Book of Common Prayer

¹³ Who among you is wise and knows about things? He should show what he knows by his good life. He will not be proud because he is wise.

¹⁴ Are you a person who is very jealous? In your hearts you want to be better than others? Then stop being proud of yourself. Do not say what is not true.

¹⁵ God did not give you wisdom like that. But it comes from this world. It comes from people. It comes from bad spirits.

¹⁶ If people are jealous of others, their lives are not right. They do every kind of wrong thing to get what they want. They confuse and upset people.

¹⁷ First of all, when God makes people wise, they are holy. They do not fight. They are gentle. They listen to what other people say. They are very kind and do many good things. They do not quarrel. They do not say what is not true.

¹⁸ People who do not quarrel have peace. When there is peace, there is a good life.

4 Why do you fight and quarrel? It is because your feelings are fighting inside of you. That is why you fight.

² You want something but you cannot get it. Then you kill. You want something very much and cannot get it. So you quarrel and fight. You do not get it because you do not ask God for it.

³ You ask for it, but you do not get it, because you ask in a wrong way. You want to use it for yourselves and not for others.

⁴ You people promised God you would be true to him, but you did not stay true! Do you not know that if you love the world you hate God? Anyone who wants to be a lover of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

⁵ The holy writings say, `God gave his Spirit to live in us. And that Spirit wants us for himself.' Do you think this means nothing?

⁶ But God helps you even more than that. That is why the holy writings say, `God fights against those who are proud, but he helps those who are not proud.'

⁷ So let God control you. Fight the devil and he will run away from you.

⁸ Come to God and he will come to you. You bad people, make your hands clean! You love what is good and what is wrong at the same time. Make your hearts clean.

⁹ Be sad about this, and cry. Turn your laughing into crying. Stop being happy. Be sad.

¹⁰ Do not be proud before the Lord. Then he will lift you up.

¹¹ My brothers, do not say wrong things about each other. A man who says wrong things about his brother or judges his brother is saying wrong things about God's law and he is judging God's law. If you judge the law, you are not obeying the law, but you are a judge.

¹² God made the law and he is the judge. And he is the one who can save you or kill you. Who are you that you should judge your neighbour?

¹² Pilate asked them, `Then what shall I do with the man whom you call King of the Jews?'

¹³ They shouted back, `Nail him to a cross!'

¹⁴ Pilate then asked, `Why, what wrong thing has he done?' But they shouted even more, `Nail him to a cross!'

¹⁵ Pilate wanted to please the people, so he let Barabbas go free. He told the soldiers to beat Jesus and nail him to a cross.

¹⁶ The soldiers took Jesus to a room. They called all the soldiers together.

¹⁷ They put a red gown on Jesus. They made a big ring of thorns like a crown and put it on his head.

¹⁸ Then they began to speak to him as if he were a king. They shouted, `Greetings, King of the Jews!'

¹⁹ They hit him on the head with a stick and spat on him. They kneeled down before him as if to give him great respect.

²⁰ When they had made fun of him, they took off the red gown and put his own clothes on him again. Then they took Jesus out of the city to nail him to a cross.

²¹ man was coming in from the farms. His name was Simon. He was born in the country of Cyrene. Alexander and Rufus were his sons. The soldiers caught Simon and made him carry Jesus' cross.