Book of Common Prayer

He exhorts them to meekness and longsuffering, to love and peace. Everyone is to serve and edify the other with the gift that God has given him, to beware of strange doctrine, to lay aside the old life of greedy desires, and to walk in a new life.

4 I therefore, who am in bonds for the Lord’s sake, exhort you to walk worthy of the calling wherein you are called, ² in all humbleness of mind, and meekness and longsuffering, forbearing one another through love; ³ and to be diligent to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, ⁴ being one body and one spirit, even as you are called in one hope of your calling. ⁵ Let there be but one Lord, one faith, one baptism: ⁶ one God and Father of all, who is above all, through all, and in you all.

⁷ To every one of us grace is given according to the nature and scope of the gift of Christ. ⁸ Therefore he says: He ascended up on high, and has led captivity captive, and has given gifts to men. ⁹ That he ascended, what does it mean but that he also descended first, into the lowest parts of the earth? ¹⁰ He who descended is the same also who ascended up, even above all heavens, to fulfil all things. ¹¹ And the very same made some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some shepherds, and some teachers, ¹² so that the saints may have all things necessary to work and minister for the edifying of the body of Christ, ¹³ until we every one (in the unity of faith and the knowledge of the Son of God) grow up to be perfect in the maturity of the fullness of Christ; ¹⁴ so that we henceforth would no longer be children, wavering and carried with every wind of doctrine by the wiliness of men, and craftiness whereby they lay in wait for us, to deceive us.

¹⁵ But let us follow the truth in love, and in all things grow in him who is the head; that is to say, Christ. ¹⁶ In him all the body is coupled and knit together in every joint, and one ministers to another (according to the divine working, as every part has its role), and advances the body for the edifying of itself in love.

The everlasting birth of Christ, and how he became man. The testimony of John. The calling of Andrew, Peter, etc.

1 In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. ² The same was in the beginning with God. ³ All things were made by it, and without it was made nothing that was made. ⁴ In it was life, and the life was the light of men. ⁵ And the light shines in the darkness, but the darkness comprehended it not.

⁶ There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. ⁷ This man came as a witness to bear witness of the light, so that all through him might believe. ⁸ He was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of the light ⁹ that was the true light, who lights all men that come into the world. ¹⁰ He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and yet the world knew him not.

¹¹ He came among his own, and his own received him not. ¹² But as many as received him, to them he gave power to be the children of God, in that they believed on his name – ¹³ who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor yet of the will of man, but of God.

¹⁴ And the word was made flesh and dwelt among us. And we saw the glory of it, as the glory of the only begotten Son of the Father, which word was full of grace and truth. ¹⁵ John bore witness of him and cried out, saying, This was he of whom I spoke, who, though he came after me, went before me, because he was before me. ¹⁶ And of his fullness we have all received, even grace for grace. ¹⁷ For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. ¹⁸ No man has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him.