Book of Common Prayer

The divine purpose, and limited role, of ruling authorities

13 Every person must be subject to the ruling authorities. There is no authority, you see, except from God, and those that exist have been put in place by God. ² As a result, anyone who rebels against authority is resisting what God has set up, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. ³ For rulers hold no terrors for people who do good, but only for people who do evil.

If you want to have no fear of the ruling power, do what is good, and it will praise you. ⁴ It is God’s servant, you see, for you and your good. But if you do evil, be afraid; the sword it carries is no empty gesture. It is God’s servant, you see: an agent of justice to bring his anger on evildoers. ⁵ That is why it is necessary to submit, not only to avoid punishment but because of conscience.

⁶ That, too, is why you pay taxes. The officials in question are God’s ministers, attending to this very thing. ⁷ So pay each of them what is owed: tribute to those who collect it, revenue to those who collect it. Respect those who should be respected. Honor the people one ought to honor.

Love, the law and the coming day

⁸ Don’t owe anything to anyone, except the debt of mutual love. If you love your neighbor, you see, you have fulfilled the law. ⁹ Commandments like “don’t commit adultery, don’t kill, don’t steal, don’t covet”—and any other commandment—are summed up in this: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” ¹⁰ Love does no wrong to its neighbor; so love is the fulfillment of the law.

¹¹ This is all the more important because you know what time it is. The hour has come for you to wake up from sleep. Our salvation, you see, is nearer now than it was when first we came to faith. ¹² The night is nearly over, the day is almost here. So let’s put off the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light. ¹³ Let’s behave appropriately, as in the daytime: not in wild parties and drunkenness, not in orgies and shameless immorality, not in bad temper and jealousy. ¹⁴ Instead, put on the Lord Jesus, the Messiah, and don’t make any allowance for the flesh and its lusts.

³³ “We are Abraham’s descendants!” they replied. “We’ve never been anyone’s slaves! How can you say that ‘you’ll become free’?”

³⁴ “I’m telling you the solemn truth,” Jesus replied. “Everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin. ³⁵ The slave doesn’t live in the house forever; the son lives there forever. ³⁶ So, you see, if the son makes you free, you will be truly free.”

Children of Abraham—or of the devil

³⁷ “I know you’re Abraham’s descendants,” Jesus went on. “But you’re trying to kill me, because my word doesn’t find a place among you. ³⁸ I am speaking of what I have seen with the father; and you, too, are doing what you heard from your father.”

³⁹ “Abraham is our father!” they replied.

“If you really were Abraham’s children,” replied Jesus, “you would do what Abraham did! ⁴⁰ But now you’re trying to kill me—me, a man who has told you the truth which I heard from God! That’s not what Abraham did. ⁴¹ You’re doing the works of your father.”

“There wasn’t anything immoral about the way we were born!” they replied. “We’ve got one father, and that’s God!”

⁴² “If God really was your father,” replied Jesus, “you would love me, because I came from God, and here I am. I didn’t come on my own initiative, you see, but he sent me. ⁴³ Why don’t you understand what I’m saying? It can only be because you can’t hear my word. ⁴⁴ You are from your father—the devil! And you’re eager to get on with what he wants. He was a murderer from the beginning, and he’s never remained in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he tells lies, he speaks what comes naturally to him, because he is a liar—in fact, he’s the father of lies! ⁴⁵ But because I speak the truth, you don’t believe me. ⁴⁶ Which of you can bring a charge of sin against me? If I speak the truth, why don’t you believe me? ⁴⁷ The one who is from God speaks God’s words. That’s why you don’t listen, because you’re not from God.”