Book of Common Prayer

Bearing one another’s burdens

6 My dear family, if someone is found out in some trespass, then you—the “spiritual” ones!—should set such a person right, in a spirit of gentleness. Watch out for yourselves: you too may be tested. ² Carry each other’s burdens; that’s the way to fulfill the Messiah’s law. ³ If you think you’re something when you are not, you deceive yourself. ⁴ Every one of you should test your own work, and then you will have a reason to boast of yourself, not of somebody else. ⁵ Each of you, you see, will have to carry your own load.

Practical support in the church

⁶ If someone is being taught the word, they should share with the teacher all the good things they have. ⁷ Don’t be misled; God won’t have people turning their noses up at him. What you sow is what you’ll reap. ⁸ Yes: if you sow in the field of your flesh you will harvest decay from your flesh, but if you sow in the field of the spirit you will harvest eternal life from the spirit. ⁹ Don’t lose your enthusiasm for behaving properly. You’ll bring in the harvest at the proper time, if you don’t become weary. ¹⁰ So, then, while we have the chance, let’s do good to everyone, and particularly to the household of the faith.

The rich young ruler

¹⁵ People were bringing even tiny babies to Jesus for him to touch them. When the disciples saw it, they forbade them sternly. ¹⁶ But Jesus called them. “Let the children come to me,” he said, “and don’t stop them! God’s kingdom belongs to the likes of these. ¹⁷ I’m telling you the truth: anyone who doesn’t receive God’s kingdom like a child will never get into it.”

¹⁸ There was a ruler who asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit the life of the age to come?”

¹⁹ “Why call me good?” said Jesus to him. “No one is good except God alone. ²⁰ You know the commandments: Don’t commit adultery, don’t kill, don’t steal, don’t swear falsely, honor your father and mother.”

²¹ “I’ve kept them all,” he said, “since I was a boy.”

²² When Jesus heard that, he said to him, “There’s just one thing you’re short of. Sell everything you own, and distribute it to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come and follow me.”

²³ When he heard that he became very sad. He was extremely wealthy.

²⁴ Jesus saw that he had become sad, and said, “How hard it is for those with possessions to enter God’s kingdom! ²⁵ Yes: it’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter God’s kingdom.”

²⁶ The people who heard it said, “So who can be saved?”

²⁷ “What’s impossible for humans,” said Jesus, “is possible for God.”

²⁸ “Look here,” said Peter, “we’ve left everything and followed you.”

²⁹ “I’m telling you the truth,” said Jesus, “everyone who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, because of God’s kingdom, ³⁰ will receive far more in return in the present time—and in the age to come they will receive the life that belongs to that age.”