Book of Common Prayer

3 These are true words. If a man wants to be a leader of the church people, he seeks a good thing.

² For a man to be a church leader, people must speak well of him. He must have only one wife. He must be able to control himself. He must use good sense. He must behave himself well. He must be kind to strangers in his house. He must be a good teacher.

³ He must not get drunk. He must not fight. But he must be kind. He must not quarrel. He must not love money.

⁴ He must be a good leader for his own family. His children must obey him and respect him.

⁵ If a man does not know how to lead his own family, how can he take care of the church of God?

⁶ A church leader must not be a new believer. If he were a new believer, he might become proud and set himself up like the devil did.

⁷ People who are not church people must also speak well of a church leader, so that he will not fall into the devil's trap.

⁸ In the same way, the leader's helpers must be men whom people respect. They must not say one thing one time and something different another time. They must not drink too much wine. They must not try to get rich in wrong ways.

⁹ They must know God's plan and what we believe. They must do only what they know is right.

¹⁰ Try these men first. Then let them help the church people if they have done nothing wrong.

¹¹ In the same way, their wives must be women whom people respect. They must not tell lies about anyone. They must be able to control themselves. They must live so that people can trust them in all things.

¹² The leader's helpers must have only one wife. They must be good leaders for their children and family.

¹³ When they have done the work of a helper well, people will respect them. If they do well, they will not fear to tell what they believe about Christ Jesus.

¹⁴ I am writing to you about these matters even though I hope to come to you soon.

¹⁵ Then if I do not come right away, you will know what people should do in God's family. This family is the church of the living God. The church people hold what is true and keeps it strong.

¹⁶ God's plan is very great as we all know. Here it is: we saw God as a man; God's Spirit proved he was right; angels saw him; the nations were told about him; people of the world believed in him; God took him up into heaven.

²⁷ They came to Jerusalem again. Jesus walked in the temple. The chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders came to him.

²⁸ They said, `What right have you to do these things? Who gave you the right to do them?'

²⁹ Jesus said, `I will ask you a question. If you answer me, I will answer you and tell you what right I have to do these things.

³⁰ Who gave John the right to baptise people? Did God or did men? Answer me!'

³¹ So they talked it over together. They said, `If we say, "God gave John the right," he will say, "Then why did you not believe him?"

³² But what if we say, "Men gave him the right to do it"?' They feared the people because they all believed that John was a prophet of God.

³³ So they answered Jesus, `We do not know.' Then Jesus said, `Neither will I tell you what right I have to do these things.'

12 Jesus then began to speak to the disciples in stories. `A man planted a farm of vines for growing fruit called grapes. He put a fence of small trees around it. He dug a place to press the juice from the fruit. He built a high house from which men could watch over the farm. Then he let some men pay to use it and went to a country far away.

² At harvest time the owner sent one his servants to get some of the fruit from the farm.

³ The men took the servant and beat him. They sent him away without any fruit.

⁴ He sent another servant. They hurt this one also, and cut his head. The things they did to him were very wrong.

⁵ So he sent another servant. The men killed him. He sent many others, and the men beat some and killed others.

⁶ There was one left. He was his own son. He sent him last. He said, "They will respect my son."

⁷ But the men said to each other, "This is the one who will have everything when his father dies. Let us kill him. Then everything will belong to us."

⁸ They killed him and threw his body outside the farm.

⁹ `What will the man who owned the farm do to them? He will come back and kill the men in the farm. And he will give the farm to other men to use.

^10-11 ave you not read this writing: "The stone which the builders would not use is now the chief stone of the corner. The Lord did this. It looks wonderful to us."?'

¹² They tried to catch Jesus but they feared the people. They knew that Jesus had spoken this against them. So they left him and went away.