Book of Common Prayer

9 What I say is true and Christ knows it is. I do not tell a lie. My heart tells me it is true. And the Holy Spirit knows this.

² I am very sad. I am always troubled. 3I could almost wish I were taken away from Christ for the sake of my brothers, the people of my own nation.

³ They are Jews. God gave them the right to be his sons. He showed them how great he is. He made agreements with them. He gave them the law. He told them how to worship him. He gave them the promises.

⁴ The great men were their fathers. Christ was born a Jew. He is God over all. Praise him for ever! Yes, he is!

⁵ God will do what he said he would do. Not all who are Jews belong to the real Israel.

⁶ Not all the people in Abraham's family are his children. But the holy writings say, `It is Isaac's family who will be called your family.'

⁷ This means that not all who were born in Abraham's family are God's children. God promised Abraham a son [Isaac]. His children [the Jews] are the ones that God called Abraham's true family.

⁸ For this is what God promised, `About this time next year I will come and Sarah shall have a son.'

⁹ And that is not all. Rebecca also had children. Their father was Isaac, our father.

¹¹ When the children were not yet born, they had done nothing good or bad. God chooses the people he wants. He does not choose people because of what they have done. He chooses people who will answer his call. So he said to Rebecca, `The older one will be a slave of the younger one.'

¹² The holy writings also say, `I loved Jacob, but I hated Esau.'

¹³ So what shall we say? Does God do what is not right? No, never!

¹⁴ He says to Moses, `I will be kind to a person if I choose to be kind to him. I will share in the suffering of others if I choose to be sorry for them.'

¹⁵ God is not kind to a person because the person wants God to be kind to him. God is not kind to him because the person runs to him to ask him for help. God is kind because he chooses to be kind.

¹⁶ In the holy writings it says to Pharaoh, `That is why I made you live. I wanted to show my power through you. I wanted people to know about me all over the earth.'

¹⁷ So God is kind to any person if he wants to be kind to him. And God makes a man's heart hard if he wants to do that.

¹⁸ So you will ask me, `Why does God still blame us? Who can fight against what God has planned?'

⁶⁰ Many of his disciples heard it. They said, `This is a hard teaching. Who can listen to it?'

⁶¹ But Jesus knew that his disciples did not like what he said. He asked, `Is this hard for you?

⁶² What would you do if you saw the Son of Man go up to the place where he came from?

⁶³ It is the Spirit that gives life. The flesh does not help. The words I say to you are Spirit and life.

⁶⁴ But even so, some of you do not believe me.' Jesus knew right from the beginning which ones of them would not believe. He knew who was going to give him over to people who hated him.

⁶⁵ Then Jesus said, `That is why I said to you, "No one can come to me unless my Father lets him come." '

⁶⁶ After that, many of the followers of Jesus left him and stopped travelling around with him.

⁶⁷ Jesus said to the twelve disciples, `Will you also leave me?'

⁶⁸ Simon Peter answered, `Lord, to whom shall we go? It is you who has told us how we may live for ever.

⁶⁹ We believe now, and we know it is true. You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.'

⁷⁰ Jesus said to them, `Did I not choose you twelve? And one of you is a devil!'

⁷¹ Jesus was talking about Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. Judas was the one who was going to give him over to people who hated him. Judas was one of these twelve disciples.