Book of Common Prayer
The mystery of godliness
14 I’m writing this to you in the hope that I’ll be able to come to you in the near future. 15 But, if I’m delayed, this will help you to know how people should behave in God’s household, which is the assembly of the living God, the pillar and firm foundation of the truth. 16 Indeed, the mystery of godliness is certainly great:
He was revealed in the flesh,
and vindicated in the spirit;
he appeared to angels,
and was announced to Gentiles;
he was believed in the world,
and taken up in glory.
Beware of false teaching!
4 Now the spirit specifically declares that in the last times some people will abandon the faith, and will cling on to deceitful spirits and demonic teachings 2 perpetrated by hypocritical false teachers whose consciences are branded with a hot iron. 3 They will forbid marriage, and teach people to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by people who believe and know the truth. 4 Every creation of God, you see, is good; nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, 5 for then it is made holy by God’s word and prayer.
Get into training!
6 Set these instructions before the family. If you do this, you will be a good servant of Messiah Jesus; you will be nourished by the words of faith and the good teaching which you have been following. 7 Keep well away from worthless myths, the sort of things some old women mumble on about.
Go into training in godliness! 8 Physical exercise, you see, has a limited usefulness, but godliness is useful in every way. It carries the promise of life both now and in the future. 9 That saying is trustworthy; it deserves to be accepted totally! 10 This is what we are working and struggling for, you see, because we have set our hope on the living God, who is the savior of all people—more especially, of believers.
23 Jesus looked slowly around. Then he said to his disciples, “How difficult it is for the wealthy to enter the kingdom of God!”
24 The disciples were astonished at what he was saying. So Jesus repeated once more, “Children, it’s very hard to enter the kingdom of God! 25 It would be easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter God’s kingdom.”
26 They were totally amazed, and said to each other, “So who then can be saved?”
27 “It’s impossible for mortals,” Jesus said, looking hard at them, “but it’s not impossible for God. All things are possible for God.”
28 “Look here,” Peter started up, “we’ve left everything and followed you.”
29 “I’ll tell you the truth,” replied Jesus. “No one who has left a house, or brothers or sisters, or mother or father, or children, or lands, because of me and the gospel, 30 will fail to receive back a hundred times more in the present age: houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and lands—with persecutions!—and finally the life of the age to come. 31 But plenty of people at the front will end up at the back, and the back at the front.”
Scripture quotations from The New Testament for Everyone are copyright © Nicholas Thomas Wright 2011, 2018, 2019.