Book of Common Prayer

¹² Do not let wrong things rule over your bodies that are going to die. Do not do the things your bodies want.

¹³ Do not use your bodies to do wrong things. But give yourselves to God like men who have been raised from death to life. Give your bodies to God and use them to do good things.

¹⁴ Wrong ways will not be your masters. The law does not rule over you now, but God's loving kindness rules over you.

¹⁵ What then? The law does not rule over us now. God's loving kindness rules over us. So, shall we do wrong things? No, never!

¹⁶ If you give yourselves to be slaves and obey your master, you are not free. You are his slaves. Do you not know this: you may be slaves to wrong things? But you will not live for ever. Or you may be slaves to obey God. Then you will be made good people and live with him.

¹⁷ You were at one time slaves to wrong things. But I praise God that you obeyed what your teachers taught you. And you obeyed because you wanted to obey.

¹⁸ You were made free from doing wrong things. You were made slaves to good things.

¹⁹ I speak the way people would think about such things, because your minds are weak. At one time you gave your bodies to be slaves to your unclean ways, and to do more and more wrong things. So now give your bodies to be slaves to doing what is right, and to being good.

²⁰ When you were slaves to wrong things, you were free from doing good things.

²¹ You are now ashamed of those things. What good did they do you? For the end of those things is death.

²² But now you have been made free from wrong ways and you have been made God's slaves. You are made good and you will live for ever.

²³ The reward that wrong ways give is to die. But the gift which God gives is to live for ever. Christ Jesus our Lord has done this for us.

¹² Jesus went into the temple of God. He drove out all the people who were buying and selling in the temple. He threw down the tables of the money changers. He pushed down the seats of those who sold doves.

¹³ He said to them, `The holy writings say, "My house shall be called a house where people talk with God." But you have made it a place for people who steal!'

¹⁴ Blind people came to Jesus in the temple. People who could not walk came to him. And he healed them.

¹⁵ The chief priests and the scribes saw the big works that Jesus did. They saw the children calling out in the temple, `God save the Son of David!' They were angry.

¹⁶ They asked Jesus, `Do you hear what they are saying?' Jesus answered, `Yes. Have you never read this? "You like the praise of children and babies." '

¹⁷ Then he left them and went out of the city to Bethany. He stayed there for the night.

¹⁸ In the morning he went back to the city. On the way he was hungry.

¹⁹ Along the road he saw a fig tree. He went to the tree. There was no fruit on it, only leaves. He said to the tree, `No fruit will ever grow on you again!' Right away the tree died.

²⁰ The disciples saw it and were surprised. They said, `So soon the fig tree has died!'

²¹ Jesus said to them, `I tell you the truth. Believe God. Do not doubt him. Then you can do what I did to this fig tree. But that is not all. You can even say to this hill, "Go and jump into the sea" and it will be done.

²² When you ask God for anything, believe that you will have it. Then you will have it.'