Romans 8 Cross References - MSB

¹ Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. ² For in Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. ³ For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful man, as an offering for sin. He thus condemned sin in the flesh, ⁴ so that the righteous standard of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. ⁵ Those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh; but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. ⁶ The mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace, ⁷ because the mind of the flesh is hostile to God: It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. ⁸ Those controlled by the flesh cannot please God. ⁹ You, however, are controlled not by the flesh, but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. ¹⁰ But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. ¹¹ And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit, who lives in you. ¹² Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation, but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. ¹³ For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. ¹⁴ For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. ¹⁵ For you did not receive a spirit of slavery that returns you to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” ¹⁶ The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. ¹⁷ And if we are children, then we are heirs: heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ—if indeed we suffer with Him, so that we may also be glorified with Him. ¹⁸ I consider that our present sufferings are not comparable to the glory that will be revealed in us. ¹⁹ The creation waits in eager expectation for the revelation of the sons of God. ²⁰ For the creation was subjected to futility, not by its own will, but because of the One who subjected it, in hope ²¹ that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. ²² We know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until the present time. ²³ Not only that, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. ²⁴ For in this hope we were saved; but hope that is seen is no hope at all. Why would one hope for what he can already see? ²⁵ But if we hope for what we do not yet see, we wait for it patiently. ²⁶ In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weaknesses. For we do not know how we ought to pray, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groans too deep for words. ²⁷ And He who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. ²⁸ And we know that all things work together for the good of those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose. ²⁹ For those God foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers. ³⁰ And those He predestined, He also called; those He called, He also justified; those He justified, He also glorified. ³¹ What then shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? ³² He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also, along with Him, freely give us all things? ³³ Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. ³⁴ Who is there to condemn us? For Christ, who died, and more than that was raised to life, is at the right hand of God—and He is interceding for us. ³⁵ Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? ³⁶ As it is written: “For Your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” ³⁷ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor principalities nor powers, neither the present nor the future, ³⁹ neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

¹⁷ No weapon formed against you shall prosper, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their vindication is from Me,” declares the LORD.

¹⁸ Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. ¹⁹ And this is the verdict: The Light has come into the world, but men loved the darkness rather than the Light because their deeds were evil.

²⁴ Truly, truly, I tell you, whoever hears My word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life and will not come under judgment. Indeed, he has crossed over from death to life.

²⁰ On that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you are in Me, and I am in you.

⁴ Remain in Me, and I will remain in you. Just as no branch can bear fruit by itself unless it remains in the vine, neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in Me.

⁷ “Blessed are they whose lawless acts are forgiven, whose sins are covered. ⁸ Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him.”

¹ Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,

¹⁷ In that case, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

²⁰ And if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

⁴ so that the righteous standard of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

¹⁴ For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

³⁴ Who is there to condemn us? For Christ, who died, and more than that was raised to life, is at the right hand of God—and He is interceding for us.

³⁹ neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

³ Greet Prisca and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus,

⁷ Greet Andronicus and Junia, my fellow countrymen and fellow prisoners. They are outstanding among the apostles, and they were in Christ before I was.

³⁰ It is because of Him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God: our righteousness, holiness, and redemption.

²² For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.

¹⁷ Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, all things have become new!

² I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of it I do not know, but God knows.

¹³ Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.”

²⁸ There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

¹⁶ So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

²⁵ Since we live by the Spirit, let us walk in step with the Spirit.

⁹ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God on the basis of faith.

¹¹ For the saving grace of God has appeared to everyone. ¹² It instructs us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live sensible, upright, and godly lives in the present age, ¹³ as we await the blessed hope and glorious appearance of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. ¹⁴ He gave Himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.

¹² Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and sustain me with a willing spirit.

¹⁰ Jesus answered, “If you knew the gift of God and who is asking you for a drink, you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”

¹⁴ But whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a fount of water springing up to eternal life.”

⁶³ The Spirit gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words I speak to you are spirit and they are life.

³⁸ Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said: ‘Streams of living water will flow from within him.’” ³⁹ He was speaking about the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were later to receive. For the Holy Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.

³² Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

³⁶ So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

²⁷ Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On that of works? No, but on that of faith.

²¹ so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

¹⁴ For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.

¹⁸ You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.

²² But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the fruit you reap leads to holiness, and the outcome is eternal life.

⁴ Therefore, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God.

²¹ So this is the principle I have discovered: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me.

²⁴ What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? ²⁵ I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with my mind I serve the law of God, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

¹⁰ But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. ¹¹ And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit, who lives in you.

⁴⁵ So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being;” the last Adam a life-giving spirit.

⁶ And He has qualified us as ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

¹⁷ Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

¹⁹ For through the law I died to the law so that I might live to God.

¹ In the freedom with which Christ has set us free, stand firm, then, and do not be encumbered once more by a yoke of slavery.

¹¹ But after the three and a half days, the breath of life from God entered the two witnesses, and they stood on their feet, and great fear fell upon those who saw them.

¹ Then the angel showed me a pure river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb

²⁷ Along with Jesus, they crucified two robbers, one on His right and one on His left.

¹⁴ The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

¹⁴ Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, ¹⁵ that everyone who believes in Him may not perish, but may have eternal life. ¹⁶ For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that everyone who believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷ For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.

²⁴ So a second time they called for the man who had been blind and said, “Give glory to God! We know that this man is a sinner.”

³⁹ Through Him everyone who believes is justified from everything you could not be justified from by the law of Moses.

²⁰ Therefore no one will be justified in His sight by works of the law. For the law merely brings awareness of sin.

⁶ We know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the body of sin might be rendered powerless, that we should no longer be slaves to sin.

⁵ For when we lived according to the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, bearing fruit for death. ⁶ But now, having died to what bound us, we have been released from the law, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code. ⁷ What then shall we say? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed, I would not have been mindful of sin if not for the law. For I would not have been aware of coveting if the law had not said, “Do not covet.” ⁸ But sin, seizing its opportunity through the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from the law, sin is dead. ⁹ Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. ¹⁰ So I discovered that the very commandment that was meant to bring life actually brought death. ¹¹ For sin, seizing its opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through the commandment put me to death.

³² He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also, along with Him, freely give us all things?

³ For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my own flesh and blood,

²¹ For God made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.

²¹ Is the law, then, opposed to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come from the law.

⁴ But when the time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, ⁵ to redeem those under the law, that we might receive our adoption as sons.

⁷ but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in human likeness.

