Book of Common Prayer

1 I am Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ. He called me to be an apostle and to tell God's good news.

² Through his prophets long ago God promised this good news to people, in the holy writings.

³ The good news was about his Son. He is Jesus Christ our Lord. He was a man born in David's family.

⁴ He came alive from death. That showed he was God's Son. He had God's power. God's Holy Spirit did all this.

⁵ This same Jesus Christ was kind to me. And he made me an apostle. I am sent in his name so that people in all nations will obey him.

⁶ You are some of them. You were called to belong to Jesus Christ.

⁷ I send greetings to all the Christians who live in the city of Rome. God loves you and has called you to be his people. May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ bless you. In their kindness may they give you peace.

⁸ People in all the world have heard that you believe. I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you.

⁹ God knows that I always talk to him about you. I worship him in my heart while I tell the good news about his Son.

¹⁰ I ask God that in some way now I may be able to visit you, if he wishes me to do it.

¹¹ I want very much to see you. I want to give you some gift from the Holy Spirit to make you stronger.

¹² I mean to say that we will both be helped. I will be helped because you believe, and you will be helped because I believe.

¹³ My brothers, I want you to know that I have often planned to come to you. But something has stopped me until now. I planned to come so that I might see good things happen among you. I have done this in the other nations which are not Jewish.

¹⁴ This is something I must do for the Greek people and for all other people. I must do it for people who are wise and for people who are not wise.

¹⁵ That is why I want so much to tell the good news to you people in the city of Rome also.

²⁷ The woman left her water-pot and went back to the town.

²⁸ She said to the people, `Come, I will show you a man who has told me everything I have done. Can this be the Christ?'

²⁹ The people left the town and went to him.

³⁰ While they were on the way coming to Jesus, the disciples asked him, `Teacher, will you please eat.'

³¹ Jesus said to them, `I have food that you do not know about.'

³² So the disciples asked one another, `Has anyone brought him food to eat?'

³³ Jesus said to them, `My food is to obey the one who sent me and to finish his work.

³⁴ Do you not say, "In four months it will be harvest time"? Listen, I say. Look up and see the fields. The harvest is ready to cut now.

³⁵ The one who gathers the harvest receives a reward for it. He gathers a harvest that will live for ever. Then the one who sows and the one who gathers will both be happy.

³⁶ This saying is true here: "One sows and another gathers."

³⁷ I sent you to gather what you did not help to plant. Other people have worked hard and you have been helped through their work.'

³⁸ Many of the people of the town believed in Jesus because of what the woman told them. She said, `He told me everything I have done.'

³⁹ When the people from Samaria came, they begged him to stay with them. So he stayed with them for two days.

⁴⁰ Many more people believed in Jesus because of his own word.

⁴¹ They said to the woman, `Now we believe, not because of what you told us, but because of what he himself has told us. We know it is true. This is the Saviour of the world.'

⁴² Two days after this, Jesus left Samaria and went to Galilee.