Book of Common Prayer

¹² I am free to do anything I want, but some things are not good for me to do. I am free to do anything, but I will not become a slave of anything.

¹³ `Food is for the body, and the body is for food.' But God will bring both to an end. The body is not made to be used for wrong sex behaviour, but for the Lord. And the Lord is for the body.

¹⁴ God raised up the Lord and he will also raise us up by his power.

¹⁵ Do you not know that your bodies belong to Christ? Shall I take parts of Christ and join them to a bad woman? No, never!

¹⁶ Do you not know that the person who joins himself to a bad woman becomes one person with her? The holy writings say, `The two people shall be like one body.'

¹⁷ But the one who joins himself with the Lord becomes one spirit with him.

¹⁸ Run away from every kind of wrong sex! Every other wrong thing which a person does is done outside of his body. But the person who uses sex the wrong way does a wrong thing to his own body.

¹⁹ Do you not know that your body is the house of the Holy Spirit who lives in you? God gave the Holy Spirit to you. Remember, you do not belong to yourself.

²⁰ But you were bought and paid for. So then, bring glory to God with your bodies.

²¹ Then Jesus said to them, `People do not bring a light and put it under a basket or under a bed. But they put it on the place for a lamp.

²² Everything that is hidden will be seen. Everything that is secret will be known and come out to be seen.

²³ Everyone who has ears to hear, listen!'

²⁴ And Jesus said, `Take care how you listen. How much you give to others is how much will be given to you. You who obey God will get more than you give.

²⁵ Anyone who has some will get more. But he who does not have anything, even the little that he has will be taken away from him.'

²⁶ And Jesus said, `The kingdom of God is like this. A man sows some seed in the ground.

²⁷ Then he goes on just as he did before. He sleeps at night and wakes up in the morning. The seed begins to grow but he doesn't know what makes it grow.

²⁸ The ground itself makes the seed grow. First the plant comes up. Then it begins to have seed of its own. After a while the harvest is ready.

²⁹ When the harvest is really ready, he cuts it right away because the harvest time has come.'

³⁰ And Jesus said, `What is the kingdom of God like? What shall I say it is like?

³¹ It is like this. A mustard seed is the smallest seed that is ever planted in the earth.

³² But the plant that grows from that seed is bigger than any other plant. It puts out very big branches. The birds come and live in its branches.'

³³ Jesus told the people many stories like this. He told them as much of God's words as they were able to understand.

³⁴ He did not tell them anything without a story. When he was alone with his disciples, he told them the meaning of the stories.