¹⁴ Now since the children have flesh and blood, He too shared in their humanity, so that by His death He might destroy him who holds the power of death, that is, the devil,

¹⁷ For this reason He had to be made like His brothers in every way, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, in order to make atonement for the sins of the people.

¹⁵ For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who was tempted in every way that we are, yet was without sin.

¹⁸ So the former commandment is set aside because it was weak and useless ¹⁹ (for the law made nothing perfect), and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God.

¹ For the law is only a shadow of the good things to come, not the realities themselves. It can never, by the same sacrifices offered year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. ² If it could, would not the offerings have ceased? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt the guilt of their sins. ³ Instead, those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins, ⁴ because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. ⁵ Therefore, when Christ came into the world, He said: “Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but a body You prepared for Me. ⁶ In burnt offerings and sin offerings You took no delight. ⁷ Then I said, ‘Here I am, it is written about Me in the scroll: I have come to do Your will, O God.’” ⁸ In the passage above He says, “Sacrifice and offering, burnt offerings and sin offerings You did not desire, nor did You delight in them” (although they are offered according to the law). ⁹ Then He adds, “Here I am, I have come to do Your will, O God.” He takes away the first to establish the second. ¹⁰ And by that will, we have been sanctified through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

¹² But when this Priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, He sat down at the right hand of God.

¹⁴ because by a single offering He has made perfect for all time those who are being sanctified.

²⁴ He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. “By His stripes you are healed.”

¹ Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in His body, arm yourselves with the same resolve, because anyone who has suffered in his body is done with sin. ² Consequently, he does not live out his remaining time on earth for human passions, but for the will of God.

¹⁰ And love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins. ¹¹ Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. ¹² No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God remains in us, and His love is perfected in us. ¹³ By this we know that we remain in Him, and He in us: He has given us of His Spirit. ¹⁴ And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world.

²⁶ If a man who is not circumcised keeps the requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision?

²² But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law. ²⁴ Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. ²⁵ Since we live by the Spirit, let us walk in step with the Spirit. ²⁶ to sanctify her, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, ²⁷ and to present her to Himself as a glorious church, without stain or wrinkle or any such blemish, but holy and blameless.

²² But now He has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy, unblemished, and blameless in His presence—

²³ in joyful assembly, to the congregation of the firstborn, enrolled in heaven. You have come to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect,

² Beloved, we are now children of God, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when Christ appears, we will be like Him, for we will see Him as He is.

²⁴ Now to Him who is able to keep them from stumbling and to present you unblemished in His glorious presence, with great joy—

⁵ And no lie was found in their mouths, for they are blameless.

³³ But Jesus, turning and looking at His disciples, rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind Me, Satan! For you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”

⁶ Flesh is born of flesh, but spirit is born of the Spirit.

⁶ The mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace, ⁷ because the mind of the flesh is hostile to God: It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.

⁹ You, however, are controlled not by the flesh, but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.

¹² Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation, but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. ¹³ For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. ¹⁴ For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

¹⁴ The natural man does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God. For they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.

⁴⁸ As was the earthly man, so also are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are of heaven.

³ For though we live in the flesh, we do not wage war according to the flesh.

¹⁹ The acts of the flesh are obvious: adultery, sexual immorality, impurity, and debauchery; ²⁰ idolatry and sorcery; hatred, discord, jealousy, and rage; rivalries, divisions, factions, ²¹ envy, and murder; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

⁹ for the fruit of the Spirit consists in all goodness, righteousness, and truth.

¹⁸ For as I have often told you before, and now say again even with tears: Many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. ¹⁹ Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and their glory is in their shame. Their minds are set on earthly things.

¹ Therefore, since you have been raised with Christ, strive for the things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. ² Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. ³ For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.

¹⁰ Such punishment is specially reserved for those who indulge the corrupt desires of the flesh and despise authority. Bold and self-willed, they are unafraid to slander glorious beings.

⁶ Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

²⁷ Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled; do not be afraid.

⁵ And now, Father, glorify Me in Your presence with the glory I had with You before the world existed.

¹⁰ For if, when we were enemies of God, we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through His life!

²¹ What fruit did you reap at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? The outcome of those things is death.

²³ For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

⁵ For when we lived according to the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, bearing fruit for death.

¹¹ For sin, seizing its opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through the commandment put me to death.

⁷ because the mind of the flesh is hostile to God: It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.

¹³ For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

¹⁴ Instead, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the desires of the flesh.

¹⁷ For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.

²² But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

⁸ The one who sows to please his flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; but the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.

¹⁴ But each one is tempted when by his own evil desires he is lured away and enticed. ¹⁵ Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

⁵ You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on their children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,

² Jehu son of Hanani the seer went out to confront him and said to King Jehoshaphat, “Should you help the wicked and love those who hate the LORD? Because of this, the wrath of the LORD is upon you.

¹ For the choirmaster. According to Mahalath. A Maskil of David. The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt; their ways are vile. There is no one who does good.

²³ Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Neither are you able to do good—you who are accustomed to doing evil.

¹⁹ So then, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do likewise will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever practices and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

³⁴ You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks.

⁷ The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me, because I testify that its works are evil.

²³ Whoever hates Me hates My Father as well. ²⁴ If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have seen and hated both Me and My Father.

²⁸ Furthermore, since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, He gave them up to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.

³⁰ slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant, and boastful. They invent new forms of evil; they disobey their parents.

³¹ Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Certainly not! Instead, we uphold the law.

⁷ What then shall we say? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed, I would not have been mindful of sin if not for the law. For I would not have been aware of coveting if the law had not said, “Do not covet.” ⁸ But sin, seizing its opportunity through the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from the law, sin is dead. ⁹ Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. ¹⁰ So I discovered that the very commandment that was meant to bring life actually brought death. ¹¹ For sin, seizing its opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through the commandment put me to death. ¹² So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous, and good. ¹³ Has that which is good, then, become death to me? Certainly not! But in order that sin might be exposed as sin, it produced death in me through what was good, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful. ¹⁴ We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin.

²² For in my inner being I delight in God’s law.

²¹ To those without the law I became like one without the law (though I am not outside the law of God but am under the law of Christ), to win those without the law.

²² But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

¹⁸ They are darkened in their understanding and alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardness of their hearts. ¹⁹ Having lost all sense of shame, they have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity, with a craving for more.

