Book of Common Prayer

Instructions on holy living

4 What remains, my dear family, is for us to ask you, and indeed to urge you in the Lord Jesus, that you should continue more and more to behave in the manner that you received from us as the appropriate way of behaving and of pleasing God. ² You know, of course, what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. ³ This is God’s will, you see: he wants you to be holy, to keep well away from fornication. ⁴ Each of you should know how to control your own body in holiness and honor, ⁵ not in the madness of lust like Gentiles who don’t know God. ⁶ Nobody should break this rule, or cheat a fellow Christian in this area; the Lord is the avenger in all such matters, just as we told you before and testified most solemnly. ⁷ For God did not call us to a dirty life, but in holiness. ⁸ Anyone who rejects this, then, is not rejecting a human command, but the God who gives his holy spirit to you.

A life of love

⁹ Now, about charitable concern for the whole family: I don’t really need to write to you, because you yourselves have been taught by God to show loving care for one another. ¹⁰ Indeed, you are doing this for all the Christian family in the whole of Macedonia. But we urge you, my dear family, to make this an even more prominent part of your lives. ¹¹ You should make it your ambition to live peacefully, to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands, just as we commanded you, ¹² so that you may behave in a way which outsiders will respect, and so that none of you may be in financial difficulties.

Loving your enemies

³⁸ “You heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.’ ³⁹ But I say to you: don’t use violence to resist evil! Instead, when someone hits you on the right cheek, turn the other one towards him. ⁴⁰ When someone wants to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your cloak, too. ⁴¹ And when someone forces you to go one mile, go a second one with him. ⁴² Give to anyone who asks you, and don’t refuse someone who wants to borrow from you.

⁴³ “You heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ ⁴⁴ But I tell you: love your enemies! Pray for people who persecute you! ⁴⁵ That way, you’ll be children of your father in heaven! After all, he makes his sun rise on bad and good alike, and sends rain both on the upright and on the unjust. ⁴⁶ Look at it like this: if you love those who love you, do you expect a special reward? Even tax-collectors do that, don’t they? ⁴⁷ And if you only greet your own family, what’s so special about that? Even Gentiles do that, don’t they? ⁴⁸ Well then: you must be perfect, just as your heavenly father is perfect.”