Galatians 4 Cross References - Goodspeed

¹ I mean this: As long as the heir is a minor, he is no better than a slave, although he is the owner of all the property, ² but he is under guardians and trustees until the time fixed by his father. ³ So when we were minors, we were slaves to material ways of looking at things, ⁴ but when the proper time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, and made subject to law, ⁵ to ransom those who were subject to law, so that we might receive adoption. ⁶ And because you are sons, God has sent into our hearts the spirit of his Son, with the cry, "Abba!" that is, Father. ⁷ So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir, made so by God. ⁸ But formerly, in your ignorance of God, you were slaves to gods that really did not exist, ⁹ but now that you know God, or rather have come to be known by him, how can you turn back to the old, crude notions, so poor and weak, and wish to become slaves to them again? ¹⁰ You are observing days, months, seasons, and years! ¹¹ I begin to be afraid that perhaps the labor I spent on you was wasted. ¹² Take my position, I beg you, brothers, just as I once took yours! You took no advantage of me then; ¹³ though you know that it was because of an illness that I preached the good news to you that first time; ¹⁴ and yet what must have tried you in my physical condition, you did not scorn and despise, but you welcomed me like an angel of God, like Christ Jesus himself. ¹⁵ What has become of that satisfaction of yours? For I can bear witness that you would have torn out your very eyes, if you could, and given them to me! ¹⁶ Have I turned into an enemy to you, by telling you the truth? ¹⁷ These men are making much of you, but not with honorable intentions. They want to shut you out, so that you will have to make much of them. ¹⁸ But it is a finer thing to be made much of honestly and constantly—not just when I can be with you, ¹⁹ my children—you for whom I am enduring a mother's pains again, until Christ is formed in you. ²⁰ I wish I could be with you now, and use a different tone with you, for I do not know which way to turn about you. ²¹ Tell me this, you who want to be subject to law: Will you not listen to the Law? ²² For the Scripture says that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave-girl, and one by the free woman. ²³ But the child of the slave-girl was born in the ordinary course of nature, while the child of the free woman was born in fulfilment of the promise. ²⁴ This is an allegorical utterance. For the women are two agreements, one coming from Mount Sinai, bearing children that are to be slaves; that is, Hagar ²⁵ (and Hagar means Mount Sinai, in Arabia), and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for Jerusalem is in slavery with her children. ²⁶ But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. ²⁷ For the Scripture says, "Rejoice, childless woman, who bear no children, Break into shouting, you who have no birth pains! For the desolate woman has more children than the married one!" ²⁸ Now we, brothers, are like Isaac, children born in fulfilment of the promise. ²⁹ But just as then the child born in the ordinary course of nature persecuted the one born through the influence of the Spirit, so it is today. ³⁰ Yet what does the Scripture say? "Drive the slave-girl and her son away, for the slave-girl's son shall not share the inheritance with the son of the free woman." ³¹ So, brothers, we are children not of a slave but of one who is free.

²³ "The maiden will be pregnant and will have a son, And they will name him Immanuel."—a word which means "God with us."

¹⁵ But Jesus answered, "Let it be so this time, for it is right for us to do everything that God requires." Then John consented.

¹⁷ "Do not suppose that I have come to do away with the Law or the Prophets. I have not come to do away with them but to enforce them.

⁶ But when you pray, go into your own room, and shut the door, and pray to your Father who is unseen, and your Father who sees what is secret will reward you. ⁷ And when you pray, do not repeat empty phrases as the heathen do, for they imagine that their prayers will be heard if they use words enough. ⁸ You must not be like them. For God, who is your Father, knows what you need before you ask him. ⁹ This, therefore, is the way you are to pray: 'Our Father in heaven, Your name be revered!

⁴⁰ "Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes him who has sent me.

²⁷ Everything has been handed over to me by my Father, and no one understands the Son but the Father, nor does anyone understand the Father but the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. ²⁸ Come to me, all of you who toil and are burdened, and I will let you rest.

³⁵ to fulfil what was said by the prophet, "I will open my mouth in figures, I will utter things that have been hidden since the creation."

⁵ and anyone who welcomes one child like this on my account welcomes me.

²⁸ just as the Son of Man has come not to be waited on, but to wait on other people, and to give his life to ransom many others."

⁴² Jesus said to them, "Did you never read in the Scriptures, " 'That stone which the builders rejected Has become the cornerstone; This came from the Lord, And seems marvelous to us'? ⁴³ "That, I tell you, is why the Kingdom of God will be taken away from you, and given to a people that will produce its proper fruit. ⁴⁴ Whoever falls on that stone will be shattered, but whoever it falls upon will be pulverized."

²⁹ Jesus answered them, "You are wrong, because you do not understand the Scriptures nor the power of God. ³⁰ For after the resurrection there is no marrying or being married, but they live as angels do in heaven. ³¹ But as to the resurrection of the dead, did you never read what was said to you by God, ³² 'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? He is not the God of dead men but of living!"

¹⁵ Alas for you, you hypocritical scribes and Pharisees, for you scour land and sea to make one convert, and when he is converted you make him twice as fit for the pit as you are.

³⁴ This is why I am going to send you prophets, wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and hunt from one town to another; ³⁵ it is that on your heads may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth from the blood of Abel the upright to the blood of Zechariah, Barachiah's son, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar! ³⁶ I tell you, all this will come upon this age! ³⁷ "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem! murdering the prophets, and stoning those who are sent to her, how often I have longed to gather your children around me, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you refused!

³⁷ "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem! murdering the prophets, and stoning those who are sent to her, how often I have longed to gather your children around me, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you refused!

⁴⁰ The king will answer, 'I tell you, in so far as you did it to one of the humblest of these brothers of mine, you did it to me.'

¹⁵ saying, "The time has come and the reign of God is near; repent, and believe this good news."

³¹ You are to become a mother and you will give birth to a son, and you are to name him Jesus.

³⁵ The angel answered, "The holy Spirit will come over you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. For that reason your child will be called holy, and the Son of God.

⁶⁸ "Blessings on the Lord, the God of Israel, Because he has turned his attention to his people, and brought about their deliverance,

⁷ and she gave birth to her first-born son; and she wrapped him up, and laid him in a manger, for there was no room for them at the inn.

¹⁰ The angel said to them, "Do not be frightened, for I bring you good news of a great joy that is to be felt by all the people, ¹¹ for today, in the town of David, a Savior for you has been born who is your Messiah and Lord.