²¹ Once you were alienated from God and were hostile in your minds, engaging in evil deeds.

⁴ traitorous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,

¹⁰ For this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord. I will put My laws in their minds and inscribe them on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they will be My people.

⁴ You adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever chooses to be a friend of the world renders himself an enemy of God.

¹⁴ Their eyes are full of adultery; their desire for sin is never satisfied; they seduce the unstable. They are accursed children with hearts trained in greed. ¹⁵ Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. ¹⁶ For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not from the Father but from the world.

¹⁷ And a voice from heaven said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased!”

³ Jesus replied, “Truly, truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”

⁵ Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. ⁶ Flesh is born of flesh, but spirit is born of the Spirit.

²⁹ He who sent Me is with Me. The Father has not left Me alone, because I always do what pleases Him.”

³² I want you to be free from concern. The unmarried man is concerned about the work of the Lord, how he can please the Lord.

¹⁸ I have all I need and more, now that I have received your gifts from Epaphroditus. They are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, well-pleasing to God.

¹⁰ so that you may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord and may please Him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God,

²⁰ Children, obey your parents in everything, for this is pleasing to the Lord.

¹ Finally, brothers, we ask and encourage you in the Lord Jesus to live in a way that is pleasing to God, just as you have received from us. So you should do so all the more.

⁵ By faith Enoch was taken up so that he did not see death: “He could not be found, because God had taken him away.” For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. ⁶ And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who approaches Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.

¹⁶ And do not neglect to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.

²¹ equip you with every good work to do His will. And may He accomplish in you what is pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

²² and we will receive from Him whatever we ask, because we keep His commandments and do what is pleasing in His sight.

¹⁹ And I will give them singleness of heart and put a new spirit within them; I will remove their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh,

²⁶ I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. ²⁷ And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes and to carefully observe My ordinances.

¹³ So if you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”

³⁴ For the One whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit.

¹⁷ the Spirit of truth. The world cannot receive Him, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you do know Him, for He abides with you and will be in you.

⁹ I ask on their behalf. I do not ask on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those You have given Me; for they are Yours. ¹⁰ All I have is Yours, and all You have is Mine; and in them I have been glorified.

² For in Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.

¹¹ And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit, who lives in you.

¹⁶ Do you not know that you yourselves are God’s temple, and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?

²¹ Therefore, stop boasting in men. All things are yours, ²² whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future. All of them belong to you, ²³ and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.

¹⁹ Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;

²³ But each in his own turn: Christ the firstfruits; then at His coming, those who belong to Him.

¹⁶ What agreement can exist between the temple of God and idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will dwell with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be My people.”

⁷ You are looking at outward appearances. If anyone is confident that he belongs to Christ, he should remind himself that we belong to Christ just as much as he does.

⁶ And because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!”

²⁴ Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

¹³ And in Him, having heard and believed the word of truth—the gospel of your salvation—you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,

¹⁷ that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in your knowledge of Him. ¹⁸ I ask that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know the hope of His calling, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints,

²² And in Him you too are being built together into a dwelling place for God in His Spirit.

¹⁹ because I know that through your prayers and the provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, my distress will turn out for my deliverance.

¹⁴ Guard the treasure entrusted to you, with the help of the Holy Spirit who dwells in us.

¹¹ trying to determine the time and setting to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow.

²⁴ Whoever keeps His commandments remains in God, and God in him. And by this we know that He remains in us: by the Spirit He has given us.

⁴ You, little children, are from God and have overcome them, because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.

¹³ By this we know that we remain in Him, and He in us: He has given us of His Spirit.

¹⁹ These are the ones who cause divisions, who are worldly and devoid of the Spirit. ²⁰ But you, beloved, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, ²¹ keep yourselves in the love of God as you await the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you eternal life.

⁸ And all who dwell on the earth will worship the beast—all whose names have not been written from the foundation of the world in the Book of Life belonging to the Lamb who was slain.

¹⁵ And if anyone was found whose name was not written in the Book of Life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

⁵⁴ Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.

⁵⁶ Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood remains in Me, and I in him.

²⁵ Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me will live, even though he dies. ²⁶ And everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?”

¹⁹ In a little while the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you also will live. ²⁰ On that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you are in Me, and I am in you.

²³ Jesus replied, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word. My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.

⁵ I am the vine and you are the branches. The one who remains in Me, and I in him, will bear much fruit. For apart from Me you can do nothing.

²³ I in them and You in Me—that they may be perfectly united, so that the world may know that You sent Me and have loved them just as You have loved Me.

¹² Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, so also death was passed on to all men, because all sinned.

¹¹ For we who are alive are always consigned to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our mortal body.

¹ Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is dismantled, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. ² For in this tent we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, ³ because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. ⁴ So while we are in this tent, we groan under our burdens, because we do not wish to be unclothed but clothed, so that our mortality may be swallowed up by life.

⁶ Therefore we are always confident, although we know that while we are at home in the body, we are away from the Lord. ⁷ For we walk by faith, not by sight. ⁸ We are confident, then, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.

⁵ Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Can’t you see for yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you—unless you actually fail the test?

²⁰ I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.

¹⁷ so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. Then you, being rooted and grounded in love,

²³ I am torn between the two. I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better.

²⁷ To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

³ For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. ⁴ When Christ, who is our life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.

¹⁶ For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will be the first to rise.

²⁷ Just as man is appointed to die once, and after that to face judgment,

¹³ I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of my body, ¹⁴ because I know that this tent will soon be laid aside, as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me.

¹⁴ “Sir,” I answered, “you know.” So he replied, “These are the ones who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. ¹⁵ For this reason, they are before the throne of God and serve Him day and night in His temple; and the One seated on the throne will spread His tabernacle over them. ¹⁶ ‘Never again will they hunger, and never will they thirst; nor will the sun beat down upon them, nor any scorching heat.’ ¹⁷ For the Lamb in the center of the throne shepherds them. ‘He will lead them to springs of living water,’ and ‘God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.’”

¹³ And I heard a voice from heaven telling me to write, “Blessed are the dead—those who die in the Lord from this moment on.” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “they will rest from their labors, and their deeds will follow them.”

¹⁹ Your dead will live; their bodies will rise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust! For your dew is like the dew of the morning, and the earth will bring forth her dead.

¹⁴ I will put My Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I, the LORD, have spoken, and I will do it, declares the LORD.’”

²¹ For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom He wishes.

