Book of Common Prayer

True and false wisdom

¹³ Who is wise and discerning among you? Such a person should, by their upright behavior, display their works in the humility of wisdom. ¹⁴ But if you have bitter jealousy and contention in your hearts, don’t boast, and tell lies against the truth. ¹⁵ This isn’t the wisdom that comes from above. It is earthly, merely human, coming from the world of demons. ¹⁶ For where there is jealousy and contention, there you will get unruly behavior and every kind of evil practice. ¹⁷ But the wisdom that comes from above is first holy, then peaceful, gentle, compliant, filled with mercy and good fruits, unbiased, sincere. ¹⁸ And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

Humility and faith

4 Where do wars come from? Why do people among you fight? It all comes from within, doesn’t it—from your desires for pleasure which make war in your members. ² You want something and you haven’t got it, so you murder someone. You long to possess something, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war. The reason you don’t have it is because you don’t ask for it! ³ And when you do ask, you don’t get it, because you ask wrongly, intending to spend it on your pleasures. ⁴ Adulterers! Don’t you know that to be friends with the world means being enemies with God? So anyone who wants to be friends with the world is setting themselves up as God’s enemy. ⁵ Or do you suppose that when the Bible says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit he has made to dwell in us,” it doesn’t mean what it says?

⁶ But God gives more grace; so it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” ⁷ Submit to God, then; resist the devil and he will run away from you. ⁸ Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Make your hands clean, you sinners; and make your hearts pure, you double-minded lot. ⁹ Make yourselves wretched; mourn and weep. Let your laughter turn to mourning, and your joy to sorrow. ¹⁰ Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

Living by trust in God

¹¹ Do not speak evil against one another, my dear family. Anyone who speaks evil against another family member, or passes judgment against them, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge! ¹² There is one lawgiver, one judge who can rescue or destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?

Ten men healed

¹¹ As Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem, he passed along the borderlands between Samaria and Galilee. ¹² As he was going into one particular village he was met by ten men with virulent skin diseases who stayed at some distance from him.

¹³ “Jesus, Master!” they called out loudly. “Have pity on us!”

¹⁴ When Jesus saw them he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were healed.

¹⁵ One of them, seeing that he had been healed, turned back and gave glory to God at the top of his voice. ¹⁶ He fell on his face in front of Jesus’ feet and thanked him. He was a Samaritan.

¹⁷ “There were ten of you healed, weren’t there?” responded Jesus. “Where are the nine? ¹⁸ Is it really the case that the only one who had the decency to give God the glory was this foreigner?

¹⁹ “Get up, and be on your way,” he said to him. “Your faith has saved you.”