Book of Common Prayer

⁷ My dear brothers, I am not writing you a new law. This is an old law. You had it from the beginning. The old law is the word which you have heard.

⁸ But in a way, I am writing you a new law. The darkness is going away and the true light is shining already.

⁹ Does anyone say he is in the light, and hates his brother? Then he is still in the dark.

¹⁰ The man who loves his brother lives in the light. There is nothing in him to make him do wrong.

¹¹ But the man who hates his brother is in the dark. He lives in the dark. He does not know where he is going, because the darkness has made him blind.

¹² Children, I am writing to you because God has forgiven the wrong things you have done. Your wrong ways have been forgiven because of what Christ did.

¹³ Fathers, I am writing to you because you know the One who has lived from the beginning. Young men, I am writing to you because you have won the victory over the devil. Children, I write to you because you know Father God.

¹⁴ Fathers, I write to you because you know him, the one who has lived from the beginning. Young men, I write to you because you are strong. You believe God's word. You have won the victory over the devil.

¹⁵ Do not love the world, or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, he does not love the Father.

¹⁶ Nothing in the world comes from the Father. I mean the wrong things people like to do with their bodies. I mean the things people see and want to have. I mean all the things people are proud of in this life. These things come from the world, not the Father.

¹⁷ And the world will go away and all the things in it that people like to do. But the person who does what God wants him to do will live for ever.

⁹ Jesus rose early on the first day of the week. He showed himself first to Mary Magdalene. Jesus had driven seven bad spirits out of her.

¹⁰ She went and told the disciples that she had seen him. They were still crying because Jesus was dead.

¹¹ Mary told them that he was living. She had seen him. But they would not believe it.

¹² After this, Jesus came to two disciples. He looked like a different person. They were walking out in the country.

¹³ They went back and told the rest of the disciples, but they would not believe them either.

¹⁴ Then after that Jesus showed himself to the eleven disciples while they were eating. He said it was very bad for them not to believe and for their minds to be slow. He said they should have believed those who saw him after he rose from death.

¹⁵ Then Jesus said to them, `Go into every part of the world. Tell the good news to everyone.

¹⁶ The one who believes the good news and is baptised will be saved. But he who does not believe will be judged and punished.

¹⁷ These signs will be with those who believe. They will drive bad spirits out of people by using my name. They will speak new languages.

¹⁸ They will take up snakes. If they drink poison, it will not make them sick. They will put their hands on sick people and sick people will get well again.'

¹⁹ So after the Lord Jesus had talked to them, he went up into heaven and sat down beside God.

²⁰ Then the disciples went and told the good news everywhere. The Lord worked with them. He made their words come true by the signs that happened after they talked.