Book of Common Prayer
18 Children, let us not love in word, or in speech, but in deed and in truth.
19 Because of this, we know we are of the truth, and we will persuade our hearts of this fact before him, 20 because if our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts. He knows everything. 21 Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have boldness before God, 22 and we receive from him whatever we ask, because we keep his commands and give him pleasure when he sees what we are doing. 23 And this is his command, that we should believe in the name of his son Jesus the Messiah, and should love one another, just as he gave us the commandment. 24 Anyone who keeps his commandments abides in him, and he in them. This is how we know that he abides in us, by his spirit that he has given us.
False prophets
4 Beloved, do not believe every spirit. Rather, test the spirits to see whether they are from God. Many false prophets, you see, have gone out into the world. 2 This is how we know God’s spirit: every spirit that agrees that Jesus the Messiah has come in the flesh is from God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This spirit is actually the spirit of the Antimessiah. You have heard that it was coming, and now it is already in the world.
4 But you, children, are from God, and you have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. 5 They are from the world, and that is why they speak from the world, and why the world listens to them. 6 We are from God; people who know God listen to us, but people who are not from God do not listen to us. That is how we can tell the spirit of truth from the spirit of error.
The resurrection and the life
17 So when Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. 18 Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles away. 19 Many of the Judaeans had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother.
20 When Martha heard that Jesus had arrived, she went to meet him. Mary, meanwhile, stayed sitting at home.
21 “Master!” said Martha to Jesus. “If only you’d been here! Then my brother wouldn’t have died! 22 But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask him.”
23 “Your brother will rise again,” replied Jesus.
24 “I know he’ll rise again,” said Martha, “in the resurrection on the last day.”
25 “I am the resurrection and the life,” replied Jesus. “Anyone who believes in me will live, even if they die. 26 And anyone who lives and believes in me will never, ever die. Do you believe this?”
27 “Yes, Master,” she said. “This is what I’ve come to believe: that you are the Messiah, the son of God, the one who was to come into the world.”
Jesus goes to the tomb
28 With these words, Martha went back and called her sister Mary.
“The teacher has come,” she said to her privately, “and he’s asking for you.”
29 When she heard that, she got up quickly and went to him.
Scripture quotations from The New Testament for Everyone are copyright © Nicholas Thomas Wright 2011, 2018, 2019.