Book of Common Prayer

14 Be ready to take a person into the church even if he does not know and believe all you believe. Do not judge what he thinks about things.

² One person believes he may eat anything. Another person, who does not believe that, eats only things that grow in the garden.

³ The one who eats anything must not despise the one who does not eat everything. And the one who does not eat must not judge the person who does. God has accepted him as he is.

⁴ Why do you judge another person's servant? He stands or he falls before his own master. But he will stand because the Lord can give him power to stand.

⁵ One man thinks, `This day is better than that day.' But another man thinks, `All days are alike.' Every man should be sure in his own mind what he believes.

⁶ One man honours the day to honour the Lord; another man does not honour the day to honour the Lord. The person who eats everything, eats it because he honours the Lord. And he thanks God. And the person who will not eat every kind of food also does so to honour the Lord. And he still gives thanks to God.

⁷ Not one of us lives for himself. And not one of us dies for himself.

⁸ If we live, we live for the Lord. And if we die, we die for the Lord. So then, if we live or if we die we belong to the Lord.

⁹ Christ wanted to be Lord, both of dead people and of living people. That is why he died and lived again.

¹⁰ Why do you judge your brother? Or why do you despise your brother? We shall all stand before God to be judged.

¹¹ The holy writings say, `The Lord says, "As sure as I live, every knee will bow to me. Every tongue will praise God." '

¹² So each of us will tell God about what he has done.

²⁶ They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gadarene people. Their country is on the other side of the sea from Galilee.

²⁷ As Jesus got out of the boat a man met him from the town. He had bad spirits in him. He had not worn clothes for a long time. He did not live in a house, but among the graves.

²⁸ When he saw Jesus, he screamed loudly and bowed down in front of him. He called out loud, `Jesus, Son of the Highest One! What do you want to do to me? I beg you, do not hurt me.'

²⁹ He said this because Jesus had told the bad spirit to come out of the man. Many times the spirit had taken hold of the man. People had guarded him. They had tied him with chains and strong ropes. But he broke the chains and ropes. The bad spirit drove him into the desert.

³⁰ Jesus asked him, `What is your name?' He answered, `My name is An Army.' He said this because many bad spirits had gone into him.

³¹ The spirits begged Jesus not to send them away to the big hole that has no bottom.

³² Many pigs were feeding on the hill there. The spirits begged Jesus to let them go into the pigs. Jesus let them.

³³ The spirits came out of the man and went into the pigs. They ran fast down the steep hill into the sea. They died in the water.

³⁴ The men who cared for the pigs saw what happened. They ran and told it to the people in the town and in the country.

³⁵ The people went out to see what had happened. They came to Jesus. They saw the man from whom the bad spirits had gone. He was sitting near the feet of Jesus. He had clothes on and was not crazy any more. The people were afraid.

³⁶ Those who had seen it told the people how the man had been saved from the bad spirits.

³⁷ All the people in the country around the Gadarenes asked Jesus to go away from them to some other place. They were very much afraid. So Jesus got into a boat and went back.

³⁸ The man from whom the bad spirits had gone begged to go with him. But Jesus sent him away.

³⁹ He said, `Go home and tell the people what God has done for you.' So the man went away and told the people all through the town what Jesus had done for him.