Book of Common Prayer

The weak ought not to be held in disdain. No person should occasion harm to another’s conscience. Again, no one should condemn another for outward things.

14 Him who is weak in the faith, receive to yourselves – not in disputing and troubling his conscience. ² One believes that he may eat all things; another, who is weak, eats vegetables. ³ Let not him who eats look down on him who does not. And let not him who abstains judge one who eats, for God has received him. ⁴ Who are you, to judge another man’s servant? Whether he stands or falls pertains to his master; yea, he will stand, because God is able to make him stand.

⁵ This man distinguishes between day and day, another counts all days alike. See to it that no one wavers in his own purpose: ⁶ he who observes one day over another does it for the Lord’s pleasure, and he who does not observe one day over another does it also to please the Lord. He who eats does it to please the Lord, for he gives God thanks; and he who does not eat abstains to please the Lord at the same time, and gives God thanks. ⁷ For none of us lives as his own servant, and neither does any of us die his own servant. ⁸ If we live, we live to be at the Lord’s will, and if we die, we die at the Lord’s will. Therefore whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. ⁹ It is for this that Christ died and rose up and recovered life: to be Lord of both the dead and the living.

¹⁰ But why do you then judge your brother? Or, why do you despise your brother? We shall all be brought before the judgment seat of Christ. ¹¹ For it is written: As surely as I live, says the Lord, all knees will bow to me, and all tongues will acknowledge God. ¹² So then, every one of us will give an account of himself to God.

⁴⁷ While he was yet speaking, lo, Judas, one of the twelve, came, and with him a large band of men bearing swords and clubs, sent by the chief priests and elders of the people. ⁴⁸ And he who betrayed him had arranged a sign, saying, Whomever I kiss, he is the one; lay hands on him. ⁴⁹ And at once he went up to Jesus and said, Hail, Master! and kissed him. ⁵⁰ And Jesus said to him, Friend, why have you come? Then they came and laid hands on Jesus and took him.

⁵¹ And at that, one of the men who were with Jesus stretched out his hand and drew his sword, and struck a servant of the high priest and cut off his ear. ⁵² Then said Jesus to him, Put your sword back in its sheath. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword. ⁵³ Or do you think I cannot now pray to my Father, and he would send me more than twelve legions of angels? ⁵⁴ But how then would the scriptures be fulfilled? For this is how it must be.

⁵⁵ At the same time Jesus said to the throng, You have come out as if against a thief, with swords and clubs to take me. I sat daily teaching in the temple among you, and you did not take me. ⁵⁶ All this was done so that the scriptures of the prophets may be fulfilled.