Book of Common Prayer
The divine purpose, and limited role, of ruling authorities
13 Every person must be subject to the ruling authorities. There is no authority, you see, except from God, and those that exist have been put in place by God. 2 As a result, anyone who rebels against authority is resisting what God has set up, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. 3 For rulers hold no terrors for people who do good, but only for people who do evil.
If you want to have no fear of the ruling power, do what is good, and it will praise you. 4 It is God’s servant, you see, for you and your good. But if you do evil, be afraid; the sword it carries is no empty gesture. It is God’s servant, you see: an agent of justice to bring his anger on evildoers. 5 That is why it is necessary to submit, not only to avoid punishment but because of conscience.
6 That, too, is why you pay taxes. The officials in question are God’s ministers, attending to this very thing. 7 So pay each of them what is owed: tribute to those who collect it, revenue to those who collect it. Respect those who should be respected. Honor the people one ought to honor.
Love, the law and the coming day
8 Don’t owe anything to anyone, except the debt of mutual love. If you love your neighbor, you see, you have fulfilled the law. 9 Commandments like “don’t commit adultery, don’t kill, don’t steal, don’t covet”—and any other commandment—are summed up in this: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no wrong to its neighbor; so love is the fulfillment of the law.
11 This is all the more important because you know what time it is. The hour has come for you to wake up from sleep. Our salvation, you see, is nearer now than it was when first we came to faith. 12 The night is nearly over, the day is almost here. So let’s put off the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light. 13 Let’s behave appropriately, as in the daytime: not in wild parties and drunkenness, not in orgies and shameless immorality, not in bad temper and jealousy. 14 Instead, put on the Lord Jesus, the Messiah, and don’t make any allowance for the flesh and its lusts.
Jesus calms the storm
16 “Nobody lights a lamp,” continued Jesus, “and then hides it under a pot or a bed. They put it on a lampstand, so that people who come in can see the light. 17 You see, nothing is hidden which won’t become visible. Nothing is concealed that won’t come to light.
18 “So be careful how you listen. If you’ve got something, more will be given to you; if you haven’t, even what you imagine you have will be taken away from you.”
19 His mother and brothers came to him, and couldn’t get near him because of the crowd. 20 So they sent a message to him: “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, wanting to see you.”
21 “Mother and brothers, indeed?” replied Jesus. “Here are my mother and brothers—people who hear God’s word and do it!”
22 One day he got into a boat with his disciples, and suggested that they cross to the other shore. So they set off. 23 As they were sailing, he fell asleep. A violent wind swept down on the lake, and the boat began to fill dangerously with water.
24 “Master, Master!” shouted the disciples, coming and waking him up. “Master, we’re lost!”
He got up and scolded the wind and the waves. They stopped, and there was a flat calm.
25 “Where’s your faith?” he asked them.
They were afraid and astonished. “Who is this, then,” they asked one another, “if he can give orders to wind and water, and they do what he says?”
Scripture quotations from The New Testament for Everyone are copyright © Nicholas Thomas Wright 2011, 2018, 2019.