²⁸ Do not be amazed at this, for the hour is coming when all who are in their graves will hear His voice ²⁹ and come out—those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.

²⁴ But God raised Him from the dead, releasing Him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for Him to be held in its clutches.

³² God has raised this Jesus to life, to which we are all witnesses. ³³ Exalted, then, to the right hand of God, He has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear.

²⁴ but also for us, to whom righteousness will be credited—for us who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. ²⁵ He was delivered over to death for our trespasses and was raised to life for our justification.

⁴ We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may walk in newness of life. ⁵ For if we have been united with Him like this in His death, we will certainly also be united with Him in His resurrection.

¹² Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey it in its desires.

¹⁴ By His power God raised the Lord from the dead, and He will raise us also.

¹⁶ For if the dead are not raised, then not even Christ has been raised.

²⁰ But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. ²¹ For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. ²² For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.

⁵¹ Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— ⁵² in an instant, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. ⁵³ For the perishable must be clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. ⁵⁴ When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come to pass: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” ⁵⁵ “Where, O Death, is your sting? Where, O Hades, is your victory?” ⁵⁶ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. ⁵⁷ But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!

¹⁴ knowing that the One who raised the Lord Jesus will also raise us through Jesus and present us with you in His presence.

⁴ So while we are in this tent, we groan under our burdens, because we do not wish to be unclothed but clothed, so that our mortality may be swallowed up by life.

¹⁹ and the surpassing greatness of His power to us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of His mighty strength, ²⁰ which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms,

⁵ made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in our trespasses. It is by grace you have been saved!

²¹ who, by the power that enables Him to subject all things to Himself, will transform our lowly bodies to be like His glorious body.

¹⁴ For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, we also believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him. ¹⁵ By the word of the Lord, we declare to you that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who have fallen asleep. ¹⁶ For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will be the first to rise. ¹⁷ After that, we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord.

²⁰ Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep,

²¹ Through Him you believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and glorified Him; and so your faith and hope are in God.

¹⁸ For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit,

¹⁸ the Living One. I was dead, and behold, now I am alive forever and ever. Amen. And I hold the keys of Death and of Hades.

¹¹ Then I saw a great white throne and the One seated on it. Earth and heaven fled from His presence, and no place was found for them. ¹² And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne. And there were open books, and one of them was the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their deeds, as recorded in the books. ¹³ The sea gave up its dead, and Death and Hades gave up their dead, and each one was judged according to his deeds.

¹⁶ Truly, O LORD, I am Your servant; I am Your servant, the son of Your maidservant; You have broken my bonds.

² Certainly not! How can we who died to sin live in it any longer? ³ Or aren’t you aware that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? ⁴ We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may walk in newness of life. ⁵ For if we have been united with Him like this in His death, we will certainly also be united with Him in His resurrection. ⁶ We know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the body of sin might be rendered powerless, that we should no longer be slaves to sin. ⁷ For anyone who has died has been freed from sin. ⁸ Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him. ⁹ For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, He cannot die again; death no longer has dominion over Him. ¹⁰ The death He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life He lives, He lives to God. ¹¹ So you too must count yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. ¹² Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey it in its desires. ¹³ Do not present the parts of your body to sin as instruments of wickedness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and present the parts of your body to Him as instruments of righteousness. ¹⁴ For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace. ¹⁵ What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law, but under grace? Certainly not!

¹⁹ Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; ²⁰ you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God with your body and with your spirit, which belong to God.

² Consequently, he does not live out his remaining time on earth for human passions, but for the will of God. ³ For we have spent enough of our past lifetime carrying out the same desires as the Gentiles: living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing, and detestable idolatry.

¹ Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. ² For in Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.

⁴ so that the righteous standard of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. ⁵ Those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh; but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. ⁶ The mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace,

²⁷ No, I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.

¹⁹ The acts of the flesh are obvious: adultery, sexual immorality, impurity, and debauchery; ²⁰ idolatry and sorcery; hatred, discord, jealousy, and rage; rivalries, divisions, factions, ²¹ envy, and murder; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

²² to put off your former way of life, your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires;

³⁰ And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

³ But among you, as is proper among the saints, there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed. ⁴ Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk, or crude joking, which are out of character, but rather thanksgiving. ⁵ For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure, or greedy person (that is, an idolater), has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.

¹⁸ Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to reckless indiscretion. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.

⁵ Put to death, therefore, the components of your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed, which is idolatry. ⁶ Because of these, the wrath of God is coming on the sons of disobedience. ⁷ When you lived among them, you also used to walk in these ways. ⁸ But now you must put aside all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.

¹² It instructs us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live sensible, upright, and godly lives in the present age,

²² Since you have purified your souls by obedience to the truth through the Spirit so that you have a genuine love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from a pure heart.

¹¹ Beloved, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from the desires of the flesh, which war against your soul.

¹⁰ Teach me to do Your will, for You are my God. May Your good Spirit lead me on level ground.

²⁰ I walk in the way of righteousness, along the paths of justice,

¹⁶ Come near to Me and listen to this: From the beginning I have not spoken in secret; from the time it happened, I was there.” And now the Lord GOD has sent me, accompanied by His Spirit. ¹⁷ Thus says the LORD your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “I am the LORD your God, who teaches you for your benefit, who directs you in the way you should go.

¹⁰ Yet the number of the Israelites will be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or counted. And it will happen that in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not My people,’ they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’

¹² But to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God—

⁵ Those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh; but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.

¹⁶ The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. ¹⁷ And if we are children, then we are heirs: heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ—if indeed we suffer with Him, so that we may also be glorified with Him.

¹⁹ The creation waits in eager expectation for the revelation of the sons of God.

⁸ So it is not the children of the flesh who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as offspring.

²⁶ and, “It will happen that in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not My people,’ they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’”

¹⁸ And: “I will be a Father to you, and you will be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”

²⁶ You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.

¹⁸ But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

⁵ He predestined us for adoption as His sons through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of His will,

¹ Behold what manner of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him.

⁷ The one who overcomes will inherit all things, and I will be his God, and he will be My son.

¹⁹ “Speak to us yourself and we will listen,” they said to Moses. “But do not let God speak to us, or we will die.”

¹² Then the Israelites declared to Moses, “Look, we are perishing! We are lost; we are all lost!

⁵ I will give them, in My house and within My walls, a memorial and a name better than that of sons and daughters. I will give them an everlasting name that will not be cut off.

