Book of Common Prayer

¹⁹ My dear brothers, do not forget this. Every man should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to be angry.

²⁰ When a man is angry, he does not do what God says is right.

²¹ So stop all your dirty living. Stop doing so many wrong things. Listen quietly to the word that has been put in your hearts. It is able to save you.

²² But obey God's word. Do not just listen to it. If you just listen to it, you fool yourselves.

²³ Anyone who just listens to the word, and does not obey it, is like a man who looks at his face in a looking glass.

²⁴ He looks at himself and goes away, and right away he forgets what he looked like.

²⁵ But there is a law that is all right. It sets people free from their old ways. Anyone who looks into that law and remembers it, is happy because he obeys the law. He does not just listen to the law and forget it, but he obeys what the law says.

²⁶ Some of you think that you are doing what God wants. But you are not careful what you say. If you are like that, you are fooling yourself. And you are not doing what God wants.

²⁷ This is what God the Father wants. It is clean and right. Go and help those who have no father and mother. Go and help widow women whose husbands are dead. These people have troubles. And keep yourself clean from the wrong things in the world.

6 Do not do good things so that people will see you do them. If you do, you will get no reward from your Father in heaven.

² `So when you give money to poor people, do not send men in front of you to blow trumpets or horns. Some people do this in the meeting houses and on the streets so that people will praise them. They are not true to themselves. I tell you the truth. They have their pay already.

³ But when you give money to poor people, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.

⁴ In this way, what you give to the poor will be secret. Your Father sees secret things and he will reward you.

⁵ `When you talk to God, do not be like people who are not true to themselves. They like to stand and talk to God in the meeting houses and at the street corners, so that people will see them. I tell you the truth. They have their reward already.

⁶ But when you talk to God, go into your room and shut the door. Then talk to your Father in secret. Your Father sees secret things and he will reward you.

¹⁶ `When you are fasting [not eating food for a time], do not look sad. That is what people do who are not true to themselves. They look sad to show people they are fasting. I tell you the truth. They have their reward already.

¹⁷ But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face as you do at other times.

¹⁸ Then people will not see that you are fasting. But your Father sees secret things, and he will reward you.'