Book of Common Prayer

¹³ So think clearly. Keep awake. When Jesus Christ comes, he will bring you blessing. Set all your hope on that.

¹⁴ Be children who obey. Do not be like what you were before you knew Christ. Then you did anything you wanted to do.

¹⁵ But be holy in all the things you do. Be holy because the one who has called you is holy.

¹⁶ God says in the holy writings, `You must be holy, because I am holy.'

¹⁷ You call God your Father. He does not think one man is better than another. He judges everyone by what he has done. So then you must fear him as you live your life here on earth.

¹⁸ You know this. You lived the way your fathers taught you to live, and it was not a good way to live. You were bought and set free from that way of life. But you were not bought with silver or gold money, which can spoil.

¹⁹ You were bought with blood that is worth much. It is like the blood of a sheep that is perfect with nothing wrong in its body. You were bought with the blood of Christ.

²⁰ Before the world was made God chose Christ to do it, and Christ came at the end of time for your sake.

²¹ It is through Christ that you believe in God. God raised Christ from death and made him great. And that is why you are able to believe and hope in God.

²² You have obeyed what is true and that has made your hearts clean. And now you really love your Christian brothers. So with your clean hearts, love each other very much.

²³ You have been made God's children. He did not make you his children by something that dies, but by something that cannot die. That is the word of God.

²⁴ The holy writings say, `People may be great. But they are like a flower on the grass. The grass dies and the flower falls off.

²⁵ But the word of the Lord cannot die!' And this word is the good news which has been told to you.

¹⁸ `I will not leave you without someone to help you. And I myself will come back to you.

¹⁹ In a short time the world will not see me again, but you will see me again. Because I live, you will live also.

²⁰ At that time you will know that I am in my Father. You are in me, and I am in you.

²¹ `He who knows the things I tell him to do and does them, really loves me. My Father will love him and I also will love him. I will show him who I am.'

²² Judas (not Iscariot) said to Jesus, `Lord, how are you going to make yourself real to us, and not to the rest of the world?'

²³ Jesus said to him, `If a person loves me, he will obey me. My Father also will love him. And we will come to him and will live with him.

²⁴ The person who does not love me does not obey me. The word which you hear is not my word. It is my Father's word. He is the one who sent me.

²⁵ `I have told you these things while I am still with you.

²⁶ But the Holy Spirit is the one who will help you. My Father will send him in my name. He will teach you everything that I have said to you. His Helper will remind you of all that I said.

²⁷ Peace is what I leave for you. I give you my own peace. People of the world also say, "Peace" to you. I do not say it as they say it. Do not let anything trouble your hearts. Do not fear.

²⁸ You heard me say, "I am going away and then I will come back to you." If you really loved me, then you would have been very glad that I am going to my Father. My Father is greater than I am.

²⁹ `I have told you this before it happens. Then when it does happen, you will believe.

³⁰ After this I will not talk much with you. The ruler of this world is coming. He has no power over me.

³¹ I will do what my Father tells me to do so that the people of the world may know that I love my Father. `Get up now! We must go.'