²¹ When he was eight days old and it was time to circumcise him, he was named Jesus, as the angel had named him, before his birth was first expected. ²² When their purification period under the Law of Moses was over, they took him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord, ²³ in fulfilment of the requirement of the Law of the Lord, "Every first-born male shall be considered consecrated to the Lord," ²⁴ and to offer the sacrifice prescribed in the Law of the Lord, "A pair of turtle-doves or two young pigeons." ²⁵ Now there was a man in Jerusalem named Symeon, an upright, devout man, who was living in expectation of the comforting of Israel, and under the influence of the holy Spirit. ²⁶ It had been revealed to him by the holy Spirit that he should not die without seeing the Lord's Messiah. ²⁷ And under the Spirit's influence he went into the Temple, and when Jesus' parents brought him there to do for him what the Law required,

¹³ The ones on the rock are those who receive the message joyfully when they first hear it, but it takes no real root. They believe for a little while, and then in the time of trial they draw back.

¹⁶ Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever disregards you disregards me, and whoever disregards me disregards him who sent me."

² He said to them, "When you pray, say, 'Father, your name be revered! Your kingdom come!

¹³ So if you, bad as you are, know enough to give your children what is good, how much more surely will your Father in heaven give the holy Spirit to those who ask him for it!"

³⁴ O Jerusalem! Jerusalem! murdering the prophets, and stoning those who are sent to her, how often I have longed to gather your children around me, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you refused!

⁴⁴ and they will throw you and your children within you to the ground, and they will not leave one stone upon another within you because you did not know when God visited you!"

¹⁹ And he took a loaf of bread and thanked God, and broke it in pieces, and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body. ²⁰ OMITTED TEXT

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¹⁰ He came into the world, and though the world came into existence through him, the world did not recognize him.

¹² But to all who did receive him and believe in him he gave the right to become children of God,

¹² But to all who did receive him and believe in him he gave the right to become children of God, ¹³ owing their birth not to nature nor to any human or physical impulse, but to God. ¹⁴ So the Word became flesh and blood and lived for a while among us, abounding in blessing and truth, and we saw the honor God had given him, such honor as an only son receives from his father.

¹⁷ His disciples remembered that the Scriptures said, "My zeal for your house will consume me!"

⁵ Jesus answered, "I tell you, if a man does not owe his birth to water and spirit, he cannot get into the Kingdom of God.

¹⁶ For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that no one who believes in him should be lost, but that they should all have eternal life.

³⁴ For he whom God has sent speaks God's words, for God gives him his Spirit without measure.

⁴⁶ For if you really believed Moses, you would believe me, for it was about me that he wrote. ⁴⁷ But if you refuse to believe what he wrote, how are you ever to believe what I say?"

³⁸ for I have come down from heaven not to do what I please but what pleases him who has sent me.

⁷ It is impossible for the world to hate you, but it does hate me for testifying that its ways are wrong.

³⁹ He meant by this the Spirit which those who believed in him were to receive—for the Spirit had not yet come, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.

³¹ So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, "If you abide by what I teach, you are really disciples of mine,

³⁵ Now a slave does not belong to a household permanently; but a son does. ³⁶ So if the Son sets you free you will be really free.

⁴² Jesus said to them, "If God were your father, you would love me, for I have come from God. I have not come of my own accord, but he has sent me.

⁴⁵ But because I tell the truth you will not believe me.

¹⁴ I am the good shepherd. I know my sheep and my sheep know me,

²⁷ My sheep listen to my voice, and I know them and they follow me,

³⁴ Jesus answered, "Is it not declared in your Law, 'I said, "You are gods" '?

³⁶ do you mean to say to me whom the Father has consecrated and made his messenger to the world, 'You are blasphemous,' because I said, 'I am God's Son'?

³⁴ The crowd answered, "We have learned from the Law that the Christ is to remain here forever. So how can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?"

²⁰ I assure you, whoever welcomes any messenger of mine welcomes me and whoever welcomes me welcomes him who has sent me."

¹⁶ And I will ask the Father and he will give you another Helper to be with you always.

⁹ I have loved you just as the Father has loved me. You must retain my love.

²⁵ But the saying of their Law, 'They hated me without cause,' must be fulfilled. ²⁶ When the Helper comes whom I will send to you from the Father—that Spirit of Truth that comes from the Father—he will bear testimony to me,

⁷ Yet it is only the truth when I tell you that it is better for you that I should go away. For if I do not go, the Helper will not come to you, but if I go I will send him to you.

³ And eternal life means knowing you as the only true God, and knowing Jesus your messenger as Christ.

⁷ He said to them, "It is not for you to know times and dates which the Father has fixed by his own authority,

¹¹ and said to them, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up into the sky? This very Jesus who has been caught up from you into heaven will come in just the way that you have seen him go up to heaven."

²⁵ You are the descendants of the prophets and the heirs of the agreement that God made with your forefathers when he said to Abraham, 'Through your posterity all the families of the earth will be blessed.'

¹² They called Barnabas Zeus, and Paul, because he was the principal speaker, Hermes.

¹⁰ Then why do you now try to test God, by putting on the necks of these disciples a yoke that neither our forefathers nor we have been able to bear?

⁶ Thus they crossed Phrygia and Galatia. The holy Spirit prevented them from delivering the message in Asia, ⁷ and when they reached Mysia they tried to get into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not permit it,

²³ For as I was going about and looking at the things you worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: 'To an Unknown God.' So it is what you already worship in ignorance that I am now telling you of.

²⁹ So if we are God's children we ought not to imagine that the divine nature is like gold or silver or stone, wrought by human art and thought. ³⁰ While God overlooked those times of ignorance, he now calls upon all men everywhere to repent,

²⁸ Take care of yourselves and of the whole flock, of which the holy Spirit has made you guardians, and be shepherds of the church of God, which he got at the cost of his own life.

²¹ They have been told that you teach all Jews who live among the heathen to turn away from Moses, and that you tell them not to circumcise their children nor to observe the old customs.

³ about his Son, who was physically descended from David,

²³ and for the splendor of the immortal God they have substituted images in the form of mortal man, birds, animals, and reptiles.

²⁸ And just as they refused to recognize God any longer, God has abandoned them to unworthy impulses and indecent conduct.

¹⁹ Now we know that everything the Law says is addressed to those under its authority, so that every mouth may be shut, and the whole world be made accountable to God.

³ for what does the Scripture say? "Abraham had faith in God, and it was credited to him as uprightness."

⁶ So David himself says of the happiness of those to whom God credits uprightness without any reference to their actions, ⁷ "Happy are they whose violations of the Law have been forgiven, whose sins are covered up! ⁸ Happy is the man whose sin the Lord will take no account of!" ⁹ Does this happiness apply to those who are circumcised, or to those who are uncircumcised as well? What we say is, Abraham's faith was credited to him as uprightness.

