Book of Common Prayer

⁷ My beloved ones, I am not writing a new command to you, but an old command which you have had from the very beginning. The old command is the word which you heard. ⁸ Again, however, I am writing a new command to you: it is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. ⁹ Anyone who says, “I am in the light,” while hating another family member, is still in darkness up to this very moment. ¹⁰ Anyone who loves another family member abides in the light, and there is no cause of offense in such a person. ¹¹ Anyone who hates another family member is in the darkness, and walks about in the darkness. Such people have no idea where they are going, because the darkness has blinded their eyes.

People of the lie

¹⁵ Do not love the world, or the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, the father’s love is not in them. ¹⁶ Everything in the world, you see—the greedy desire of the flesh, the greedy desire of the eyes, the pride of life—none of this is from the father. It is from the world. ¹⁷ The world is passing away, with all its greedy desires. But anyone who does God’s will abides forever.

⁹ [When Jesus was raised, early on the first day of the week, he appeared first of all to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons. ¹⁰ She went and told the people who had been with him, who were mourning and weeping. ¹¹ When they heard that he was alive, and that he had been seen by her, they didn’t believe it.

¹² After this he appeared in a different guise to two of them as they were walking into the countryside. ¹³ They came back and told the others, but they didn’t believe them.

¹⁴ Later Jesus appeared to the eleven themselves, as they were at table. He told them off for their unbelief and hardheartedness, for not believing those who had seen him after he had been raised.

¹⁵ “Go into all the world,” he said to them, “and announce the message to all creation. ¹⁶ Anyone who believes and is baptized will be rescued, but people who don’t believe will be condemned. ¹⁷ And these signs will happen around those who believe: they will drive out demons in my name, they will speak with new tongues, ¹⁸ they will pick up serpents in their hands; and if they drink anything poisonous it won’t harm them. They will lay their hands on the sick, and they will get better.”

¹⁹ When the Lord Jesus had spoken with them, he was taken up into heaven, and sat down at God’s right hand. ²⁰ They went out and announced the message everywhere. The Lord worked with them, validating their message by the signs that accompanied them.]