Book of Common Prayer

13 Every person must obey the rulers over him. Every ruler has his power from God. And the rulers are put there by God.

² So anyone who fights against the ruler, fights against what God put there. And those who fight will be punished.

³ The rulers do not bring fear to a good man, but they bring fear to a bad man. If you do not want to be afraid of a ruler, do what is good and he will praise you.

⁴ Such a person is God's servant and will do what is good for you. But if you do what is wrong, you should fear him. He has great power and he will use it. He is God's servant and will punish those who do wrong.

⁵ So you must obey, not only because of the punishment, but because you know it is right.

⁶ That is why you also pay taxes. The rulers serve God and they give all their time to their work.

⁷ Pay them all that they should have. Pay taxes to the person who should have the taxes. Pay money to the person who should have the money. Respect the people who should be respected. Honour a person who should be honoured.

⁸ Do not have any debts, but love each other. Anyone who loves his neighbour has done all that the law says we should do.

⁹ The law says, `Do not commit adultery. Do not kill. Do not steal. Do not want things that belong to other people.' These laws and others are all in this one law: `Love your neighbour as you love yourself.'

¹⁰ Anyone who loves his neighbour will do no wrong to him. So love does all that the law says to do.

¹¹ In all this you know what a special time it is. It is time now for you to wake up from your sleep. The time when we will be saved is nearer to us now than when we first believed.

¹² The night is almost past. Morning is near. Let us stop doing the wrong things people do in the dark. Let us do the good things that people do in the light.

¹³ Let us live in the right way like people who are in the light. We must not take part in noisy feasting with dancing, or get drunk. We must not do any kind of wrong thing with sex. We must not quarrel or be jealous.

¹⁴ But you must take the Lord Jesus Christ into your hearts. And do not plan to do the wrong things your bodies want to do.

³³ They said to him, `We are Abraham's children. We have always been free. Why do you say to us, "You will be free"?'

³⁴ Jesus answered them, `I tell you the truth. People who do wrong things are not free. They become a slave of the wrong things they do.

³⁵ A slave does not belong to the family for ever. But a son belongs for ever.

³⁶ So if the Son makes you free, you will be truly free.

³⁷ I know that you come from Abraham. But you want to kill me because you do not like what I tell you.

³⁸ I tell you about the things that I have seen where my Father is, and you do what you have seen your father do.'

³⁹ They answered him, `Abraham is our father.' Jesus said, `If you were Abraham's children, you would do what Abraham did.

⁴⁰ But you want to kill me because I told you the truth which I learned from God. Abraham did not do that.

⁴¹ You are doing your father's work.' Then they said to him, `We were not born of an unmarried woman. God is the Father of us all.'

⁴² Jesus said to them, `If God were your Father you would love me, because I have come from God. I did not come by my own power. God sent me.

⁴³ Why do you not understand what I say? I will tell you why. It is because you do not want to understand it.

⁴⁴ `The bad spirit, the devil, is your real father. You gladly do the wrong things he wants you to do. From the beginning he killed people. He has nothing to do with what is true. His way is to tell lies. He himself is a liar and all lying comes from him.

⁴⁵ You do not believe me because I tell you what is true.

⁴⁶ Which one of you can prove that what I have done is bad? I tell you what is true. Why then do you not believe me?

⁴⁷ The person who comes from God listens to what God says. You do not come from God. That is why you do not listen to me.'