Book of Common Prayer
11 That is the way the whole world will go. So think what kind of people you should be! Think how holy and true to God your lives should be!
12 You should look for the day of God and do everything you can to make it come quickly. On that day the sky will be on fire and go away. The elements will burn and melt away.
13 But we are looking for a new sky and a new earth which God has promised. Only good things will be in them.
14 My dear brothers, you are looking for these things. So do all you can so that the Lord will find you without any bad or wrong thing in your lives. Let him find you at peace with one another.
15 Think of this. He is waiting a long time so that people will be saved. Our dear brother Paul also wrote these things to you, because God has made him wise.
16 He also tells about them in all his letters. Some things in his letters are hard to understand. Some people do not know about these things and they are not strong in their faith. They change the meaning of the things Paul wrote. They do this to other things in the holy writings also. Because they do this, they will die.
17 My dear brothers, you know about these things before they happen. Take care that you do not do the same things that bad people do. Take care that you do not stop believing the right way.
18 Have more and more of God's blessing and kindness. Learn more and more about our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. He is great now, and he will be great for ever! Amen! Yes he will!
28 I tell you, no one has ever been born who is greater than John. And yet, the smallest one in the kingdom of God is greater than he.'
29 All the people and the tax collectors praised God when they heard that. They had been baptised by John.
30 But the Pharisees and teachers of the law would not follow God's way and they were not baptised by John.
31 Jesus asked, `What will I say that the people of today are like? What are they like?
32 They are like children who sit in the market. They call to other children. They say, "We played music for you, but you did not dance. We cried, but you did not cry."
33 John the Baptizer came. He does not eat bread or drink wine. You say, "He has a bad spirit in him."
34 The Son of Man came. He eats and drinks. You say, "This man eats and drinks too much! He is a friend of tax collectors and bad people!"
35 A man is proved wise by what he has done.'
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