Corinth at this time? I did not come because I did not want to be angry with you. ²⁴ We are not trying to tell you what you must believe, like masters would do. You are already strong in your spirits because you trust God. So we want to help you to be really happy.

2 Because of that, I decided not to visit you again at that time. I did not want to make you sad. ² You are the only people who can make me happy. So, if I make you sad, there will be nobody to make me happy. ³ That is why I did not visit you. I wrote that letter to you instead. You are the people who should make me happy. I did not want you to make me sad when I visited you. I felt sure about all of you. I knew that, if I was happy, then all of you would be happy too.

⁴ When I wrote that letter, I was very sad and upset. I cried a lot. I did not want to make you sad. Instead, I wanted you to know that I love you very much.

⁵ Someone among you has done things that have made other people sad. That person has made me sad. But really he has made all of you much more sad than me. I do not want to say more about this than is necessary. ⁶ Most of you have agreed to punish him. That should be enough. ⁷ Now, you should forgive him. You should comfort him. If you do not do that, he may become too sad. He may not be able to think properly. ⁸ So I tell you this: Please show him that you really do love him.

⁹ When I wrote that letter to you, I wanted to know what you would do. I wanted to see if you would do everything that I told you. ¹⁰ When you forgive anyone, I also forgive that person. Whatever bad thing somebody has done, I have Christ's authority to forgive them. And I do it to help you. ¹¹ We do not want Satan to win against us. He is very clever. We know how he likes to cause us to have trouble.

The good news about Christ

¹² I went to Troas city to tell people the good news about Christ.^[a] When I arrived there, I discovered that the Lord had already prepared people to listen. ¹³ But I was not happy in my thoughts because I could not find my friend Titus there. So I said ‘goodbye’ to those people and I travelled on to Macedonia.

¹⁴ But I thank God! He has won against sin, because of what Christ has done. Christ is our leader and we show that he is the winner. We also help people to know about Christ. That knowledge is like a lovely smell that comes to people everywhere. ¹⁵ When we tell people about Christ, we are like a lovely smell that rises up to God. We are like that among the people that God is saving. We are also like that among the people who are dying because they are far from God. ¹⁶ For the people who are dying, we are like a bad smell that brings a message of death. But for the people that God is saving, we are like a lovely smell that brings a message of new life.

Nobody is really good enough to tell such an important message! ¹⁷ Some people even tell God's message because they want to get a lot of money for themselves. But we are not like them. No, God himself has sent us to do this work. And he sees what we are doing. So we are honest and we speak God's message clearly, as Christ's servants should do.

15 One day, many bad people and men who took taxes from people were coming round Jesus. They all wanted to hear what Jesus was saying. ² The Pharisees and teachers of God's Law did not like this. ‘This man is friendly with people that do not obey God,’ they said. ‘He even eats with them in their homes.’

A story about two sons

¹¹ Jesus then told another story: ‘There was a man that had two sons.^{[a] 12} The younger son went to his father and said to him, “Father, please give me now my part of your things.” So the father gave both sons the part of his things that each of them should have. ¹³ After a few days, the younger son sold what his father had given to him. Then he took all the money and left home. He went on a long journey to a country far away. There, he did whatever he wanted to do and wasted all his money. ¹⁴ After he had spent everything, there was no rain in that country. There was almost no food anywhere. So the young man had nothing to eat. ¹⁵ He went to a man who lived in that country. He asked to work for him. So the man sent him into his fields to give food to his pigs. ¹⁶ Nobody gave him anything to eat. He even wanted to eat the food that the pigs were eating. But he had nothing.

¹⁷ Then the son began to think about what he had done. He said to himself, “My father has many servants, and they have plenty of food to eat. They even have more food than they need. But I will die here because I do not have any food. ¹⁸ So I will go to my father and tell him, ‘I have done bad things against God, and I have done bad things against you. ¹⁹ So I am not good enough for you to call me your son any longer. Instead, please accept me as one of your servants.’ ”

²⁰ So he went off to return to his father. But he was still a long way from the house when his father saw him. He felt very sorry for his son and he ran towards him. Then he put his arms round his son and he kissed him. ²¹ “Father,” the son said, “I have done bad things against God and against you. So I am not good enough for you to call me your son.” ²² But the father shouted to his servants. “Hurry!” he said. “Fetch the most beautiful coat that we have. Put it on him and also put a ring on his finger. Put shoes on his feet. ²³ Fetch the young cow that we keep ready to eat on a special day. It is already fat. Kill it and prepare it. We will eat a big meal and we will be happy together. ²⁴ I thought that my son here was dead. But now he has returned to me and he is alive! I thought that he had left me for all time. But now he has come home.” Then they all began to be happy together.

²⁵ While these things were happening, the older son was working in the field.^[b] On his way back to the house, he heard music. People were dancing. ²⁶ So he asked one of the servants, “What is happening?” ²⁷ The servant replied, “Your brother has returned home. Your father has killed the fat young cow for him. He did this because your brother is alive and he is well.” ²⁸ When the older brother heard this, he was very angry. He would not go into the house. So his father came out. “Please come in to be happy with us,” he said. ²⁹ “Listen,” the older son replied, “I have worked a lot for you for many years. I have always obeyed you. But you never even killed a young goat for me so that I could be happy with my friends. We could have had a meal together. ³⁰ But now this other son of yours has returned. He has wasted all the money that you gave to him. He has spent it on prostitutes. But you have even killed the fat young cow for him.” ³¹ “My son,” his father said, “you are always with me. All the things that I have are yours. ³² We thought that your brother was dead. But now he has returned to us alive. We thought that he had left us for all time. But now he has come home. So we must all be happy together.” ’