Book of Common Prayer
The law and the spirit
13 When God called you, my dear family, he called you to make you free. But you mustn’t use that freedom as an opportunity for the flesh. Rather, you must become each other’s servants, through love. 14 For the whole law is summed up in one word, namely this: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 15 But if you bite each other and devour each other, watch out! You may end up being destroyed by each other.
16 Let me say this to you: live by the spirit, and you won’t do what the flesh wants you to. 17 For the flesh wants to go against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. They are opposed to each other, so that you can’t do what you want. 18 But if you are led by the spirit, you are not under the law.
19 Now the works of the flesh are obvious. They are such things as fornication, uncleanness, licentiousness, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hostilities, strife, jealousy, bursts of rage, selfish ambition, factiousness, divisions, 21 moods of envy, drunkenness, wild partying, and similar things. I told you before, and I tell you again: people who do such things will not inherit God’s kingdom.
Fruit of the spirit
22 But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, great-heartedness, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. There is no law that opposes things like that! 24 And those who belong to the Messiah, Jesus, crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live by the spirit, let’s line up with the spirit.
Peter’s declaration of Jesus’ messiahship
22 They arrived at Bethsaida. A blind man was brought to Jesus, and they begged him to touch him. 23 He took his hand, led him off outside the village, and put spittle on his eyes. Then he laid his hands on him, and asked, “Can you see anything?”
24 “I can see people,” said the man, peering around, “but they look like trees walking about.”
25 Then Jesus laid his hands on him once more. This time he looked hard, and his sight came back: he could see everything clearly. 26 Jesus sent him back home.
“Don’t even go into the village,” he said.
27 Jesus and his disciples came to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked his disciples, “Who are people saying that I am?”
28 “John the Baptist,” they said, “or, some say, Elijah; or, others say, one of the prophets.”
29 “What about you?” asked Jesus. “Who do you say I am?”
Peter spoke up. “You’re the Messiah,” he said.
30 He gave them strict orders not to tell anyone about him.
Scripture quotations from The New Testament for Everyone are copyright © Nicholas Thomas Wright 2011, 2018, 2019.