Book of Common Prayer

6 My brothers, perhaps a man has done something wrong. If so, you who are strong in the Spirit must help him to do the right thing again. Help him in a gentle way. Take care yourself, that you are not tried and will want to do wrong.

² Help each other in your troubles. In that way you obey Christ's law.

³ A man who thinks that he is an important person when he is not, that man fools himself.

⁴ Let every man test his own work. Then he will be proud of his own work. He will not be proud because he thinks his own work is better than someone else's work.

⁵ Each man must carry his own load.

⁶ People are taught the word of God. They should give some of all the good things they have to those who teach them.

⁷ Do not be fooled about this. God cannot be fooled. A man gets what he plants.

⁸ The man who plants the wrong things he wants to do will get death, because of those wrong things. But the person who plants what the Spirit wants him to do will live for ever, because of the Spirit.

⁹ We must not get tired of doing good things. If we do not stop doing them, we will get something back when the right time comes.

¹⁰ So then, when we can, we should do good to all people. But most of all, we should do it to those who are in God's family.

¹⁵ People brought even small children to Jesus. They wanted him to put his hands on them. When the disciples saw it, they tried to stop the people.

¹⁶ But Jesus called them to him and said, `Let the children come to me. Do not try to stop them. The kingdom of God belongs to people like them.

¹⁷ I tell you the truth. If anyone does not believe in the kingdom of God like a child, he will never go in.'

¹⁸ A ruler asked Jesus, `Good Teacher, what must I do so that I will live for ever?'

¹⁹ Jesus answered him, `Why do you call me good? Only one is good, and that is God.

²⁰ `You know the laws, "Do not commit adultery. [Do not take a man or woman who is not your husband or wife.] Do not kill. Do not steal. Do not tell lies. Respect your father and your mother." '

²¹ The man said, `I have kept all these laws since I was a boy.'

²² When Jesus heard that, he said to him, `You need one thing more. Sell everything you have. Give the money to poor people. You will be rich in heaven. Then come and go with me.'

²³ When the man heard that, he was sad because he was very rich.

²⁴ Jesus looked at him and said, `It is very hard for rich people to enter the kingdom of God!

²⁵ It is easier for a big animal like a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.'

²⁶ Those who heard it asked, `Then who can be saved?'

²⁷ But Jesus said, `God can do what men cannot do.'

²⁸ Peter said, `See, we have left all things and have come with you.'

³⁰ Jesus said to them, `I tell you the truth. If any man has left his house, or his wife, or his brothers, or his father, or his mother, or his children for the sake of the kingdom of God, he will receive many times as much as he has left. He will receive that in this world. And in the next world he will live for ever.'