Book of Common Prayer

²⁸ And as it did not seem good to them to acknowledge God, so God delivered them up to a reprobate mind, to do those things which were not right, ²⁹ being full of all unrighteous doing: of fornication, wickedness, covetousness, vice; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit; evil-natured, whisperers, ³⁰ backbiters, haters of God, doers of wrong, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to father and mother, ³¹ without understanding, covenant breakers, unloving, truce breakers, and merciless. ³² Which people, though they knew the righteousness of God, that those who do such things are worthy of death, yet not only do the same, but also have pleasure in those who do them.

Paul rebukes the Jews, who as concerning sin are like the heathen; yea, worse than they.

2 Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge. For in the same thing that you judge another, you condemn yourself. For you who judge do even the same things. ² But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who commit such things.

³ Do you think, O man, you who judge others who do such things, and yet do even the very same, that you will escape the judgment of God? ⁴ Or do you think nothing of the riches of his goodness, patience, and longsuffering? And remember not how it is that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?

⁵ But you, after your hard heart that cannot repent, heap together against yourself the treasure of wrath for the day of vengeance, when the righteous judgment of God will be revealed. ⁶ He will reward every person according to his deeds; ⁷ that is to say, praise, honour, and immortality to those who continue in doing good and seek eternal life; ⁸ but to those who are rebellious, and reject the truth, and follow iniquity, will come indignation and wrath – ⁹ tribulation and anguish upon the soul of every person who does evil: of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile. ¹⁰ To everyone who does good will come praise, honour, and peace: to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile. ¹¹ For there is no partiality with God.

He heals the man who had been sick for 38 years. The Jews accuse him. He answers for himself and reproves them.

5 After that there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. ² And there is at Jerusalem, by the slaughterhouse, a pool called in the Hebrew tongue Bethseda, having five porches, ³ in which lay a great number of sick folk, of the blind, lame, and paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water. ⁴ For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water. Whoever then first after the stirring of the water stepped in, was made whole of whatever disease he had.

⁵ And a certain man was there who had been diseased 38 years. ⁶ When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that for a long time now he had been diseased, he said to him, Do you want to be made whole? ⁷ The sick man answered him, Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up. But in the meantime, when I am about to come, another steps down before me. ⁸ And Jesus said to him, Rise, take up your bed, and walk. ⁹ And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed and walked.

And that day was the Sabbath day. ¹⁰ The Jews therefore said to him who had been healed, It is the Sabbath day; it is not lawful for you to carry your bed. ¹¹ He answered them, The man who made me whole said to me, Take up your bed and walk. ¹² Then they asked him, What man is it that said to you, Take up your bed and walk? ¹³ But the man that was healed did not know who it was. For Jesus had gotten himself away, because there was a press of people in the place.

¹⁴ And after that, Jesus found the man in the temple and said to him, Behold, you are made whole. Sin no more, lest a worse thing happen to you. ¹⁵ The man departed and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him whole. ¹⁶ And therefore the Jews persecuted Jesus, and sought means to slay him, because he had done these things on the Sabbath day.

¹⁷ And Jesus told them, My Father works until now, and I work.

¹⁸ Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill him, not only because he had broken the Sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, and made himself equal with God.