Book of Common Prayer
No way back
6 So let’s leave the basic level of teaching about the Messiah, and go on towards maturity! (Let’s not repeat the business of laying a foundation of repentance from dead works and faith towards God, 2 teaching about baptisms, laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment.) 3 We shall do this, if God allows us to.
4 For once people have been enlightened—when they’ve tasted the heavenly gift and have had a share in the holy spirit, 5 and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the coming age— 6 it’s impossible to restore them again to repentance if they fall away, since they are crucifying God’s son all over again, on their own account, and holding him up to contempt. 7 You see, when rain falls frequently on the earth, and the land drinks it up and produces a crop useful to the people for whom it’s being cultivated, it shares in God’s blessing. 8 But if it produces thorns and thistles, it’s useless, and not far off from being cursed, and finally burned up.
Keep up the good work
9 Even though we speak in this way, my dear people, we are confident that there are better things to be said about you, things that point to salvation. 10 God is not unjust, after all—which he would be if he forgot your work, and the love you showed for his name, and all the service you have rendered and are still rendering to his holy people. 11 I want to encourage each one of you to show the same energetic enthusiasm for the task of bringing your hope to its full, assured goal. 12 You mustn’t become lazy. There are people who are inheriting the promises through faith and patience, and you should be copying them!
The bridegroom and his friend
22 After this, Jesus and his disciples went into the countryside of Judaea, and he stayed there with them and baptized. 23 John, too, was baptizing at Aenon, close to Salim. There was plenty of water there, and people came to him and were baptized. 24 This, of course, was before John had been put into prison.
25 There was, perhaps inevitably, a dispute between the disciples of John and a Judaean, on the subject of purification. 26 They came to John.
“Rabbi,” they said. “Remember the man who was with you beyond the Jordan, the one you gave evidence about? Well, look! He’s baptizing, and everyone’s going to him!”
27 “Nobody can receive anything unless heaven first gives it,” replied John. 28 “You yourselves can bear me out that I said I wasn’t the Messiah, but that I was sent ahead of him. 29 It’s the bridegroom who gets the bride. The bridegroom’s friend, who stands nearby and hears him, is very happy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. So, you see, my joy is now complete. 30 He must increase, but I must decrease.”
31 The one who comes from above is over everything. The one who is from the earth has an earthly character, and what he says has “earth” written all over it. The one who comes from heaven is above all. 32 He gives evidence about what he has heard and seen, and nobody accepts his evidence. 33 The one who does accept his evidence has put his signature to the fact that God is true. 34 The one God sent, you see, speaks God’s words, because he gives the spirit lavishly. 35 The father loves the son and has given everything into his hand. 36 Anyone who believes in the son shares in the life of God’s new age. Anyone who doesn’t believe in the son won’t see life, but God’s wrath rests on him.
Scripture quotations from The New Testament for Everyone are copyright © Nicholas Thomas Wright 2011, 2018, 2019.