Book of Common Prayer

³¹ So Jesus spoke to the Judaeans who had believed in him.

“If you remain in my word,” he said, “you will truly be my disciples. ³² You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”

³³ “We are Abraham’s descendants!” they replied. “We’ve never been anyone’s slaves! How can you say that ‘you’ll become free’?”

³⁴ “I’m telling you the solemn truth,” Jesus replied. “Everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin. ³⁵ The slave doesn’t live in the house forever; the son lives there forever. ³⁶ So, you see, if the son makes you free, you will be truly free.”

Born of God

3 Look at the remarkable love the father has given us—that we should be called God’s children! That indeed is what we are. That’s why the world doesn’t know us, because it didn’t know him. ² Beloved ones, we are now, already, God’s children; it hasn’t yet been revealed what we are going to be. We know that when he is revealed we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. ³ All who have this hope in him make themselves pure, just as he is pure.

⁴ Everyone who goes on sinning is breaking the law; sin, in fact, is lawlessness. ⁵ And you know that he was revealed so that he might take away sins, and there is no sin in him. ⁶ Everyone who abides in him does not go on sinning. Everyone who goes on sinning has not seen him, or known him.

⁷ Children, don’t let anyone deceive you. The person who does righteousness is righteous, just as he is righteous. ⁸ The person who goes on sinning is from the devil, because the devil is a sinner from the very start. The son of God was revealed for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.