Book of Common Prayer
5 So you should be imitators of God, like dear children. 2 Conduct yourselves in love, just as the Messiah loved us, and gave himself for us, as a sweet-smelling offering and sacrifice to God.
Darkness and light in matters of sex
3 As for fornication, uncleanness of any kind, or greed: you shouldn’t even mention them! You are, after all, God’s holy people. 4 Shameful, stupid or coarse conversations are quite out of place. Instead, there should be thanksgiving.
5 You should know this, you see: no fornicator, nobody who practices uncleanness, no greedy person (in other words, an idolator), has any inheritance in the Messiah’s kingdom, or in God’s. 6 Don’t let anyone fool you with empty words. It’s because of these things, you see, that God’s wrath is coming on people who are disobedient.
7 So don’t share in their practices. 8 After all, at one time you were darkness, but now, in the Lord, you are light! So behave as children of light. 9 Light has its fruit, doesn’t it, in everything that’s good, and just, and true. 10 Think through what’s going to be pleasing to the Lord. Work it out.
Light and darkness
11 So, then, don’t get involved in the works of darkness, which all come to nothing. Instead, expose them! 12 The things they do in secret, you see, are shameful even to talk about. 13 But everything becomes visible when it’s exposed to the light, 14 since everything that is visible is light. That’s why it says:
Wake up, you sleeper!
Rise up from the dead!
The Messiah will shine on you!
15 So take special care how you conduct yourselves. Don’t be unwise, but be wise. 16 Make use of any opportunity you have, because these are wicked times we live in. 17 So don’t be foolish; rather, understand what the Lord’s will is. 18 And don’t get drunk with wine; that way lies dissipation. Rather, be filled with the spirit! 19 Speak to each other in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and chanting in your heart to the Lord, 20 always giving thanks for everything to God the father in the name of our Lord Jesus the Messiah.
The man born blind
9 As Jesus was going along, he saw a man who had been blind from birth.
2 “Teacher,” his disciples asked him, “whose sin was it that caused this man to be born blind? Did he sin, or did his parents?”
3 “He didn’t sin,” replied Jesus, “nor did his parents. It happened so that God’s works could be seen in him. 4 We must work the works of the one who sent me as long as it’s still daytime. The night is coming, and nobody can work then! 5 As long as I’m in the world, I’m the light of the world.”
6 With these words, he spat on the ground, and made some mud out of his spittle. He spread the mud on the man’s eyes.
7 “Off you go,” he said to him, “and wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means “sent”). So he went off and washed. When he came back, he could see.
8 His neighbors, and the people who used to see him begging, remarked on this.
“Isn’t this the man,” they said, “who used to sit here and beg?”
9 “Yes, it’s him!” said some of them.
“No, it isn’t!” said some others. “It’s somebody like him.”
But the man himself spoke.
“Yes, it’s me,” he said.
10 “Well, then,” they said to him, “how did your eyes get opened?”
11 “It was the man called Jesus!” he replied. “He made some mud, then he spread it on my eyes, and told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went, and washed, and I could see!”
12 “Where is he?” they asked.
“I don’t know,” he replied.
Seeing and not seeing
35 Jesus heard that they had thrown the man out. He found him and spoke to him.
“Do you believe in the son of man?” he asked.
36 “Who is he, sir,” asked the man, “so that I can believe in him?”
37 “You have seen him,” replied Jesus. “In fact, it’s the person who’s talking to you.”
38 “Yes, sir,” said the man; “I do believe.” And he worshiped him.
Scripture quotations from The New Testament for Everyone are copyright © Nicholas Thomas Wright 2011, 2018, 2019.