Book of Common Prayer

¹⁶ `I am sending you out amongst people. You will be like sheep amongst bad animals like wolves. So be wise like snakes, and harmless like doves.

¹⁷ But take care. Men will take you to their courts. They will beat you in their meeting houses.

¹⁸ They will bring you to rulers and kings for my sake. Then you will talk about me to them and to those who are not Jews.

¹⁹ When men take you to court, do not be troubled about what you will say. What you are to say will come to your mind at the right time.

²⁰ It is not you who speak. But it is the Spirit of your Father who is speaking through you.

²¹ A brother will take his brother to be killed. A father will take his child. The children will talk against their father and mother, and have them killed.

²² Everyone will hate you because you are true to me. But the person who keeps on being true to me until the end, will be saved.

¹² So lift up your hands that are hanging down. Make your weak knees strong.

¹³ Walk straight ahead. Then weak feet will not get worse, but will be made well.

¹⁴ Try to be at peace with all people. And try to be holy. If a person is not holy, he will not see the Lord.

¹⁵ Take care that no one loses God's blessing. Take care so that no angry feeling starts to grow in anyone. It will make trouble and many people will become bad.

¹⁶ Take care that no one takes part in wrong ways of using sex. And take care that no one is like Esau and forgets God. He was the older son. But he sold all that he would get from his father. He sold it for a little food.

¹⁷ You know that later he wanted to get the blessing, but he did not get it. He could not turn back. He even cried as he begged for the blessing.

¹⁸ You have not come to the mountain that can be touched and is burning with a big fire. You have not come to the place of darkness and night and storm.

¹⁹ You have not come to a place where a loud trumpet or horn is blown, and a loud voice is talking. When the people heard the voice, they begged that God would not say anything more to them.

²⁰ They were afraid of what he said. He said, `If even an animal touches this mountain, it must be killed with stones.'

²¹ Moses was afraid when he saw all this. He said, `I fear very much and I tremble.'

²² But you have come to a hill called Zion. You have come to the city of the living God. It is the Jerusalem in heaven. You have come to many thousands of angels in a happy gathering.

²³ You have come to the church people. They are God's first sons, and their names are written in heaven. You have come to God who is the judge of all people. You have come to the spirits of good people who have been made right.

²⁴ You have come to Jesus who is the middle man of a new agreement. You have come to the place where the spilling of his blood has more power than Abel's.