Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Gentiles receive the Holy Spirit

⁴⁴ While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit came down on all the people who were listening to his message. ⁴⁵ The Jewish believers who had come from Joppa with Peter were very surprised. They saw that God had now freely given his Holy Spirit to Gentiles. ⁴⁶ They heard the new believers speaking in strange languages. They were also praising God.

Then Peter said, ⁴⁷ ‘God has clearly given his Holy Spirit to these people, in the same way that he gave him to us. So we should now baptize them with water. You surely agree that this is the right thing to do.’ ⁴⁸ So Peter told the Jewish believers to baptize the new believers. They spoke the name of Jesus Christ when they baptized them. After that, Cornelius asked Peter to stay with them for a few days.

God rules the world^[a]

Believe in Jesus Christ

5 Everyone who believes that Jesus is God's Messiah has become a child of God. And if we love God, our Father, we will love his other children too. ² How do we know that we love God's children? We know it when we love God and we do what he tells us to do. ³ Because, if we really love God, we will obey his commands. And those commands are not difficult for us to obey. ⁴ Because we have become God's children, we can live in a good way. We can refuse to live like people who belong to this world. We are able to win against the wrong ways of this world because we trust Jesus Christ. ⁵ It is only people who believe that Jesus is the Son of God who can do that. Only they can win against the wrong ways of this world.

⁶ Jesus Christ is the man that God sent into the world. John baptized Jesus in water. When Jesus died, his blood poured out. God showed that Jesus is his Son with the water and with the blood. It was not only with the water of Jesus' baptism. It was also with the blood of his death. God's Holy Spirit also shows us that Jesus is God's Son. The Holy Spirit always says what is true.

⁹ I have loved you in the same way that the Father has loved me. Continue to live in a way that shows my love. ¹⁰ If you obey what I have told you, you will be living in my love. In the same way, I have obeyed what my Father has told me to do. In that way, I live in his love. ¹¹ I want you to be completely happy, in the same way that I myself am happy. That is why I have told you these things.

¹² This is the rule that I give to you: You must love each other, in the same way that I have loved you. ¹³ A person really loves his friends if he dies so that they can live. Nobody could love anyone more than that. ¹⁴ And you are my friends, if you obey my message. ¹⁵ A servant does not know what his master is doing. So I do not call you servants any more. No, I call you my friends. This is because I have told you everything that I have heard from my Father. ¹⁶ You did not choose me, but I chose you. I chose you to go and to make plenty of fruit. That kind of fruit will continue always. For that reason, the Father will help you with anything that you ask him. If you ask him in my name, he will do it for you.^{[a] 17} This is what I tell you to do: You must love each other.’