¹³ For the promise made to Abraham and his descendants that the world should belong to him did not come to him or his descendants through the Law, but through the uprightness that resulted from his faith. ¹⁴ For if it is the adherents of the Law who are to possess it, faith is nullified and the promise amounts to nothing! ¹⁵ For the Law only brings down God's wrath; where there is no law, there is no violation of it. ¹⁶ That is why it all turns upon faith; it is to make it a matter of God's favor, so that the promise may hold good for all Abraham's descendants, not only those who are adherents of the Law, but also those who share the faith of Abraham. For he is the father of all of us; ¹⁷ as the Scripture says, "I have made you the father of many nations." The promise is guaranteed in the very sight of God in whom he had faith, who can bring the dead to life and call into being what does not exist. ¹⁸ Abraham, hoping against hope, had faith, and so became the father of many nations, in fulfilment of the Scripture, "So countless shall your descendants be."

¹⁸ Abraham, hoping against hope, had faith, and so became the father of many nations, in fulfilment of the Scripture, "So countless shall your descendants be." ¹⁹ His faith did not weaken, although he realized that his own body was worn out, for he was about a hundred years old, and that Sarah was past bearing children. ²⁰ He did not incredulously question God's promise, but his faith gave him power and he praised God ²¹ in the full assurance that God was able to do what he had promised.

² by whom we have been introduced through faith to the favor of God that we now enjoy, and let us glory in our hope of sharing the glory of God.

⁵ and hope will not disappoint us. For, through the holy Spirit that has been given us, God's love has flooded our hearts.

¹⁴ For sin must no longer control you, for you live not under law but under mercy.

¹⁸ and so you have been freed from sin, and made slaves of uprightness.

⁵ For when we were living mere physical lives the sinful passions, awakened by the Law, operated through the organs of our bodies to make us bear fruit for death. ⁶ But now the Law no longer applies to us; we have died to what once controlled us, so that we can now serve in the new Spirit, not under the old letter.

¹ So there is no condemnation any more for those who are in union with Christ Jesus.

³ For though it was impossible for the Law to do it, hampered as it was by our physical limitations, God, by sending his own Son in our sinful physical form, as a sin-offering, put his condemnation upon sin through his physical nature,

⁹ But you are not physical but spiritual, if God's Spirit has really taken possession of you; for unless a man has Christ's spirit, he does not belong to Christ.

¹³ for if you live under the control of the physical you will die, but if, by means of the Spirit, you put the body's doings to death, you will live.

¹⁵ It is not a consciousness of servitude that has been imparted to you, to fill you with fear again, but the consciousness of adoption as sons, which makes us cry, "Abba!" that is, Father.

¹⁵ It is not a consciousness of servitude that has been imparted to you, to fill you with fear again, but the consciousness of adoption as sons, which makes us cry, "Abba!" that is, Father. ¹⁶ The Spirit itself testifies with our spirits that we are God's children, ¹⁷ and if children, heirs also; heirs of God, and fellow-heirs with Christ, if we really share his sufferings in order to share his glory too.

¹⁹ For creation is waiting with eager longing for the sons of God to be disclosed.

²³ More than that, we ourselves, though we have in the Spirit a foretaste of the future, groan to ourselves as we wait to be declared God's sons, through the redemption of our bodies.

²⁶ In the same way the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit itself pleads for us with inexpressible yearnings, ²⁷ and he who searches our hearts knows what the Spirit means, for it pleads for God's people in accordance with his will.

²⁹ For those whom he had marked out from the first he predestined to be made like his Son, so that he should be the eldest of many brothers;

³ for I could wish myself accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my natural kindred. ⁴ For they are Israelites, and to them belong the rights of sonship, God's glorious presence, the divine agreements and legislation, the Temple service, the promises, ⁵ and the patriarchs, and from them physically Christ came—God who is over all be blessed forever! Amen.

⁷ nor are they all children of Abraham because they are descended from him, but he was told, "The line of Isaac will be called your descendants." ⁸ That is to say, it is not his physical descendants who are children of God, but his descendants born in fulfilment of the promise who are considered his true posterity.

⁸ That is to say, it is not his physical descendants who are children of God, but his descendants born in fulfilment of the promise who are considered his true posterity. ⁹ For this is what the promise said: "When I come back at this time next year, Sarah will have a son."

³⁰ Then what do we conclude? That heathen who were not striving for uprightness attained it, that is, an uprightness which was produced by faith; ³¹ while Israel, straining after a law that should bring uprightness, did not come up to it. ³² And why? Because they did not seek it through faith, but through doing certain things. They stumbled over that stone that makes people stumble,

² I can testify to their sincere devotion to God, but it is not an intelligent devotion. ³ For in their ignorance of God's way of uprightness and in the attempt to set up one of their own, they refused to conform to God's way of uprightness. ⁴ For Christ marks the termination of law, so that now anyone who has faith may attain uprightness. ⁵ Moses said that anyone who carried out the uprightness the Law prescribed would find life through it. ⁶ But this is what the uprightness that springs from faith says: "Do not say to yourself, 'Who will go up to heaven?' " that is, to bring Christ down; ⁷ or " 'Who will go down into the depths?' " that is, to bring Christ up from the dead. ⁸ No! This is what it says: "God's message is close to you, on your lips and in your mind"—that is, the message about faith that we preach.

⁸ No! This is what it says: "God's message is close to you, on your lips and in your mind"—that is, the message about faith that we preach. ⁹ For if with your lips you acknowledge the message that Jesus is Lord, and with your mind you believe that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰ For with their minds men believe and are made upright, and with their lips they make the acknowledgment and are saved.

² God has not repudiated his people, which he had marked out from the first. Do you not know what the Scripture says in speaking of Elijah, how he appealed to God against Israel?

⁷ What follows? Israel failed to get what it sought, but those whom God selected got it. ⁸ The rest became callous; as the Scripture says, "God has thrown them into a state of spiritual insensibility, with eyes that cannot see and cars that cannot hear, that has lasted down to this day." ⁹ And David said, "Let their feasting prove a snare and a trap to them, Their ruin and their retribution. ¹⁰ Let their eyes be darkened, so that they cannot see; Make their backs bend forever under their burden!" ¹¹ I ask then, has their stumbling led to their absolute ruin? By no means. Through their false step salvation has gone to the heathen, so as to make the Israelites jealous.

¹⁴ But clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about gratifying your physical cravings.

