Book of Common Prayer

¹⁶ If I announce the gospel, you see, that’s no reason for me to be proud. I’m under compulsion! Woe betide me if I don’t announce the gospel! ¹⁷ If I do it willingly, I have a reward; if I do it unwillingly—well, this is the commission that’s been entrusted to me! ¹⁸ So what is my reward? Just this: that when I announce the gospel I should give it away free of charge; that I shouldn’t make use of my rights in the gospel.

The apostle’s freedom—to be enslaved to everyone

¹⁹ The reason for all this is as follows. I am indeed free from everyone; but I have enslaved myself to everyone, so that I can win all the more. ²⁰ I became like a Jew to the Jews, to win Jews. I became like someone under the law to the people who are under the law, even though I’m not myself under the law, so that I could win those under the law. ²¹ To the lawless I became like someone lawless (even though I’m not lawless before God, but under the Messiah’s law), so that I could win the lawless. ²² I became weak to the weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people, so that in all ways I might save some. ²³ I do it all because of the gospel, so that I can be a partner in its benefits.

The Christian athlete

²⁴ Don’t you know that when people run on the racetrack everybody runs, but only one person gets the prize? Run in such a way that you’ll win it. ²⁵ Everyone who goes in for athletics exercises self-discipline in everything. They do it to gain a crown that perishes; we do it for an imperishable one. ²⁶ Well then: I don’t run in an aimless fashion! I don’t box like someone punching the air! ²⁷ No: I give my body rough treatment, and make it my slave, in case, after announcing the message to others, I myself should end up being disqualified.

⁴⁷ When evening came, the boat was in the middle of the sea, and he was alone on the shore. ⁴⁸ He saw they were having to work hard at rowing, because the wind was against them; and he came to them, in the small hours of the night, walking on the sea. He intended to go past them, ⁴⁹ but they saw him walking on the sea and thought it was an apparition. They yelled out; ⁵⁰ all of them saw him, and they were scared stiff.

At once he spoke to them.

“Cheer up,” he said, “it’s me. Don’t be afraid.”

⁵¹ He came up to them and got into the boat, and the wind stopped. They were overwhelmed with astonishment. ⁵² They hadn’t understood about the loaves, because their hearts were hardened.

⁵³ They made landfall at Gennesaret, and tied up the boat. ⁵⁴ People recognized Jesus as soon as they got out of the boat, ⁵⁵ and scurried about the whole region to bring sick people on stretchers to wherever they heard that he was. ⁵⁶ And wherever he went, in villages, towns or in the open country, they placed the sick in the market-places and begged him to let them touch even the hem of his garment. And all who touched it were healed.