Book of Common Prayer

¹ From the leader of the church people. I send greetings to my dear Gaius. I love you because you have Christ.

² My dear brother, I ask God that you may be all right in every way and that your body may be well. I know that your soul is all right.

³ I was very happy when the brothers came and told me that you have been true. They said you are really living the right way.

⁴ Nothing can make me more happy than to hear that my children are living in the right way. My dear brother, when you help your Christian brothers in any way, even though you do not know them, you show that you do what you say you believe.

⁵ They have told the people of the church here how you showed your love to them. Please send them on their way as God would have you do.

⁶ They went out to do Christ's work. And they have not taken any help from people who do not believe in God.

⁷ So we should help such men with what they need. Then we are doing our part to tell the true message. I wrote a letter to the people of the church. But Diotrephes wants to be the leader. He will not listen to us.

⁸ So if I come, I will show what he is doing. He is saying wrong things about us. And that is not all. He does not take our brothers into his own home. And he stops other people who want to take them in. He will not let them be church members any longer.

⁹ My dear brother, do not do the wrong things people do, but do the good things people do. Anyone who does good things belongs to God. Anyone who does wrong things has never seen God.

¹⁰ Everyone says Demetrius is a good man. All this is true. We say the same thing too. And you know that what we say is true.

¹¹ I have much to write to you. But I do not want to write to you with pen and ink.

¹² I hope to see you very soon. Then we will talk together.

¹³ May God give you peace. Our friends greet you. Greet everyone of my friends.

²⁷ After this, Jesus went out. He saw a tax collector named Levi. Levi was sitting at the place where people came to pay taxes. Jesus said to him `Come with me.'

²⁸ Levi left everything. He stood up and went with Jesus.

²⁹ Levi made a big dinner at his house for Jesus. Many tax collectors and other people were sitting at the table with them.

³⁰ The Pharisees and their scribes did not like what Jesus' disciples did. They said, `Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and bad people?"

³¹ Jesus answered them, `People who are well do not need a doctor. But sick people need him.

³² I did not come to call good people. I came to call bad people to stop doing wrong things.'

³³ They said to him, `The disciples or followers of John are often fasting [not eating for a time], and they talk with God. The disciples of the Pharisees do the same. But your disciples eat and drink.'

³⁴ Then Jesus said to them, `The people at a wedding cannot be sad while the man who is married is with them.

³⁵ But the time will come when he will be taken away from them. Then they will be fasting at that time.'

³⁶ Jesus told them a short story. He said, `No one takes a piece from a new coat and sews it on an old coat. If he does, the new coat will have a hole. And the new piece will not be like the old coat.

³⁷ No one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will break the skins. The wine will be lost and the skins will be spoiled.

³⁸ New wine must be put into new skins.

³⁹ No one wants to drink new wine after he has had old wine. He says, "The old is better." '