¹⁹ Then I said, ‘How I long to make you My sons and give you a desirable land, the most beautiful inheritance of all the nations!’ I thought you would call Me ‘Father’ and never turn away from following Me.

³⁶ “Abba, Father,” He said, “all things are possible for You. Take this cup from Me. Yet not what I will, but what You will.”

²⁸ When the man saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before Him, shouting in a loud voice, “What do You want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg You not to torture me!”

³⁷ Then all the people of the region of the Gadarenes asked Jesus to depart from them, because great fear had taken hold of them. So He got into the boat and started back.

² So Jesus told them, “When you pray, say: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

⁴² “Father, if You are willing, take this cup from Me. Yet not My will, but Yours be done.”

⁸ And when He comes, He will convict the world in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment:

¹⁷ “Do not cling to Me,” Jesus said, “for I have not yet ascended to My Father. But go and tell My brothers, ‘I am ascending to My Father and your Father, to My God and your God.’”

³⁷ When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and asked Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”

²⁹ Calling for lights, the jailer rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas.

¹⁶ The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.

²³ Not only that, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

¹² We have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us.

⁵ to redeem those under the law, that we might receive our adoption as sons. ⁶ And because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” ⁷ So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, you are also an heir of God through Christ.

¹¹ In Him we were also chosen as God’s own, having been predestined according to the plan of Him who works out everything by the counsel of His will, ¹² in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, would be for the praise of His glory. ¹³ And in Him, having heard and believed the word of truth—the gospel of your salvation—you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, ¹⁴ who is the pledge of our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession, to the praise of His glory.

⁷ For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-control.

¹⁵ and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.

¹⁸ For you have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to blackness, darkness, and storm; ¹⁹ to a trumpet blast or to a voice that made its hearers beg that no further word be spoken. ²⁰ For they could not bear what was commanded: “If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned.” ²¹ The sight was so terrifying that even Moses said, “I am trembling with fear.” ²² Instead, you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to myriads of angels ²³ in joyful assembly, to the congregation of the firstborn, enrolled in heaven. You have come to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, ²⁴ to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

¹⁹ You believe that God is one. Good for you! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.

¹⁸ There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment. The one who fears has not been perfected in love.

²⁶ In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weaknesses. For we do not know how we ought to pray, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groans too deep for words.

¹² And this is our boast: Our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially in relation to you, in the integrity and sincerity that are from God—not in worldly wisdom, but in the grace of God.

²² placed His seal on us, and put His Spirit in our hearts as a pledge of what is to come.

⁵ And God has prepared us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a pledge of what is to come.

¹⁹ And by this we will know that we belong to the truth, and will assure our hearts in His presence: ²⁰ Even if our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts, and He knows all things. ²¹ Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God, ²² and we will receive from Him whatever we ask, because we keep His commandments and do what is pleasing in His sight.

¹⁰ Whoever believes in the Son of God has this testimony within him; whoever does not believe God has made Him out to be a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has given about His Son.

²⁴ Then Jesus told His disciples, “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.

²¹ His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Enter into the joy of your master!’

³² Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom.

²⁹ And I bestow on you a kingdom, just as My Father has bestowed one on Me, ³⁰ so that you may eat and drink at My table and sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”

²⁶ Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and then to enter His glory?”

²⁵ Whoever loves his life will lose it, but whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. ²⁶ If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, My servant will be as well. If anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him.

²⁴ Father, I want those You have given Me to be with Me where I am, that they may see the glory You gave Me because You loved Me before the foundation of the world.

²² strengthening the souls of the disciples and encouraging them to continue in the faith. “We must endure many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,” they said.

³² And now I commit you, brothers, to God and to the word of His grace, which can build you up and give you an inheritance among all who are sanctified.

¹⁸ to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those sanctified by faith in Me.’

⁹ Therefore, since we have now been justified by His blood, how much more shall we be saved from wrath through Him! ¹⁰ For if, when we were enemies of God, we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through His life!

¹⁷ For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive an abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!

³ For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful man, as an offering for sin. He thus condemned sin in the flesh,

²⁹ For those God foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers. ³⁰ And those He predestined, He also called; those He called, He also justified; those He justified, He also glorified.

⁹ Rather, as it is written: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no heart has imagined, what God has prepared for those who love Him.”

⁷ And our hope for you is sure; If we are comforted, it is for your comfort and salvation, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you will share in our comfort.

⁸ We are hard pressed on all sides, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; ⁹ persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed. ¹⁰ We always carry around in our body the death of the Lord Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. ¹¹ For we who are alive are always consigned to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our mortal body. ¹² So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.

²⁹ And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise.

⁷ So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, you are also an heir of God through Christ.

⁶ This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are fellow heirs, fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of His promise in Christ.

²⁹ For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for Him,

¹⁰ For this reason I endure all things for the sake of the elect, so that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory. ¹¹ This is a trustworthy saying: If we died with Him, we will also live with Him; ¹² if we endure, we will also reign with Him; if we deny Him, He will also deny us; ¹³ if we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself. ¹⁴ Remind the believers of these things, charging them before the Lord to avoid quarreling over words, which succeeds only in leading the listeners to ruin.

⁷ so that, having been justified by His grace, we would become heirs with the hope of eternal life.

¹⁴ Are not the angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?

¹⁷ So when God wanted to make the unchanging nature of His purpose very clear to the heirs of the promise, He guaranteed it with an oath.

⁵ Listen, my beloved brothers: Has not God chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom He promised those who love Him?

⁴ and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, reserved in heaven for you,

¹³ But rejoice that you share in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed at the revelation of His glory.

²¹ To the one who overcomes, I will grant the right to sit with Me on My throne, just as I overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.

¹¹ Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, and falsely say every evil thing against you because of Me. ¹² Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets before you.

²⁴ But I consider my life of no value to me, if only I may finish my course with joy and complete the ministry I have received from the Lord Jesus—the ministry of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.

¹⁷ For our light and momentary affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory that is far beyond comparison. ¹⁸ So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

⁴ When Christ, who is our life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.

⁷ and to grant relief to you who are oppressed and to us as well. This will take place when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels ⁸ in blazing fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. ⁹ They will suffer the penalty of eternal destruction, separated from the presence of the Lord and the glory of His might, ¹⁰ on the day He comes to be glorified in His saints and regarded with wonder by all who have believed, including you who have believed our testimony. ¹¹ To this end, we always pray for you, that our God will count you worthy of His calling, and that He will powerfully fulfill your every good desire and work of faith, ¹² so that the name of our Lord Jesus will be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.

