Book of Common Prayer

The day of the Lord

3 My dear family, this is now the second time I am writing you a letter. Your motives are pure, and what I’m trying to do in reminding you is to stir them into action, ² so that you’ll remember the words spoken earlier by the holy prophets, and by the command of the Lord and savior which you received from your apostles. ³ But you must first know this. Deceivers will come in the last days, with deceitful ways, behaving according to their own desires. ⁴ This is what they will say: “Where is the promise of his royal arrival? Ever since the previous generation died, everything has continued just as it has from the beginning of creation.” ⁵ They willingly overlook this one thing, you see: the ancient heavens and earth were formed out of water and through water, by God’s word— ⁶ and it was destroyed by flooding the world of that time with water. ⁷ The heavens and earth that we now have are being preserved for fire by the same word, being kept for the day of judgment and the destruction of the wicked. ⁸ So, beloved, don’t forget this one thing, that a single day with the Lord is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like a single day. ⁹ The Lord is not delaying his promise, in the way that some think of delay, but he is very patient towards you. He does not want anyone to be destroyed. Rather, he wants everyone to arrive at repentance.

¹⁰ But the Lord’s day will come like a thief. On that day the heavens will pass away with a great rushing sound, the elements will be dissolved in fire, and the earth and all the works on it will be disclosed.

The question about John

²³ Jesus went into the Temple. As he was teaching, the chief priests and the elders of the people came up to him.

“By what right are you doing these things?” they asked him. “Who gave you this right?”

²⁴ “I’m going to ask you one question, too,” replied Jesus, “and if you tell me the answer then I’ll tell you by what right I’m doing these things. ²⁵ Where did John’s baptism come from? Was it from heaven, or from this world?”

They debated this among themselves. “If we say ‘from heaven,’ ” they said, “he’s going to say to us, ‘So why didn’t you believe him?’ ²⁶ But if we say ‘from this world,’ we’ll have to watch out for the crowd, because they all reckon that John was a prophet.”

²⁷ So they answered Jesus, “We don’t know.”

“Well, then,” said Jesus, “nor will I tell you by what right I’m doing these things.

²⁸ “What d’you think?” he went on. “Once upon a time there was a man who had two sons.

“He went to the first one and said, ‘Now then, my boy, off you go and do a day’s work in the vineyard.’

²⁹ “ ‘Don’t want to,’ replied the son; but afterwards he thought better of it and went.

³⁰ “He went to the other son and said the same thing.

“ ‘Certainly, Master,’ he said; but he didn’t go.

³¹ “So which of the two did what his father wanted?”

“The first,” they answered.

“I’m telling you the truth,” Jesus said to them. “The tax-collectors and prostitutes are going into God’s kingdom ahead of you! ³² Yes: John came to you, in accordance with God’s righteous covenant plan, and you didn’t believe him—but the tax-collectors and prostitutes believed him. But when you saw it, you didn’t think better of it afterwards and believe him.”