Book of Common Prayer
The living sacrifice
12 So, my dear family, this is my appeal to you by the mercies of God: offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. That’s what properly thought-out worship looks like. 2 What’s more, don’t let yourselves be squeezed into the shape dictated by the present age. Instead, be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you can work out what God’s will is, what is good, acceptable and complete.
3 Through the grace which was given to me, I have this to say to each one of you: don’t think of yourselves more highly than you ought to think. Rather, think soberly, in line with faith, the true standard which God has marked out for each of you. 4 As in one body we have many limbs and organs, you see, and all the parts have different functions, 5 so we, many as we are, are one body in the Messiah, and individually we belong to one another.
Living together in the Messiah
6 Well then, we have gifts that differ in accordance with the grace that has been given to us, and we must use them appropriately. If it is prophecy, we must prophesy according to the pattern of the faith. 7 If it is serving, we must work at our serving; if teaching, at our teaching; 8 if exhortation, at our exhortation; if giving, with generosity; if leading, with energy; if doing acts of kindness, with cheerfulness.
The light of the world
12 Jesus spoke to them again.
“I am the light of the world,” he said. “People who follow me won’t go around in the dark; they’ll have the light of life!”
13 “You’re giving evidence in your own case!” said the Pharisees. “Your evidence is false!”
14 “Even if I do give evidence about myself,” replied Jesus to them, “my evidence is true, because I know where I came from and where I’m going to. But you don’t know where I come from or where I’m going to. 15 You are judging in merely human terms; I don’t judge anyone. 16 But even if I do judge, my judgment is true, because I’m not a lone voice; I have on my side the father who sent me. 17 It is written in your law that the evidence of two people is true. 18 I’m giving evidence about myself, and the father who sent me is giving evidence about me.”
19 “Where is your father?” they said to him.
“You don’t know me,” replied Jesus, “and you don’t know my father! If you had known me, you would have known my father as well.”
20 He said all this in the treasury, while he was teaching in the Temple. Nobody arrested him, though, because his time hadn’t yet come.
Scripture quotations from The New Testament for Everyone are copyright © Nicholas Thomas Wright 2011, 2018, 2019.