¹⁴ To this He called you through our gospel, so that you may share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

²⁵ He chose to suffer oppression with God’s people rather than to experience the fleeting enjoyment of sin. ²⁶ He valued disgrace for Christ above the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking ahead to his reward.

³⁵ Women received back their dead, raised to life again. Others were tortured and refused their release, so that they might gain a better resurrection.

⁵ who through faith are shielded by God’s power for the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. ⁶ In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in various trials ⁷ so that the proven character of your faith—more precious than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, honor, and glory, at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

¹³ Therefore prepare your minds for action. Be sober-minded. Set your hope fully on the grace to be given you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

¹ As a fellow elder, a witness of Christ’s sufferings, and a partaker of the glory to be revealed, I appeal to the elders among you:

¹⁷ For behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind.

¹⁷ “They will be Mine,” says the LORD of Hosts, “on the day when I prepare My treasured possession. And I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him. ¹⁸ So you will again distinguish between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.”

³¹ When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, He will sit on His glorious throne. ³² All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate the people one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. ³³ He will place the sheep on His right and the goats on His left. ³⁴ Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. ³⁵ For I was hungry and you gave Me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink, I was a stranger and you took Me in, ³⁶ I was naked and you clothed Me, I was sick and you looked after Me, I was in prison and you visited Me.’ ³⁷ Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You something to drink? ³⁸ When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? ³⁹ When did we see You sick or in prison and visit You?’ ⁴⁰ And the King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of Mine, you did for Me.’ ⁴¹ Then He will say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. ⁴² For I was hungry and you gave Me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave Me nothing to drink, ⁴³ I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, I was naked and you did not clothe Me, I was sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’ ⁴⁴ And they too will reply, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?’ ⁴⁵ Then the King will answer, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for Me.’ ⁴⁶ And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

²¹ Heaven must take Him in until the time comes for the restoration of all things, which God announced long ago through all His holy prophets.

²⁰ I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have complete boldness so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.

¹¹ Since everything will be destroyed, then, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to conduct yourselves in holiness and godliness ¹² as you anticipate and hasten the coming of the day of God, when the heavens will be destroyed by fire and the elements will melt in the heat. ¹³ But in keeping with God’s promise, we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.

¹ Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. ² I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. ³ And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying: “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man, and He will dwell with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them. ⁴ ‘He will wipe away every tear from their eyes,’ and there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the former things have passed away.” ⁵ And the One seated on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” Then He said to me, “Write this down, for these words are true and faithful.”

¹⁷ And to Adam He said: “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat, cursed is the ground because of you; through toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. ¹⁸ Both thorns and thistles it will yield for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. ¹⁹ By the sweat of your brow you will eat your bread, until you return to the ground—because out of it were you taken. For dust you are, and to dust you shall return.”

²⁹ And he named him Noah, saying, “May this one comfort us in the labor and toil of our hands caused by the ground that the LORD has cursed.”

¹³ Then God said to Noah, “The end of all living creatures has come before Me, because through them the earth is full of violence. Now behold, I will destroy both them and the earth.

⁶ The tents of robbers are safe, and those who provoke God are secure—those who carry their god in their hands. ⁷ But ask the animals, and they will instruct you; ask the birds of the air, and they will tell you. ⁸ Or speak to the earth, and it will teach you; let the fish of the sea inform you. ⁹ Which of all these does not know that the hand of the LORD has done this? ¹⁰ The life of every living thing is in His hand, as well as the breath of all mankind.

² “Futility of futilities,” says the Teacher, “futility of futilities! Everything is futile!”

⁵ The earth is defiled by its people; they have transgressed the laws; they have overstepped the decrees and broken the everlasting covenant. ⁶ Therefore a curse has consumed the earth, and its inhabitants must bear the guilt; the earth’s dwellers have been burned, and only a few survive.

⁴ How long will the land mourn and the grass of every field be withered? Because of the evil of its residents, the animals and birds have been swept away, for the people have said, “He cannot see what our end will be.”

¹¹ They have made it a desolation; desolate before Me, it mourns. All the land is laid waste, but no man takes it to heart.

⁵ Even the doe in the field deserts her newborn fawn because there is no grass. ⁶ Wild donkeys stand on barren heights; they pant for air like jackals; their eyes fail for lack of pasture.”

³ Therefore the land mourns, and all who dwell in it will waste away with the beasts of the field and the birds of the air; even the fish of the sea disappear.

¹⁸ How the cattle groan! The herds wander in confusion because they have no pasture. Even the flocks of sheep are suffering.

²² We know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until the present time.

¹³ But in keeping with God’s promise, we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.

¹ Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.

³ No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be within the city, and His servants will worship Him. ⁴ They will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads. ⁵ There will be no more night in the city, and they will have no need for the light of a lamp or of the sun. For the Lord God will shine on them, and they will reign forever and ever.

⁶ Trembling seized them there, anguish like a woman in labor.

¹⁵ And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.

²¹ A woman has pain in childbirth because her time has come; but when she brings forth her child, she forgets her anguish because of her joy that a child has been born into the world.

²⁰ For the creation was subjected to futility, not by its own will, but because of the One who subjected it, in hope

²³ if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope of the gospel you heard, which has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.

² She was pregnant and crying out in the pain and agony of giving birth.

³⁶ In fact, they can no longer die, because they are like the angels. And since they are sons of the resurrection, they are sons of God.

²⁸ When these things begin to happen, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”

⁵ And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us.

²⁴ What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?

¹⁵ For you did not receive a spirit of slavery that returns you to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” ¹⁶ The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.

²⁵ But if we hope for what we do not yet see, we wait for it patiently. ²⁶ In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weaknesses. For we do not know how we ought to pray, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groans too deep for words.

² For in this tent we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, ³ because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. ⁴ So while we are in this tent, we groan under our burdens, because we do not wish to be unclothed but clothed, so that our mortality may be swallowed up by life. ⁵ And God has prepared us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a pledge of what is to come.

⁵ For when we arrived in Macedonia, our bodies had no rest, but we were pressed from every direction—conflicts on the outside, fears within.

⁵ But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the hope of righteousness.

¹⁴ who is the pledge of our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession, to the praise of His glory.

