Book of Common Prayer

2 There was a time when you were dead. That was because of the bad and the wrong things you did.

² At one time you did those wrong things, just like the people around you. You obeyed the ruler who has the power over things in the air. That ruler is the spirit who is working now in the people who do not obey God.

³ At one time we too all lived like them. We lived to please ourselves. We did what our bodies and our minds wanted us to do. We were people with whom God was angry, just like other people.

⁴ But God was very, very kind. He loved us very, very much.

⁵ We were dead because of the wrong things we had done. He has made us alive with Christ. You have been saved by his love and kindness.

⁶ God raised us from death with Christ Jesus and gave us a place to sit with him in heaven.

⁷ He did this to show us in all times to come how much he can bless people and how kind he is. It was Jesus Christ who brought this kindness to us.

⁸ You have been saved by God's love and kindness because you believed. It was not because of anything you did, but it was a gift from God.

⁹ You were not saved by trying to do what the law says. So no one can be proud about it.

¹⁰ God has made us. In Jesus Christ God made us so that we can do good things. He planned that we should live that way.

²² Many people will say to me on that day, "Lord, Lord, did we not speak in your name? Did we not drive bad spirits out of people in your name? Did we not do big works in your name?"

²³ Then I will say to them, "I never knew you. Go away from me! What you do is very wrong!" '

²⁴ `Everyone who hears what I say and obeys me will be like a man who has good sense. He built his house on a rock.

²⁵ It rained hard. The water in the rivers came up high. The winds were strong and beat on the house. But it did not fall down. It was built on a rock.

²⁶ But everyone who hears what I say and does not obey me, will be like a man who has no sense. He built his house on the sand.

²⁷ It rained hard. The water in the rivers came up high. The winds were strong and beat on the house. It fell down with a loud noise!'