Book of Common Prayer

A Prayer for the King^[a]

The Justice of the Law of the Lord

A Prayer for Deliverance

Faith in the Law of the Lord

¹⁸ On the third day Joseph said to them, “I am a God-fearing man, and I will spare your lives on one condition. ¹⁹ To prove that you are honest, one of you will stay in the prison where you have been kept; the rest of you may go and take back to your starving families the grain that you have bought. ²⁰ Then you must bring your youngest brother to me. This will prove that you have been telling the truth, and I will not put you to death.”

They agreed to this ²¹ and said to one another, “Yes, now we are suffering the consequences of what we did to our brother; we saw the great trouble he was in when he begged for help, but we would not listen. That is why we are in this trouble now.”

^22 (A)Reuben said, “I told you not to harm the boy, but you wouldn't listen. And now we are being paid back for his death.” ²³ Joseph understood what they said, but they did not know it, because they had been speaking to him through an interpreter. ²⁴ Joseph left them and began to cry. When he was able to speak again, he came back, picked out Simeon, and had him tied up in front of them.

Joseph's Brothers Return to Canaan

²⁵ Joseph gave orders to fill his brothers' packs with grain, to put each man's money back in his sack, and to give them food for the trip. This was done. ²⁶ The brothers loaded their donkeys with the grain they had bought, and then they left. ²⁷ At the place where they spent the night, one of them opened his sack to feed his donkey and found his money at the top of the sack. ²⁸ “My money has been returned to me,” he called to his brothers. “Here it is in my sack!” Their hearts sank, and in fear they asked one another, “What has God done to us?”

⁹ In the letter that I wrote you I told you not to associate with immoral people. ¹⁰ Now I did not mean pagans who are immoral or greedy or are thieves, or who worship idols. To avoid them you would have to get out of the world completely. ¹¹ What I meant was that you should not associate with a person who calls himself a believer but is immoral or greedy or worships idols or is a slanderer or a drunkard or a thief. Don't even sit down to eat with such a person.

^12-13 (A)After all, it is none of my business to judge outsiders. God will judge them. But should you not judge the members of your own fellowship? As the scripture says, “Remove the evil person from your group.”

Lawsuits against Fellow Christians

6 If any of you have a dispute with another Christian, how dare you go before heathen judges instead of letting God's people settle the matter? ² Don't you know that God's people will judge the world? Well, then, if you are to judge the world, aren't you capable of judging small matters? ³ Do you not know that we shall judge the angels? How much more, then, the things of this life! ⁴ If such matters come up, are you going to take them to be settled by people who have no standing in the church? ⁵ Shame on you! Surely there is at least one wise person in your fellowship who can settle a dispute between fellow Christians. ⁶ Instead, one Christian goes to court against another and lets unbelievers judge the case!

⁷ The very fact that you have legal disputes among yourselves shows that you have failed completely. Would it not be better for you to be wronged? Would it not be better for you to be robbed? ⁸ Instead, you yourselves wrong one another and rob one another, even other believers!

The Parable of the Sower^(A)

4 ^(B)Again Jesus began to teach beside Lake Galilee. The crowd that gathered around him was so large that he got into a boat and sat in it. The boat was out in the water, and the crowd stood on the shore at the water's edge. ² He used parables to teach them many things, saying to them:

³ “Listen! Once there was a man who went out to sow grain. ⁴ As he scattered the seed in the field, some of it fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. ⁵ Some of it fell on rocky ground, where there was little soil. The seeds soon sprouted, because the soil wasn't deep. ⁶ Then, when the sun came up, it burned the young plants; and because the roots had not grown deep enough, the plants soon dried up. ⁷ Some of the seed fell among thorn bushes, which grew up and choked the plants, and they didn't bear grain. ⁸ But some seeds fell in good soil, and the plants sprouted, grew, and bore grain: some had thirty grains, others sixty, and others one hundred.”

⁹ And Jesus concluded, “Listen, then, if you have ears!”

The Purpose of the Parables^(C)

¹⁰ When Jesus was alone, some of those who had heard him came to him with the twelve disciples and asked him to explain the parables. ¹¹ “You have been given the secret of the Kingdom of God,” Jesus answered. “But the others, who are on the outside, hear all things by means of parables, ^12 (D)so that,

Jesus Explains the Parable of the Sower^(E)

¹³ Then Jesus asked them, “Don't you understand this parable? How, then, will you ever understand any parable? ¹⁴ The sower sows God's message. ¹⁵ Some people are like the seeds that fall along the path; as soon as they hear the message, Satan comes and takes it away. ¹⁶ Other people are like the seeds that fall on rocky ground. As soon as they hear the message, they receive it gladly. ¹⁷ But it does not sink deep into them, and they don't last long. So when trouble or persecution comes because of the message, they give up at once. ¹⁸ Other people are like the seeds sown among the thorn bushes. These are the ones who hear the message, ¹⁹ but the worries about this life, the love for riches, and all other kinds of desires crowd in and choke the message, and they don't bear fruit. ²⁰ But other people are like seeds sown in good soil. They hear the message, accept it, and bear fruit: some thirty, some sixty, and some one hundred.”