²¹ For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. ²² But if I go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. So what shall I choose? I do not know. ²³ I am torn between the two. I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better.

²⁰ But our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, ²¹ who, by the power that enables Him to subject all things to Himself, will transform our lowly bodies to be like His glorious body.

⁸ From now on there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but to all who crave His appearing.

¹³ as we await the blessed hope and glorious appearance of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.

²⁸ so also Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many; and He will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who eagerly await Him.

⁷ so that the proven character of your faith—more precious than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, honor, and glory, at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

¹⁸ Surely the eyes of the LORD are on those who fear Him, on those whose hope is in His loving devotion

²² May Your loving devotion rest on us, O LORD, as we put our hope in You.

⁵ Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD his God,

³² The wicked man is thrown down by his own sin, but the righteous man has a refuge even in death.

⁷ But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in Him.

¹² Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope; even today I declare that I will restore to you double.

² through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

¹² Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, persistent in prayer.

⁴ For what was written in the past was written for our instruction, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures, we might have hope.

¹³ Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you believe in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

¹³ And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love; but the greatest of these is love.

¹⁸ So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

⁷ For we walk by faith, not by sight.

⁵ the faith and love proceeding from the hope stored up for you in heaven, of which you have already heard in the word of truth, the gospel

⁸ But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and the helmet of our hope of salvation.

¹⁶ Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and our God and Father, who by grace has loved us and given us eternal comfort and good hope,

¹¹ For the saving grace of God has appeared to everyone. ¹² It instructs us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live sensible, upright, and godly lives in the present age, ¹³ as we await the blessed hope and glorious appearance of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.

¹⁸ Thus by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be strongly encouraged. ¹⁹ We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain,

¹ Now faith is the assurance of what we hope for and the certainty of what we do not see.

³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

¹⁰ Concerning this salvation, the prophets who foretold the grace to come to you searched and investigated carefully, ¹¹ trying to determine the time and setting to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow.

³ And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as Christ is pure.

¹⁸ I await Your salvation, O LORD.

¹⁴ Wait patiently for the LORD; be strong and courageous. Wait patiently for the LORD!

⁷ Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for Him; do not fret when men prosper in their ways, when they carry out wicked schemes. ⁸ Refrain from anger and abandon wrath; do not fret—it can only bring harm. ⁹ For the evildoers will be cut off, but those who hope in the LORD will inherit the land.

¹ For the choirmaster. According to Jeduthun. A Psalm of David. In God alone my soul finds rest; my salvation comes from Him.

⁵ Rest in God alone, O my soul, for my hope comes from Him. ⁶ He alone is my rock and my salvation; He is my fortress; I will not be shaken.

⁵ I wait for the LORD; my soul does wait, and in His word I put my hope. ⁶ My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning—more than watchmen wait for the morning. ⁷ O Israel, put your hope in the LORD, for with the LORD is loving devotion, and with Him is redemption in abundance.

⁹ And in that day it will be said, “Surely this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He has saved us. This is the LORD for whom we have waited. Let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation.”

⁸ Yes, we wait for You, O LORD; we walk in the path of Your judgments. Your name and renown are the desire of our souls.

²⁵ The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him. ²⁶ It is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.

¹⁵ But the seeds on good soil are those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, cling to it, and by persevering produce a crop.

¹⁹ By your patient endurance you will gain your souls.

⁷ To those who by perseverance in doing good seek glory, honor, and immortality, He will give eternal life.

¹¹ being strengthened with all power according to His glorious might so that you may have full endurance and patience, and joyfully

³ and continually recalling before our God and Father your work of faith, your labor of love, and your enduring hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

⁵ May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance.

¹² Then you will not be sluggish, but will imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.

¹⁵ And so Abraham, after waiting patiently, obtained the promise.

³⁶ You need to persevere, so that after you have done the will of God, you will receive what He has promised.

¹ Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off every encumbrance and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with endurance the race set out for us. ² Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. ³ Consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

³ because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. ⁴ Allow perseverance to finish its work, so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

⁷ Be patient, then, brothers, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer awaits the precious fruit of the soil—how patient he is for the fall and spring rains. ⁸ You, too, be patient and strengthen your hearts, because the Lord’s coming is near. ⁹ Do not complain about one another, brothers, so that you will not be judged. Look, the Judge is standing at the door! ¹⁰ My brothers, as an example of patience in affliction, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. ¹¹ See how blessed we consider those who have persevered. You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen the outcome from the Lord. He is full of compassion and mercy.

⁹ I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and kingdom and perseverance that are in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God and my testimony about Jesus Christ.

¹⁰ “If anyone is destined for captivity, he will go; if anyone kills by the sword, by the sword he must be killed.” Here is a call for the perseverance and faith of the saints.

¹² Here is a call for the perseverance of the saints who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.

³ My soul is deeply distressed. How long, O LORD, how long?

⁹ The LORD has heard my cry for mercy; the LORD accepts my prayer.

¹⁷ You have heard, O LORD, the desire of the humble; You will strengthen their hearts. You will incline Your ear,

¹ For the choirmaster. A Maskil of the sons of Korah. As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul longs after You, O God. ² My soul thirsts for God, the living God. When shall I come and appear in God’s presence? ³ My tears have been my food both day and night, while men ask me all day long, “Where is your God?” ⁴ These things come to mind as I pour out my soul: how I walked with the multitude, leading the procession to the house of God with shouts of joy and praise. ⁵ Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why the unease within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him for the salvation of His presence.

¹ For the choirmaster. With stringed instruments. A Maskil of David. Listen to my prayer, O God, and do not ignore my plea. ² Attend to me and answer me. I am restless in my complaint, and distraught

³ I am weary from my crying; my throat is parched. My eyes fail, looking for my God.

¹ For the choirmaster. According to Jeduthun. A Psalm of Asaph. I cried out to God; I cried aloud to God to hear me. ² In the day of trouble I sought the Lord; through the night my outstretched hands did not grow weary; my soul refused to be comforted. ³ I remembered You, O God, and I groaned; I mused and my spirit grew faint. Selah

¹ A song. A Psalm of the sons of Korah. For the choirmaster. According to Mahalath Leannoth. A Maskil of Heman the Ezrahite. O LORD, the God of my salvation, day and night I cry out before You. ² May my prayer come before You; incline Your ear to my cry. ³ For my soul is full of troubles, and my life draws near to Sheol.

