Book of Common Prayer

2 So stop all the wrong things you do. Stop all the ways you cheat people. Stop fooling people. Stop being jealous. Stop saying wrong things about people.

² Babies who have just been born want milk very much. In the same way, you should want God's word. That is like good milk. It will make you grow up so that you will then be fully saved.

³ You should want God's word if you have already tasted and know that the Lord is good.

⁴ Come to the Lord Jesus. He is like a living stone. People did not want to use it. But God chose it. It was worth very much to him.

⁵ You also are like living stones. You are being built into a temple, a holy place for God. You are to be holy priests there. You are to give sacrifices to God from your heart. God will accept them because of Jesus Christ.

⁶ The holy writings say, `Listen, I am placing a stone in Zion. It is the main stone of the house. I have chosen it and it is worth very much. Anyone who believes in him will not be ashamed.'

⁷ He is worth very much to you who believe in him. But some people do not believe in him. To them he is, `the stone that the men who were building would not use. But now it is the chief stone at the corner.'

⁸ And to them he is also, `a stone on which people will hit their feet, and a rock that will make them fall down.' They hit their feet on it, because they do not obey the word. It was planned that this would happen to them!

⁹ But you are a chosen people. You are priests to your king. You are a holy nation. You are God's very own people. All this is so that you will tell how good he is. He called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

¹⁰ At one time you were not God's people. But now you are God's people. At one time you did not know God's kindness. Now you do.

²³ Then Jesus said to his disciples, `I tell you the truth. It is very hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.

²⁴ And I tell you this also. It is easier for a big animal like a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.'

²⁵ When the disciples heard this, they were very much surprised. They said, `Then who can be saved?'

²⁶ Jesus looked at them and said, `Men cannot do it, but God can do anything.'

²⁷ Then Peter said, `See, we have left all things and have come with you. So what will we have?'

²⁸ Jesus said to them, `I tell you the truth. In the new world, the Son of Man will be great. He will sit on his throne of glory [big chair of a king] to rule. Then you who have come with me will also sit on twelve thrones. You will judge the twelve tribes of Israel.

²⁹ If anyone has left his house, his brothers, his sisters, his father, his mother, his children, or his farms for my sake, he will receive a hundred times as much as he has left. And he will live for ever.

³⁰ But many people who are first will be last, and those who are last will be first.'