1 Peter 3:13-22 The Message (MSG)
13-18 If with heart and soul youíre doing good, do you think you can be stopped? Even if you suffer for it, youíre still better off. Donít give the opposition a second thought. Through thick and thin, keep your hearts at attention, in adoration before Christ, your Master. Be ready to speak up and tell anyone who asks why youíre living the way you are, and always with the utmost courtesy. Keep a clear conscience before God so that when people throw mud at you, none of it will stick. Theyíll end up realizing that theyíre the ones who need a bath. Itís better to suffer for doing good, if thatís what God wants, than to be punished for doing bad. Thatís what Christ did definitively: suffered because of othersí sins, the Righteous One for the unrighteous ones. He went through it allówas put to death and then made aliveóto bring us to God.
19-22 He went and proclaimed Godís salvation to earlier generations who ended up in the prison of judgment because they wouldnít listen. You know, even though God waited patiently all the days that Noah built his ship, only a few were saved then, eight to be exactósaved from the water by the water. The waters of baptism do that for you, not by washing away dirt from your skin but by presenting you through Jesusí resurrection before God with a clear conscience. Jesus has the last word on everything and everyone, from angels to armies. Heís standing right alongside God, and what he says goes.
John 14:15-21 The Message (MSG)
15-17 ìIf you love me, show it by doing what Iíve told you. I will talk to the Father, and heíll provide you another Friend so that you will always have someone with you. This Friend is the Spirit of Truth. The godless world canít take him in because it doesnít have eyes to see him, doesnít know what to look for. But you know him already because he has been staying with you, and will even be in you!
18-20 ìI will not leave you orphaned. Iím coming back. In just a little while the world will no longer see me, but youíre going to see me because I am alive and youíre about to come alive. At that moment you will know absolutely that Iím in my Father, and youíre in me, and Iím in you.
21 ìThe person who knows my commandments and keeps them, thatís who loves me. And the person who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and make myself plain to him.î
