Book of Common Prayer

¹⁶ So I say, let the Spirit tell you what you should do. Then you will not do the wrong things you yourselves want to do.

¹⁷ People want to do wrong things that the Spirit does not want them to do. And the Spirit wants people to do things they do not want to do. The Spirit and the wrong things you want to do are against each other, so that you do not do what you yourself want to do.

¹⁸ If you do what the Spirit wants you to do, then you will be free from the law.

¹⁹ It is easy to see the wrong things people want to do. Both married people and those who are not married commit adultery. People make themselves unclean because of their wrong use of sex. They do things they should be ashamed of doing.

²⁰ They worship idols. They use witch-power. They hate. They quarrel. They are jealous. They get angry. They want their own way. They do not agree together and they join different groups against each other.

²¹ They want what other people have. They even kill. They drink too much strong drink. They like to take part in loud drinking and dancing. They do other things like these. I have told you before and I tell you again. Those who do these things will not be in the kingdom of God. 22,

²² But these are the things which the Spirit wants you to show: love, joy, peace, patience, being kind, being good, being true, being gentle, and keeping the body under control. There is no law that says, `These things are wrong.'

²³ Those who belong to Christ Jesus have stopped doing the wrong things they want to do. They have stopped them just as if they were killed on a cross. And they have even stopped wanting to do them.

²⁴ The Spirit gives us life. And so we should do what the Spirit wants us to do.

² Six days after this, Jesus took Peter, James, and John with him. He led them up a hill by themselves. Jesus was changed in front of them.

³ His clothes were white like light. No person on earth could make them so white.

⁴ Then they saw Elijah and Moses talking with Jesus.

⁵ Then Peter said to Jesus, `Master, this is a good place for us. We will make three places, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.'

⁶ Peter did not know what to say because they were very much afraid.

⁷ Then a cloud came over them. A voice in the cloud said, `This is my dear Son. Listen to him.'

⁸ They quickly looked around but they saw no one except Jesus there with them.

⁹ When they came down the hill, Jesus said to them, `Do not tell anyone what you saw. Do not tell it until after the Son of Man has been raised from death.'

¹⁰ So they kept these things to themselves, asking each other what he meant about rising from death.

¹¹ Then they asked Jesus, `Why do the scribes [who know all about the holy writings] say that first Elijah must come?'

¹² He said, `Elijah does come first. He will get everything ready. But why do the holy writings say that the Son of Man must have much trouble? They say, "He will have much trouble and the people will not respect him."

¹³ I tell you that Elijah has come. The people did to him just what they wanted to do. They did just as it is written about him.'