Book of Common Prayer
Your attitude in these last days
7 We are near the end of all things now, and you should therefore be calm, self-controlled men of prayer.
8 Above everything else be sure that you have real deep love for each other, remembering how ‘love will cover a multitude of sins’.
9 Be hospitable to each other without secretly wishing you hadn’t got to be!
10-11 Serve one another with the particular gifts God has given each of you, as faithful dispensers of the magnificently varied grace of God. If any of you is a preacher then he should preach his message as from God. And in whatever way a man serves the Church he should do it recognising the fact that God gives him his ability, so that God may be glorified in everything through Jesus Christ. To him belong praise and power for ever, amen!
15 When they had finished breakfast Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these others?” “Yes, Lord,” he replied, “you know that I am your friend.”
16 “Then feed my lambs,” returned Jesus. Then he said for the second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” “Yes, Lord,” returned Peter. “You know that I am your friend.”
17 “Then care for my sheep,” replied Jesus. Then for the third time, Jesus spoke to him and said, “Simon, son of John, are you my friend?” Peter was deeply hurt because Jesus’ third question to him was “Are you my friend?”, and he said, “Lord, you know everything. You know that I am your friend!”
18 “Then feed my sheep,” Jesus said to him. “I tell you truly, Peter, that when you were younger, you used to dress yourself and go where you liked, but when you are an old man, you are going to stretch out your hands and someone else will dress you and take you where you do not want to go.”
19 (He said this to show the kind of death—by crucifixion—by which Peter was going to honour God.) Then Jesus said to him, “You must follow me.”
20-21 Then Peter turned round and noticed the disciple whom Jesus loved following behind them. (He was the one who had his head on Jesus’ shoulder at supper and had asked, “Lord, who is the one who is going to betray you?”) So he said, “Yes, Lord, but what about him?”
22 “If it is my wish,” returned Jesus, “for him to stay until I come, is that your business, Peter? You must follow me.”
23 This gave rise to the saying among the brothers that this disciple would not die. Yet, of course, Jesus did not say, “He will not die,”, but simply, “If it is my wish for him to stay until I come, is that your business?”
All the above was written by an eye-witness
24-25 Now it is this same disciple who is hereby giving his testimony to these things and has written them down. We know that his witness is reliable. Of course, there are many other things which Jesus did, and I suppose that if each one were written down in detail, there would not be room in the whole world for all the books that would have to be written.
The New Testament in Modern English by J.B Phillips copyright © 1960, 1972 J. B. Phillips. Administered by The Archbishops’ Council of the Church of England. Used by Permission.