⁵ One man thinks one day better than another, while another thinks them all alike. Everybody must be fully convinced in his own mind.

⁸ I hold that Christ has become an agent of circumcision to show God's truthfulness in carrying out the promises made to our forefathers,

¹³ May God, the source of hope, fill you with perfect happiness and peace in your faith, so that you may have overflowing hope through the power of the holy Spirit.

¹⁸ Such men are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own base passions, and with their plausible and flattering talk they deceive simple-minded people.

²¹ For since in God's providence the world with all its wisdom did not come to know God, God chose, through the folly of the gospel message, to save those who had faith in him.

²⁸ and it was what the world calls low and insignificant and unreal that God chose to nullify its realities,

³ For my part, I came among you in weakness and with a great deal of fear and trembling,

²¹ So no one should boast about men. For it all belongs to you— ²² Paul, Apollos, Cephas, the world, life, death, the present, the future—all of it belongs to you. ²³ But you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.

⁸ Are you satisfied already? Have you become rich already? Have you entered your kingdom without waiting for us? I wish you had entered it, so that we might share it with you!

¹⁰ We are made fools of, for the sake of Christ, while you are men of sense, through being united with him. We are weak, you are strong. You are distinguished, we are despised.

¹⁴ I do not write this to you to make you ashamed, but for your instruction as my dear children. ¹⁵ For no matter how many guides you may have in the Christian life, you will not have many fathers; for in this matter of union with Christ, I became your father, through preaching the good news to you.

¹⁸ Some of you seem to think that I am not coming to visit you, and are putting on airs about it. ¹⁹ But I am coming very soon to see you, if the Lord is willing, and then I will find out, not what these conceited people have to say, but what they can actually do. ²⁰ For the reign of God is not a matter of words but of power. ²¹ Which will you have? Shall I come to you with a stick, or in a loving and gentle spirit?

³ But if a man loves God, God is known by him. ⁴ As to eating things, then, that have been offered to idols, we all know that no idol has any real existence, and that there is no God but one.

²⁰ To the Jews I have become like a Jew, to win Jews over; to men under the Law I have become like a man under the Law, though I am not myself under the Law, so as to win over those who are under the Law. ²¹ To those who have no law I have become like a man without any law—though I am not without the law of God, but under the law of Christ—so as to win over those who are without any law. ²² To the overscrupulous I have become overscrupulous, so as to win the overscrupulous; I have become everything to everybody, so as by all means to save some of them. ²³ And I do it all for the sake of the good news, so that I may share in its blessings along with the rest.

⁴ and drank the same supernatural drink— for they used to drink from a supernatural rock which attended them, and the rock was really Christ—

¹¹ These things happened to them as a warning to others, but they were written down to instruct us, in whose days the ages have reached their climax.

¹⁹ What am I saying then? That there is any such thing as being offered to an idol, or any such thing as an idol? ²⁰ No, but that what the heathen sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God, and I do not want you to have fellowship with demons.

² I appreciate your always remembering me, and your standing by the things I passed on to you, just as you received them.

² You know that when you were heathen you would stray off, as impulse directed, to idols that could not speak.

¹² For now we are looking at a dim reflection in a mirror, but then we shall see face to face. Now my knowledge is imperfect, but then I shall know as fully as God knows me.

³⁴ Return to your sober sense as you ought, and stop sinning, for some of you are utterly ignorant about God. To your shame I say so.

⁴⁵ This is also what the Scripture says: "The first man Adam became a living creature." The last Adam has become a life-giving Spirit.

⁵⁸ So my dear brothers, be firm and unmoved, and always devote yourselves to the Lord's work, for you know that through the Lord your labor is not thrown away.

²² and put his seal upon us and given us his Spirit in our hearts, as earnest-money.

⁵ But if anyone has hurt anybody's feelings, it is not so much mine, as yours, or at least those of some of you, not to be too hard upon you all.

¹⁷ Now the Lord here means the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

⁶ For God who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," has shone in my heart, to give me the light of the knowledge of God's glory, that is on the face of Christ.

²⁰ It is for Christ, therefore, that I am an envoy, seeing that God makes his appeal through me. On Christ's behalf I beg you to be reconciled to God.

¹³ To pay me back, I tell you, my children, you must open your hearts too.

¹⁶ What bargain can a temple of God make with idols? For we are a temple of the living God, just as God said, "I will live in them and move among them, And I will be their God and they will be my people." ¹⁷ Therefore, "Come out from them, And separate from them, says the Lord, And touch nothing that is unclean. Then I will welcome you, ¹⁸ I will become a father to you, And you shall become my sons and daughters, Says the Lord Almighty."

³ For they have given to the utmost of their ability, as I can bear them witness, and beyond it,

¹⁰ For they say, "His letters are impressive and telling, but his personal appearance is insignificant and as a speaker he amounts to nothing."

² I feel a divine jealousy about you, for I betrothed you to Christ, to present you as a pure bride to her one husband. ³ But I am afraid that just as the serpent by his cunning deceived Eve, your thoughts will be led astray from their single-hearted fidelity to Christ.

³ But I am afraid that just as the serpent by his cunning deceived Eve, your thoughts will be led astray from their single-hearted fidelity to Christ.

⁶ Even if I have no particular gifts in speaking, I am not wanting in knowledge. Why, I have always made that perfectly clear in my dealings with you.

¹³ Such men are sham apostles, dishonest workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ. ¹⁴ And no wonder, for even Satan himself masquerades as a shining angel. ¹⁵ So it is nothing strange if his servants also masquerade as servants of uprightness. But their doom will fit their actions.

³⁰ If there must be boasting, I will boast of the things that show my weakness!

⁷ So to keep me from being too much elated a bitter physical affliction was sent to me, a very messenger of Satan, to harass me, to keep me from being too much elated. ⁸ Three times I have prayed to the Lord about this, begging that it might leave me, ⁹ and he said to me, "My favor is enough for you, for only where there is weakness is perfect strength developed." So I am perfectly willing to boast of all my weakness, so that the strength of Christ may shelter me. ¹⁰ That is why I am pleased with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and difficulties, when they are endured for Christ's sake, for it is when I am weak that I am strong.

²⁰ for I am afraid that perhaps when I come I may find you not as I want to find you, and that you may find me not as you want to find me. I am afraid that perhaps there may be quarreling, jealousy, bad feeling, rivalry, slander, gossip, conceit, and disorder, ²¹ and that when I come back my God may humiliate me before you, and I may have to mourn over many who have kept on in their old sins and have never repented of the impurity, immorality, and sensuality in which they have indulged.

