Book of Common Prayer

³ Think about him. He did not give up when bad people said wrong things about him. When you think about him, you will not become tired and your hearts will not give up.

⁴ You have been fighting against bad people. But you have not been hurt very much.

⁵ You have forgotten the words spoken to you as sons. `My son, when the Lord punishes you, do not think it is a little thing. Do not give up when he tells you that you do wrong.

⁶ The Lord punishes the person he loves. And he beats every son he takes into his family.'

⁷ Do not give up when you are punished. God is treating you like sons. Is there a son who has never been punished by his father?

⁸ You are punished like the other children in the family. If you are not, you do not belong to the family as the other children do.

⁹ And what is more, our fathers on earth punished us and we respected them. We should obey even more the Father of our spirits. If we do, we will live.

¹⁰ Our fathers on earth punished us for a short time the way they wanted to. But God punishes us the way it is good for us. He is holy and good, so he wants us to become holy also.

¹¹ At the time a person is punished, he is not glad. He is sad. But after it is over, there is peace. Then those who are trained by it do what is right.

7 After this, Jesus travelled around in Galilee. He would not travel around in Judea because the leaders of the Jews wanted to kill him.

² Every year the Jews had a feast to remember the time when their fathers lived in tents in the desert. The time was near for that feast.

³ Jesus' brothers said to him, `Go away from here to Judea. Let your disciples also see the work you are doing.

⁴ When a person wants people to know about him, he does not hide what he is doing. If you are doing these big things, let the world see you.'

⁵ Even his brothers did not believe in Jesus.

⁶ Jesus said to them, `It is not yet the time for me to go. But you may go any time you want to.

⁷ The people of the world cannot hate you. But they hate me because I say what they do is wrong.

⁸ Go to the feast yourselves. I am not going to the feast until it is the right time for me to go.'

⁹ He said this to them and stayed in Galilee.

¹⁰ After his brothers went to the feast, Jesus went also. He did not go with the other people, but he went by himself.

¹¹ The leaders of the Jews at the feast tried to find him. They said, `Where is he?'

¹² People were talking among themselves about Jesus. Some said, `He is a good man.' Others said, `No. He is leading people to do wrong things.'

¹³ But they were afraid of the Jewish leaders, so no one talked about him out in the open.