Book of Common Prayer

¹¹ All these things thus being destroyed, what-kind-of people ought you to be in holy behaviors and acts of godliness, ¹² looking-for and hastening^[a] the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed, being set-on-fire, and the elements are melted while burning. ¹³ But in accordance with His promise we are looking-for new heavens and a new earth, in which^[b] righteousness dwells.

So Be Diligent To Be Unspotted And Unblemished In This Day of Salvation

¹⁴ Therefore beloved, while looking-for these things, be diligent to be found unspotted^[c] and unblemished^[d] by^[e] Him, in peace. ¹⁵ And be regarding the patience of our Lord to be salvation, just as also our beloved brother Paul wrote to you according-to^[f] the wisdom having been given to him, ¹⁶ as also he writes in all his letters, speaking in them concerning these things, in which letters are some things hard-to-understand which the untaught and unstable twist^[g]— as also the other^[h] Scriptures— to their own destruction.

Beloved, Be Guarding Yourselves And Growing In Christ

¹⁷ You therefore, beloved, knowing-this-beforehand, be guarding yourselves in order that you may not fall-from your own steadfastness, having been carried-away-by^[i] the error of the lawless ones. ¹⁸ And be growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now, and to the day of eternity. Amen.

²⁸ I say to you— no one is greater^[a] among ones born of women than John. But the least one in the kingdom of God is greater than he. ²⁹ And all the people having heard him^[b], even the tax collectors, vindicated^[c] God, having been baptized with the baptism of John. ³⁰ But the Pharisees and the Law-experts rejected the purpose of God for themselves, not having been baptized by him.

But This Generation Rejects Both The One Preparing And He Who Came

³¹ “To what then will I liken the people of this generation, and to what are they like? ³² They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another, who say ‘We played the flute for you and you did not dance. We lamented^[d] and you did not weep’. ³³ For John the Baptist has come not eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say ‘He has a demon’. ³⁴ The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say ‘Behold— a man who is a glutton and drunkard^[e], a friend of tax-collectors and sinners’. ³⁵ And wisdom was vindicated^[f] by all her children”.