⁴ Even if he was crucified through weakness, by the power of God he is alive. For we are weak as he was, but you will find that by the power of God we will be alive as he is.

⁶ I am amazed that you are so quickly turning away from him who called you by the mercy of Christ, to some different good news—

¹⁷ or going up to Jerusalem to see those who had been apostles before me, I went off to Arabia, and on my return came back to Damascus.

² It was in obedience to a revelation that I went. I laid before them the good news that I preach to the heathen, presenting it privately to the leaders, for fear my efforts might be or might have been futile.

⁴ to gratify the false brothers who had been smuggled in, who sneaked in to spy upon the freedom we enjoy in Christ Jesus, so as to reduce us to slavery again. ⁵ But we did not submit to them for a moment, in order that the truth of the good news might remain yours.

¹⁴ But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the good news, I said to Cephas, right before them all, "If you live like a heathen, and not like a Jew, though you are a Jew yourself, why should you try to make the heathen live like Jews?"

¹ You senseless Galatians! Who has bewitched you, when you had Jesus Christ shown crucified right before your eyes? ² This is all I want to ask you: Did you receive the Spirit through doing what the Law commands, or through believing the message you heard? ³ Are you so senseless? Did you begin with the Spirit only to end now with the flesh?

³ Are you so senseless? Did you begin with the Spirit only to end now with the flesh? ⁴ Have you gone through so much, all for nothing?—if it really is for nothing!

⁸ The Scripture foresaw that God would accept the heathen as upright in consequence of their faith, and preached the good news in advance to Abraham in the words, "All the heathen will be blessed through you."

¹⁰ For there is a curse upon all who rely on obedience to the Law, for the Scripture says, "Cursed be anyone who does not stand by everything that is written in the Book of the Law and obey it."

¹³ Christ ransomed us from the Law's curse by taking our curse upon himself (for the Scripture says, "Cursed be anyone who is hung on a tree") ¹⁴ in order that the blessing given to Abraham might through Jesus Christ reach the heathen, so that through faith we might receive the promised Spirit. ¹⁵ To take an illustration, brothers, from daily life: even a human agreement, once ratified, no one annuls or alters. ¹⁶ Now the promises were made to Abraham and his line. It does not say, "and to your lines," in the plural, but in the singular, "and to your line," that is, Christ. ¹⁷ My point is this: An agreement already ratified by God cannot be annulled and its promise canceled by the Law, which arose four hundred and thirty years later. ¹⁸ If our inheritance rests on the Law, it has nothing to do with the promise. Yet it was as a promise that God bestowed it upon Abraham. ¹⁹ Then what about the Law? It was a later addition, designed to produce transgressions, until the descendant to which the promise was made should come, and it was enacted by means of angels, through an intermediary;

¹⁹ Then what about the Law? It was a later addition, designed to produce transgressions, until the descendant to which the promise was made should come, and it was enacted by means of angels, through an intermediary; ²⁰ though an intermediary implies more than one party, while God is but one. ²¹ Is the Law then contrary to God's promises? By no means. For if a law had been given that could have brought life, uprightness would really have come through law. ²² But the Scripture describes all mankind as the prisoners of sin, so that the promised blessing might on the ground of faith in Jesus Christ be given to those who have faith. ²³ But before this faith came, we were kept shut up under the Law, in order to obtain the faith that was to be revealed.

²³ But before this faith came, we were kept shut up under the Law, in order to obtain the faith that was to be revealed. ²⁴ So the Law has been our attendant on our way to Christ, so that we might be made upright through faith.

²⁴ So the Law has been our attendant on our way to Christ, so that we might be made upright through faith. ²⁵ But now that faith has come, we are no longer in the charge of the attendant. ²⁶ For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God through your faith.

²⁹ And if you belong to Christ, then you are true descendants of Abraham and his heirs under the promise.

²⁹ And if you belong to Christ, then you are true descendants of Abraham and his heirs under the promise.

⁵ to ransom those who were subject to law, so that we might receive adoption. ⁶ And because you are sons, God has sent into our hearts the spirit of his Son, with the cry, "Abba!" that is, Father. ⁷ So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir, made so by God.

⁹ but now that you know God, or rather have come to be known by him, how can you turn back to the old, crude notions, so poor and weak, and wish to become slaves to them again?

¹³ though you know that it was because of an illness that I preached the good news to you that first time;

¹⁹ my children—you for whom I am enduring a mother's pains again, until Christ is formed in you. ²⁰ I wish I could be with you now, and use a different tone with you, for I do not know which way to turn about you. ²¹ Tell me this, you who want to be subject to law: Will you not listen to the Law? ²² For the Scripture says that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave-girl, and one by the free woman. ²³ But the child of the slave-girl was born in the ordinary course of nature, while the child of the free woman was born in fulfilment of the promise.

²⁵ (and Hagar means Mount Sinai, in Arabia), and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for Jerusalem is in slavery with her children.

²⁸ Now we, brothers, are like Isaac, children born in fulfilment of the promise. ²⁹ But just as then the child born in the ordinary course of nature persecuted the one born through the influence of the Spirit, so it is today.

²⁹ But just as then the child born in the ordinary course of nature persecuted the one born through the influence of the Spirit, so it is today.

³¹ So, brothers, we are children not of a slave but of one who is free.

¹ This is the freedom with which Christ has freed us. So stand firm in it, and do not get under a yoke of slavery again. ² Why, I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ can do nothing for you. ³ I insist again to any man who lets himself be circumcised, that he is under obligation to obey the whole Law. ⁴ You people who propose to be made upright by law have finished with Christ; you have lost your hold upon God's favor.

⁷ You were making such progress! Who has stopped your obeying the truth?

¹¹ And I, brothers, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? If that is the case, the cross has ceased to be an obstacle, I suppose!

¹³ For you, brothers, have been called to freedom; only do not make your freedom an excuse for the physical, but in love be slaves to one another.

²² But what the Spirit produces is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

⁴ Every man ought to test his own work, and then whatever satisfaction he has will be with reference to himself, and not in comparison with someone else.

¹² These men who are trying to force you to let yourselves be circumcised want to present a good appearance externally, to save themselves from having to stand persecution for the cross of Jesus the Christ.

¹² These men who are trying to force you to let yourselves be circumcised want to present a good appearance externally, to save themselves from having to stand persecution for the cross of Jesus the Christ. ¹³ Why, even those who let themselves be circumcised do not observe the Law themselves! But they want you to let yourselves be circumcised so that they can boast of that physical fact about you!

