Knox Bible

1

You must put aside, then, every trace of ill-will and deceitfulness, your affectations, the grudges you bore, and all the slanderous talk;

2

you are children new-born, and all your craving must be for the soul’s pure milk, that will nurture you into salvation,✻

3

once you have tasted, as you have surely tasted, the goodness of the Lord.✻

4

Draw near to him; he is the living antitype of that stone which men rejected, which God has chosen and prized;

5

you too must be built up on him, stones that live and breathe, into a spiritual fabric; you must be a holy priesthood, to offer up that spiritual sacrifice which God accepts through Jesus Christ.

6

So you will find in scripture the words, Behold, I am setting down in Sion a corner-stone, chosen out and precious; those who believe in him will not be disappointed.✻

7

Prized, then, by you, the believers, he is something other to those who refuse belief; the stone which the builders rejected has become the chief stone at the corner,✻

8

a stone to trip men’s feet, a boulder they stumble against. They stumble over God’s word, and refuse it belief; it is their destiny.

9

Not so you; you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a consecrated nation, a people God means to have for himself; it is yours to proclaim the exploits of the God who has called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.

10

Time was when you were not a people at all, now you are God’s people; once you were unpitied, and now his pity is yours.✻

11

Beloved, I call upon you to be like strangers and exiles, to resist those natural appetites which besiege the soul.

12

Your life amidst the Gentiles must be beyond reproach; decried as malefactors, you must let them see, from your honourable behaviour, what you are; they will praise God for you, when his time comes to have mercy on them.✻

13

For love of the Lord, then, bow to every kind of human authority; to the king, who enjoys the chief power,

14

and to the magistrates who hold his commission to punish criminals and encourage honest men.

15

To silence, by honest living, the ignorant chatter of fools; that is what God expects of you.

16

Free men, but the liberty you enjoy is not to be made a pretext for wrong-doing; it is to be used in God’s service.

17

Give all men their due; to the brethren, your love; to God, your reverence; to the king, due honour.

18

You who are slaves must be submissive to your masters, and shew all respect, not only to those who are kind and considerate, but to those who are hard to please.

19

It does a man credit when he bears undeserved ill treatment with the thought of God in his heart.

20

If you do wrong and are punished for it, your patience is nothing to boast of; it is the patience of the innocent sufferer that wins credit in God’s sight.

21

Indeed, you are engaged to this by the call of Christ; he suffered for our sakes, and left you his own example; you were to follow in his footsteps.

22

He did no wrong, no treachery was found on his lips;✻

23

he was ill spoken of, and spoke no evil in return, suffered, and did not threaten vengeance, gave himself up into the hands of injustice.✻

24

So, on the cross, his own body took the weight of our sins; we were to become dead to our sins, and live for holiness; it was his wounds that healed you.✻

25

Till then, you had been like sheep going astray; now, you have been brought back to him, your shepherd, who keeps watch over your souls.✻