Book of Common Prayer

1 I am Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ. God wanted me to be an apostle.

² Timothy our brother, and I are writing this letter to God's people, the Christian brothers in the city of Colossae. May the kindness of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ bless you and give you peace.

³ We give thanks to God. He is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. When we ask God to bless you, we always thank him for you.

⁴ We have heard that you believe in Christ Jesus and love all of God's people.

⁵ And also, you are looking ahead to what you will have in heaven. You have heard about it already when the good news was told to you.

⁶ That message has reached you. It is doing good and it is spreading everywhere in the world. It is doing the same among you. It began the day you heard and understood God's blessing, which came to you in a clear way.

⁷ Epaphras taught you the truth. He is Christ's servant, as we are also, and we love him. He is a good worker to help you.

⁸ Also, it is he who told us of your love in the Spirit.

⁹ That is why we keep on talking to God about you since the day we heard about you. We ask him that you may know everything he wants you to do. We ask him that you may be very wise and that the Spirit will help you to understand.

¹⁰ We ask him that you will live the way the Lord wants you to live, so that you will please him in everything you do. We ask that you will do everything that is good. We ask that you will see the fruit from what you do. We ask that you will know more and more about God.

¹¹ God has wonderful power. And we ask him to give you all the strength you need to go through all your troubles, to be very patient in them, and to be happy.

¹² Thank the Father who has made us ready to be with the people of God who live in his light.

¹³ He has set us free from the kingdom where it is dark. And he has put us into the kingdom where his dear Son rules.

¹⁴ Because of his Son, we are set free and the wrong things we have done are forgiven.

6 Jesus was walking through the grain fields on a Sabbath day. His disciples picked some of the grain as they went along. They cleaned it by rubbing it in their hands, and ate it.

² Some of the Pharisees said, `Why do your disciples do what is not right on the Sabbath day?"

³ Jesus answered them, `Have you not read what David did? He and his men were hungry.

⁴ He went into God's house. Some bread was there for God. But David took the bread and ate it. He also gave some of it to the men who were with him. Only the priests have the right to eat that bread.'

⁵ Jesus said to them, `The Son of Man rules over the Sabbath day.'

⁶ On another Sabbath day, Jesus went into the meeting house and taught. A man was there whose right hand was thin and weak.

⁷ The scribes and Pharisees watched Jesus to see if he would heal the man on the Sabbath day. They wanted to find something wrong about Jesus.

⁸ But Jesus knew what they were thinking. He spoke to the man whose hand was thin and weak. He said, `Come and stand here in front' The man stood up.

⁹ Jesus said to them, `I ask you, is it right to do good things on the Sabbath day, or to do wrong things? Is it right to heal people so that they will live, or to let them die?'

¹⁰ He looked around at them all. Then he said to the man, `Hold out your hand.' The man did so and it was made well like the other hand.

¹¹ The Pharisees were very angry and they talked together about what they could do to Jesus.