¹³ Why, even those who let themselves be circumcised do not observe the Law themselves! But they want you to let yourselves be circumcised so that they can boast of that physical fact about you! ¹⁴ But I never want to boast of anything but the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, on which the world has been crucified to me and I have been to the world.

¹⁴ But I never want to boast of anything but the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, on which the world has been crucified to me and I have been to the world.

¹⁸ The blessing of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers. Amen.

⁵ He foreordained us to become his sons through Jesus Christ, in fulfilment of his generous purpose,

⁷ It is through union with him and through his blood that we have been delivered and our offenses forgiven,

¹⁰ and in arranging, when the time should have fully come, that everything in heaven and on earth should be unified in Christ—

¹³ You also have heard the message of the truth, the good news of your salvation, and believed in him, and through union with him you have been marked with the seal of the holy Spirit that was promised,

¹⁷ The God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, grant you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation through the knowledge of himself,

¹¹ So remember that you were once physically heathen, and called uncircumcised by those who called themselves circumcised, though only physically, by human hands. ¹² At that time you had no connection with Christ, you were aliens to the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the agreements about God's promise; with no hope and no God in all the world.

¹⁸ for it is through him that we both with one Spirit are now able to approach the Father.

¹³ until we all attain unity in faith, and in the knowledge of the Son of God, and reach mature manhood, and that full measure of development found in Christ.

¹⁸ They are estranged from the life of God because of the ignorance that exists among them and their obstinacy of heart,

²⁴ and put on the new self which has been created in likeness to God, with all the uprightness and holiness that belong to the truth.

³⁰ You must not offend God's holy Spirit, with which you have been marked for the Day of Redemption.

² and lead loving lives, just as Christ loved you and gave himself for you, as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

¹⁸ Use every kind of prayer and entreaty, and at every opportunity pray in the Spirit. Be on the alert about it; devote yourselves constantly to prayer for all God's people

⁸ For God is my witness how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus himself.

¹⁹ for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, all this will turn out for my highest welfare,

²⁷ Whatever happens, show yourselves citizens worthy of the good news of the Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am kept away and only hear news of you, I may know that you are standing firm with one spirit, one purpose, fighting side by side for faith in the good news.

⁵ Have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. ⁶ Though he possessed the nature of God, he did not grasp at equality with God, ⁷ but laid it aside to take on the nature of a slave and become like other men. ⁸ When he had assumed human form, he still further humbled himself and carried his obedience so far as to die, and to die upon the cross.

¹² So, my dear friends, as you have always been obedient, with reverence and awe make every effort to insure your salvation, not simply as though I were with you, but all the more because I am away.

¹⁶ offering men the message of life. Then I will have reason to boast of you on the Day of Christ, because my exertion and labor have not been wasted. ¹⁷ Even if my life is to be poured out as a libation as you offer your faith in a service of sacrifice to God, I am glad to have it so, and I congratulate you upon it,

²¹ For they are all looking out for their own interests, not for those of Jesus Christ.

⁷ But for the sake of Christ I have come to count my former gains as loss. ⁸ Why, I count everything as loss compared with the supreme advantage of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have lost everything, and think it rubbish, in order to gain Christ

²⁰ But the commonwealth to which we belong is in heaven, and from it we are eagerly awaiting the coming of a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

¹³ He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness, and has transferred us into the realm of his dear Son, ¹⁴ by whom we have been ransomed from captivity through having our sins forgiven. ¹⁵ He is a likeness of the unseen God, born before any creature, ¹⁶ for it was through him that everything was created in heaven and on earth, the seen and the unseen, angelic thrones, dominions, principalities, authorities—all things were created through him and for him. ¹⁷ He existed before all things and he sustains and embraces them all. ¹⁸ He is the head of the church, it is his body; for he is the beginning, the firstborn from among the dead—that he might come to stand first in everything. ¹⁹ For all the divine fulness chose to dwell in him, ²⁰ and through him to reconcile to God all things on earth or in heaven, making this peace through his blood shed on the cross.

²⁷ to whom God has chosen to make known among the heathen how glorious this mystery of Christ in you, the promise of glorification, really is.

¹ For I want you to know what a fight I am putting up for you and for our brothers in Laodicea, and for all who do not know me personally,

⁸ Take care that nobody exploits you through the pretensions of philosophy, guided by human tradition, following material ways of looking at things, instead of following Christ.

¹⁴ canceled the bond which stood against us, with its requirements, and put it out of our way when he nailed it to the cross.

¹⁶ So no one can call you to account for what you eat or drink, or do about annual or monthly feasts or Sabbaths. ¹⁷ That was all only the shadow of something that was to follow; the reality is found in Christ.

²⁰ If you have died with Christ to material ways of looking at things, why do you act as though you still belonged to the world, and submit to rules like

²⁰ If you have died with Christ to material ways of looking at things, why do you act as though you still belonged to the world, and submit to rules like ²¹ "You must not handle," "You must not taste," "You must not touch"— ²² referring to things that are all meant to be used up and destroyed? This is to follow mere human rules and regulations. ²³ Such practices pass for wisdom, with their self-imposed devotions, their self-humiliation, and their ascetic discipline, but they carry with them no real distinction, they are really only a catering to the flesh.

¹⁰ and have put on that new self newly made in the likeness of its Creator, to know him fully.

¹² Epaphras, one of your own number, a slave of Christ Jesus, wishes to be remembered to you. He is always standing up for you in his prayers that you may stand fast, like men of mature convictions, whatever God's will for you may be. ¹³ I can testify how anxious he is about you and the brothers in Laodicea and Hierapolis.

⁹ For when people speak of us, they tell what a welcome you gave us, and how you turned from idols to God, to serve a true and living God,

⁸ That was the kind of affection we had for you, which made us ready to share with you not only God's good news but our own lives too, because you were so dear to us.

¹³ We for our part constantly thank God for another reason too—because when you received God's message from our lips, you welcomed it not as the message of men but as the message of God, as it really is, which does its work in the hearts of you believers. ¹⁴ For you, brothers, followed the example of God's churches in Judea that are in union with Christ Jesus, for you in your turn had to bear the same ill-treatment from your neighbors as they did from the Jews, ¹⁵ who killed the Lord Jesus and persecuted the prophets and us; who displease God, and in their hostility to all mankind

¹⁷ For our part, brothers, when we were separated from you for a little while—in person, though not in spirit—we were extremely eager and longed intensely to see you. ¹⁸ For we resolved to come to see you—I, Paul, did so again and again—but Satan held us back.

⁵ That was why, when I could not bear it any longer, I sent to find out about your faith, for I was afraid that the tempter might have tempted you and all our labor might be lost.

