Preaching of Peter

1Law and Word.

2Know, then, that there is one God who made the beginning of all things and has power over their end: the Invisible One, who sees all things; uncontainable, yet containing all; needing nothing, though all things need him and exist for his sake; incomprehensible, perpetual, incorruptible, and uncreated; who made all things by the word of his power—that is, the Son.

3Worship this God, but not in the manner of the Greeks.

4Carried away by ignorance and not knowing God as we do, according to perfect knowledge, they fashion the things over which he gave them power for their use—even wood and stones, bronze and iron, gold and silver—forgetting their material and proper use. They set up things that serve their existence and worship them. They also worship the things God has given them for food: the birds of the air, the creatures that swim in the sea and crawl upon the earth, the wild beasts and four-footed cattle of the field, and even weasels, mice, cats, dogs, and apes. Indeed, they sacrifice their own foods as offerings to edible gods, and by offering dead things to the dead as though they were gods, they show ingratitude to God, denying by these practices that he exists.

5Neither worship him as the Jews do. They suppose that they alone know God, but they do not know him. They serve angels and archangels, the month and the moon. If no moon is seen, they do not celebrate what is called the first Sabbath, nor do they observe the new moon, the days of unleavened bread, the feast, or the great day.

6Behold, I make a new covenant with you, not like the covenant made with your fathers at Mount Horeb.

7We did not hear.

8We did not hear.

9Whatever any of you did in ignorance, without clearly knowing God, all that person’s sins will be forgiven.

10But when we opened the books of the prophets that we possessed, we found Jesus Christ named—sometimes through parables, sometimes through riddles, and sometimes directly and in so many words. We found his coming, his death, the cross, all the other torments the Jews inflicted on him, his resurrection, and his taking up into the heavens before Jerusalem was founded. We found all these things just as they had been written: what he had to suffer and what would come after him. Therefore, when we came to know these things, we believed in God through what had been written about him.

11For we know that God truly commanded them, and without Scripture we say nothing.

12I am not a bodiless spirit.

13A soul in trouble is near to God.

14God is merciful and will bear with you.

15Rich is the person who shows mercy to many and who, in imitation of God, gives from what they possess. For God has given all things to everyone from among his own creatures. Understand, then, you who are rich, that you ought to minister, because you have received more than you yourselves need. Learn that others lack the things you possess in abundance. Be ashamed to keep things that belong to others. Imitate the fairness of God, and no one will be poor.

16One person building and another tearing down! They gain nothing but their labor.