Book of Common Prayer

15 We who are strong must help those who are not strong. We must not do what pleases us.

² But each of us must please his neighbour. He must do what is good for him and what will help him do better.

³ Christ did not please himself. But the holy writings say, `I took upon myself the wrong things that people said against you.'

⁴ Everything that is in the holy writings was written to teach us. They give hope and strength when we have troubles. The holy writings comfort our hearts.

⁵ God gives people power to take their troubles and he comforts their hearts. I ask him to help you to think the same way as Christ did.

⁶ Then, together you will praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

⁷ So, accept one another, as Christ has accepted you. Then people will know that God is great.

⁸ What I say is this. Christ came to serve the Jews. He did this to prove that what God said was true. He proved that God kept his promises to the fathers.

⁹ He did this so that people who are not Jews would praise God because he is kind. The holy writings say, `So I will praise you among the people who are not Jews. I will sing songs to your name.'

¹⁰ The holy writings also say, `People who are not Jews, be glad with those who are God's people.'

¹¹ And they also say, `People who are not Jews, praise the Lord. All peoples should praise him.'

¹² Also, Isaiah says, `Someone from Jesse's family will come. He will come to rule the people who are not Jews. People who are not Jews will have hope in him.'

¹³ God gives hope. May he make you very happy. May he give you peace because you believe. Then the power of the Holy Spirit will give you much hope.

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.'