⁹ For how can I thank God enough for you, for all the happiness you make me feel in the presence of our God,

⁵ not to gratify his passion, like the heathen who know nothing of God.

⁸ So whoever disregards this is not disregarding man, but God, who gives you his holy Spirit.

¹³ Hold them in the highest esteem and affection for what they do. Live at peace with one another.

⁸ in a blaze of fire, and takes vengeance on the godless who will not listen to the good news of our Lord Jesus.

² to Timothy, my true child in faith; God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord bless you and be merciful to you, and give you peace.

¹⁶ No one can deny the profundity of the divine truth of our religion! "He was revealed in flesh, He was vindicated by the Spirit, He was seen by the angels, He was proclaimed among the heathen, He was believed in throughout the world, He was taken up into glory."

⁵ But a woman who is really a widow, and has no children, has fixed her hope on God, and devotes herself to prayers and entreaties night and day.

¹⁹ Yet God's solid foundation stands unshaken, bearing this inscription, "The Lord knows those who belong to him," and "Everyone who uses the name of the Lord must give up evil."

⁴ to Titus, my true child in our common faith; God our Father and Christ Jesus our Savior bless you and give you peace.

¹⁴ He gave himself for us, to free us from all wickedness and purify for himself a people of his own, eager to do right.

¹⁰ I appeal to you for my child Onesimus, whose father I have become here in prison.

¹⁹ I, Paul, write this with my own hand: I will repay it—not to mention the fact that you owe me your very self besides.

³ He is the reflection of God's glory, and the representation of his being, and bears up the universe by his mighty word. He has effected man's purification from sin, and has taken his seat on high at the right hand of God's Majesty,

¹⁴ Therefore since these children referred to have the same mortal nature, Jesus also shared it, like them, in order that by his death he might dethrone the lord of death, the devil,

¹⁴ Therefore since these children referred to have the same mortal nature, Jesus also shared it, like them, in order that by his death he might dethrone the lord of death, the devil, ¹⁵ and free from their slavery men who had always lived in fear of death.

¹⁴ Since then we have in Jesus, the Son of God, a great high priest who has gone up into heaven, let us keep firm hold of our religion. ¹⁵ For our high priest is not one who is incapable of sympathy with our weaknesses, but he has been tempted in every way just as we have, without committing any sin. ¹⁶ So let us come with courage to God's throne of grace to receive his forgiveness and find him responsive when we need his help.

⁷ For Jesus in his life on earth offered prayers and entreaties, crying aloud with tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and because of his piety his prayer was heard.

¹⁶ for he is appointed not for possessing any legal physical qualifications, but by virtue of a life that cannot end.

¹⁸ So an earlier regulation is abrogated because it was poor and ineffective

²² the agreement which he guarantees is better than the old one,

⁶ But, as it is, the priestly service to which Christ has been appointed is as much better than the old as the agreement established by him and the promises on which it is based are superior to the former ones. ⁷ For if that first agreement had been perfect, there would have been no occasion for a second one. ⁸ But in his dissatisfaction with them he says, " 'See! the time is coming,' says the Lord, 'When I will conclude a new agreement with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, ⁹ Not like the one that I made with their forefathers, On the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out from the land of Egypt, For they would not abide by their agreement with me, So I paid no attention to them,' says the Lord. ¹⁰ 'For this is the agreement that I will make with the house of Israel, In those later days,' says the Lord; 'I will put my laws into their minds, And write them on their hearts, And they will have me for their God, And I will have them for my people. ¹¹ And they will not have to teach their townsmen and their brothers to know the Lord, For they will all know me, From the lowest to the highest. ¹² For I will be merciful to their misdeeds, And I will no longer remember their sins.' " ¹³ Now when he speaks of a new agreement, he is treating the first one as obsolete; but whatever is obsolete and antiquated is almost ready to disappear.

¹⁰ since they have to do only with food and drink and various washings—material regulations in force only until the time for the new order.

¹² taking with him no blood of goats and calves, but his own, and secured our permanent deliverance.

¹⁵ And this is why he is the negotiator of a new agreement, in order that as someone has died to deliver them from the offenses committed under the old agreement, those who have been offered it may receive the unending inheritance they have been promised.

¹⁵ And this is why he is the negotiator of a new agreement, in order that as someone has died to deliver them from the offenses committed under the old agreement, those who have been offered it may receive the unending inheritance they have been promised. ¹⁶ For where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established, ¹⁷ for a will is valid only in the case of a person who is dead; it has no force as long as the testator is alive. ¹⁸ So even the old agreement could not be ratified without the use of blood. ¹⁹ For when Moses had told all the regulations of the Law to all the people, he took calves' and goats' blood, along with water, crimson wool, and a bunch of hyssop, and sprinkled the roll of the Law and all the people, ²⁰ saying, "This blood ratifies the agreement which God has commanded me to make with you." ²¹ The tent too and all the appliances used in the priestly service he sprinkled with blood in the same way. ²² In fact, under the Law, almost everything is purified with blood, and unless blood is poured out nothing is forgiven. ²³ By such means, therefore, these things that were only copied from the originals in heaven had to be purified, but the heavenly originals themselves required far better sacrifices than these. ²⁴ For it was not a sanctuary made by human hands and only copied after the true one that Christ entered, but he went into heaven itself, in order to appear now on our behalf in the very presence of God.

⁵ That is why the Christ, when he was coming into the world, said, "You have not wished sacrifice or offering, but you have provided a body for me. ⁶ You never cared for burnt-offerings and sacrifices for sin! ⁷ So I said, 'See, I have come! as the Book of the Law says of me, O God, to do your will!' "

¹⁵ And we have the testimony of the holy Spirit to this, for after saying, ¹⁶ " 'This is the agreement that I will make with them In those later days,' says the Lord, 'I will put my laws into their minds, And write them upon their hearts,' " he goes on, ¹⁷ " 'And their sins and their misdeeds I will no longer remember.' " ¹⁸ But when these are forgiven, there is no more need of offerings for sin.

³³ sometimes being actually exposed as a public spectacle to insults and violence, and sometimes showing yourselves ready to share the lot of those in that condition. ³⁴ For you showed sympathy with those who were in prison, and you put up with it cheerfully when your property was taken from you, for you knew that you had in yourselves a greater possession that was lasting.

³⁸ And he whom I accept as righteous will find life through his faith. But if a man draws back, my heart can take no pleasure in him." ³⁹ But we will not draw back and perish, but we will have faith and save our souls.

