Book of Common Prayer

¹¹ So let us do our best to go into that resting place. Those people died in the wilderness because they did not believe. So let us take care that the same thing does not happen to one of us.

¹² God's word is living and full of power. It is more sharp than any sword that cuts on both sides. What God says cuts through and divides the mind and spirit. It cuts through and divides the place where the bones are joined, and the part inside the bone. What God says is able to judge the things people think and plan in their hearts.

¹³ God is the one we must meet. Nothing can be hidden from him. Everything is open and he can see it.

¹⁴ We have a great high priest who has gone into heaven. He is Jesus, the Son of God. Because we have such a great high priest, let us hold on to the things we believe.

¹⁵ We have a high priest who can feel with us when we are weak. He has been tested in every way, just as we are. But he did not do anything wrong.

¹⁶ So let us trust him when we come to worship God. He is so good. He will be kind to us and help us when we need it.

²² After this, Jesus and his disciples came into the country of Judea. Jesus stayed there with them and baptized people.

²³ John was also baptizing people in the river at Aenon, near the town of Salim. There was much water. People came to him and were baptized.

²⁴ This was before John was put in prison.

²⁵ John's disciples and the leaders of the Jews were talking about how to be clean, the way God wants us to be clean.

²⁶ They came to John and said, `Teacher, there was a man with you on the other side of the Jordan River. You were telling people about him. Now he himself is baptizing and all the people are going to him.'

²⁷ John answered, `A man cannot get anything unless God in heaven gives it to him.

²⁸ You yourselves heard what I said. I am not the Christ but I have been sent ahead of the Christ.

²⁹ The wife belongs to the man who has married her. The man's best friend may stand and listen. And when he hears what that man says, he is very glad for him. So what I hear makes me very glad in the same way.

³⁰ He must become more and more great, but I must become less and less great.

³¹ `The one who comes from heaven is greater than all other people. The one who is of the earth talks about things on earth. So the one who comes from heaven is greater than all.

³² He tells what he has seen and heard, but no one wants to believe what he says.

³³ If a person believes what the one from heaven says, then he also says God is true.

³⁴ The one God sent speaks the words of God. God does not give him the Spirit little by little, but he gives the Spirit in full.

³⁵ The Father loves his Son and has put everything in his hand.

³⁶ He who believes in the Son will live for ever. He who does not believe in the Son will not live. God will be very angry with him for ever.'