¹¹ Faith made even Sarah herself able to have a child, although she was past the time of life for it, because she thought, that he who had made the promise would keep it.

¹⁹ For he believed that God was able to raise men even from the dead, and from the dead he did indeed, to speak figuratively, receive him back.

¹⁸ For it is no tangible blazing fire that you have come up to, no blackness and darkness and storm,

²² But you have come up to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to countless angels,

²⁴ to Jesus the negotiator of a new agreement, and to sprinkled blood that speaks more powerfully than even Abel's.

² Do not forget to be hospitable to strangers, for by being so some, without knowing it, have had angels as their guests.

²⁰ May God, the giver of peace, who brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus who through the blood by which he ratified the everlasting agreement has become the great shepherd of the sheep,

¹⁸ Of his own accord he brought us into being through the message of truth, so that we might be a kind of first-fruits among his creatures.

⁵ Do you suppose the Scripture means nothing when it says, "He yearns jealously over the Spirit he has put in our hearts?"

¹¹ trying to learn for what possible time the spirit of Christ within them in predicting the sufferings destined for Christ intended them and the glories that were to follow them.

¹⁸ for you know that you have not been ransomed with anything perishable like silver or gold, from the futile way of living in which you were brought up, ¹⁹ but with precious blood, like that of an unblemished, spotless lamb, the blood of Christ, ²⁰ who was predestined for this before the foundation of the world, but was revealed only at the end of the ages,

¹⁶ Live like free men, only do not make your freedom an excuse for doing wrong, but be slaves of God.

¹⁸ For Christ himself died once for all, for sin, an upright man for unrighteous men, to bring us to God, and was physically put to death, but he was made alive in the Spirit.

³ You have spent time enough in the past in doing as the heathen like to do, indulging in sensuality, passion, drunkenness, carousing, dissipation, and detestable idolatry.

³ In their greed they will exploit you with pretended arguments. From of old their condemnation has not been idle, and their destruction has not slumbered.

¹⁸ They utter arrogant nonsense and use physical cravings to lure into immorality men who are just escaping from among those who live in error;

²⁰ For if after men have escaped the corrupting influences of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they again become entangled in them and are overcome by them, their final condition is worse than their former one.

¹ My dear children, I am writing you this so that you may not sin; yet if anyone does sin, we have in Jesus Christ one who is upright and will intercede for us with the Father.

³ This is how we can be sure that we know him—by obeying his commands. ⁴ Whoever says, "I know him," but does not obey his commands, is a liar, and there is no truth in his heart;

¹² I am writing to you, dear children, because your sins have been forgiven for his sake.

¹ Think what love the Father has had for us, in letting us be called God's children, for that is what we are. This is why the world does not know what we are—because it has never come to know him.

¹ Think what love the Father has had for us, in letting us be called God's children, for that is what we are. This is why the world does not know what we are—because it has never come to know him. ² Dear friends, we are God's children now; it has not yet been disclosed what we are to be. We know that if he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

¹⁶ We know what love means from the fact that he laid down his life for us; so we also ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. ¹⁷ But if someone who is rich sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how can he have any love for God in his heart? ¹⁸ Dear children, let us love not with words or lips only but in reality and truth.

² You can tell the Spirit of God in this way: all inspiration that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in human form comes from God,

⁹ God's love for us has been revealed in this way—that God has sent his only Son into the world, to let us have life through him. ¹⁰ The love consists not in our having loved God, but in his loving us and sending his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

¹⁴ We have seen and can testify that the Father has sent the Son to be Savior of the world.

²⁰ And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us power to recognize him who is true; and we are in union with him who is true, through his Son, Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. ²¹ Dear children, keep away from idols.

⁸ Look out for yourselves, take care not to lose what we have worked for, but make sure that you are paid for it in full.

²⁰ But you, dear friends, must build yourselves up on the foundation of your most holy faith and pray in the holy Spirit,

¹² I will make him who is victorious a pillar in the temple of my God; he shall never go out of it again. I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God—the new Jerusalem, which is to come down out of heaven from my God—and my new name.

¹⁹ I reprove and discipline all whom I love. So be earnest and repent.

⁹ Then they sang a new song: "You deserve to take the roll and open its seals, for you have been slaughtered, and with your blood have bought for God men from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation,

¹ Then a great portent appeared in the sky—a woman clothed in the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. ² She was soon to have a child, and she cried out with pain and agony in giving birth to it.

³ They were singing a new song before the throne and the four animals and the elders, and no one could learn the song except the 144,000 who had been ransomed from the earth.

⁵ On her forehead there was written a name that was symbolic: "Mighty Babylon, mother of idolatresses and of earth's abominations."

¹⁰ I fell at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, "You must not do that. I am only a fellow-slave of yours and of your brothers who have accepted the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is what inspires prophecy."

² And I saw the new Jerusalem, the holy city, come down out of heaven from God, like a bride dressed and ready to meet her husband.

⁷ He who is victorious will possess all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son.

¹⁰ He carried me away in a trance to a great, high mountain, and showed me Jerusalem, the holy city, coming down out of heaven from God, ¹¹ in all the glory of God. It shone with a radiance like that of some very precious stone, like jasper, clear as crystal. ¹² It had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and twelve angels at the gates, which had carved upon them the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel. ¹³ There were three gates on the east, three gates on the north, three gates on the south, and three gates on the west. ¹⁴ The wall of the city had twelve foundation stones, and on them were the twelve names of the Lamb's twelve apostles. ¹⁵ The angel who talked with me had a gold measuring rod, with which to measure the city and its gates and wall. ¹⁶ The city was a square, its length the same as its breadth. He measured the city with his rod, and it was 12,000 furlongs. Its length, breadth, and height were the same. ¹⁷ He measured the wall and it was about 144 cubits (216 feet), as men measure, for that was the way the angel measured. ¹⁸ The material of the wall was jasper, but the city was pure gold, as transparent as glass. ¹⁹ The foundation stones of the wall of the city were ornamented with all kinds of precious stones. The first foundation stone was jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald, ²⁰ the fifth sardonyx, the sixth sardius, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, the twelfth amethyst. ²¹ The twelve gates were twelve pearls; each gate made of a single pearl. The principal street of the city was pure gold, as transparent as glass. ²² I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. ²³ The city does not need the sun nor the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God lighted it, and the Lamb is its lamp. ²⁴ The heathen will walk by its light. The kings of the earth will bring their splendor to it. ²⁵ Its gates will never be shut by day—for there will be no night there ²⁶ and they will bring the splendor and the wealth of the heathen into it. ²⁷ Nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who indulges in abominable practices and falsehoods, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life.