⁵ Through my loud groaning my flesh clings to my bones.

²⁰ to hear a prisoner’s groaning, to release those condemned to death,

⁸¹ My soul faints for Your salvation; I wait for Your word. ⁸² My eyes fail, looking for Your promise; I ask, “When will You comfort me?”

⁴ My spirit grows faint within me; my heart is dismayed inside me. ⁵ I remember the days of old; I meditate on all Your works; I consider the work of Your hands. ⁶ I stretch out my hands to You; my soul thirsts for You like a parched land. Selah ⁷ Answer me quickly, O LORD; my spirit fails. Do not hide Your face from me, or I will be like those who descend to the Pit.

¹⁰ Then I will pour out on the house of David and on the people of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and prayer, and they will look on Me, the One they have pierced. They will mourn for Him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for Him as one grieves for a firstborn son.

²⁰ For it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.

²² “You do not know what you are asking,” Jesus replied. “Can you drink the cup I am going to drink or be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” “We can,” the brothers answered.

¹ One day in a place where Jesus had just finished praying, one of His disciples requested, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” ² So Jesus told them, “When you pray, say: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. ³ Give us each day our daily bread. ⁴ And forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’” ⁵ Then Jesus said to them, “Suppose one of you goes to his friend at midnight and says, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, ⁶ because a friend has come to me on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him.’ ⁷ And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Do not bother me. My door is already shut, and my children and I are in bed. I cannot get up to give you anything.’ ⁸ I tell you, even though he will not get up to provide for him because of his friendship, yet because of the man’s persistence, he will get up and give him as much as he needs. ⁹ So I tell you: Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. ¹⁰ For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. ¹¹ What father among you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? ¹² Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? ¹³ So if you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”

⁴⁴ And in His anguish, He prayed more earnestly, and His sweat became like drops of blood falling to the ground.

¹⁶ And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Advocate to abide with you forever—

¹⁵ For you did not receive a spirit of slavery that returns you to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”

¹ We who are strong ought to bear with the shortcomings of the weak and not to please ourselves.

² For in this tent we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling,

⁵ I will boast about such a man, but I will not boast about myself, except in my weaknesses. ⁶ Even if I wanted to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain, so no one will credit me with more than he sees in me or hears from me, ⁷ or because of these surpassingly great revelations. So to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. ⁸ Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. ⁹ But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest on me. ¹⁰ That is why, for the sake of Christ, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

¹⁸ For through Him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.

¹⁸ Pray in the Spirit at all times, with every kind of prayer and petition. To this end, stay alert with all perseverance in your prayers for all the saints.

² He is able to deal gently with those who are ignorant and misguided, since he himself is beset by weakness.

³ And when you do ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may squander it on your pleasures.

⁹ As for you, Solomon my son, know the God of your father and serve Him wholeheartedly and with a willing mind, for the LORD searches every heart and understands the intent of every thought. If you seek Him, He will be found by you; but if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever.

¹⁷ I know, my God, that You test the heart and delight in uprightness. All these things I have given willingly and with an upright heart, and now I have seen Your people who are present here giving joyfully and willingly to You.

⁹ Put an end to the evil of the wicked, but establish the righteous, O righteous God who searches hearts and minds.

⁹ O Lord, my every desire is before You; my groaning is not hidden from You.

²¹ would not God have discovered, since He knows the secrets of the heart?

¹⁸ If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened. ¹⁹ But God has surely heard; He has attended to the sound of my prayer.

³ A crucible for silver and a furnace for gold, but the LORD is the tester of hearts.

²⁰ O LORD of Hosts, who judges righteously, who examines the heart and mind, let me see Your vengeance upon them, for to You I have committed my cause.

¹⁰ I, the LORD, search the heart; I examine the mind to reward a man according to his way, by what his deeds deserve.

¹² O LORD of Hosts, who examines the righteous, who sees the heart and mind, let me see Your vengeance upon them, for to You I have committed my cause.

¹² Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. ¹³ You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.

⁸ Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.

¹⁵ So He said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is prized among men is detestable before God.

¹³ And I will do whatever you ask in My name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

¹⁷ Jesus asked a third time, “Simon son of Jonah, do you love Me?” Peter was deeply hurt that Jesus had asked him a third time, “Do you love Me?” “Lord, You know all things,” he replied. “You know I love You.” Jesus said to him, “Feed My sheep.

²⁴ And they prayed, “Lord, You know everyone’s heart. Show us which of these two You have chosen

⁸ And God, who knows the heart, showed His approval by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as He did to us.

⁶ The mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace,

⁴ Instead, we speak as those approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, not in order to please men but God, who examines our hearts.

¹³ Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight; everything is uncovered and exposed before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.

⁵ Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. ⁶ But he must ask in faith, without doubting, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.

¹⁶ Confess your trespasses to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man has great power to prevail.

¹⁴ And this is the confidence that we have before Him: If we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. ¹⁵ And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we already possess what we have asked of Him.

²³ Then I will strike her children dead, and all the churches will know that I am the One who searches minds and hearts, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds.

²⁰ As for you, what you intended against me for evil, God intended for good, in order to accomplish a day like this—to preserve the lives of many people.

⁶ but showing loving devotion to a thousand generations of those who love Me and keep My commandments.

⁵ And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

² Remember that these forty years the LORD your God led you all the way in the wilderness, so that He might humble you and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep His commandments. ³ He humbled you, and in your hunger He gave you manna to eat, which neither you nor your fathers had known, so that you might understand that man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.

¹⁶ He fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers had not known, in order to humble you and test you, so that in the end He might cause you to prosper.

⁵ Then I said: “O LORD, God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps His covenant of loving devotion with those who love Him and keep His commandments,

¹ For the choirmaster. Of the sons of Korah. According to Alamoth. A song. God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in times of trouble. ² Therefore we will not fear, though the earth is transformed and the mountains are toppled into the depths of the seas,

³⁶ The descendants of His servants will inherit it, and those who love His name will settle in it.

⁵ “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Like these good figs, so I regard as good the exiles from Judah, whom I have sent away from this place to the land of the Chaldeans. ⁶ I will keep My eyes on them for good and will return them to this land. I will build them up and not tear them down; I will plant them and not uproot them. ⁷ I will give them a heart to know Me, that I am the LORD. They will be My people, and I will be their God, for they will return to Me with all their heart.

²⁹ The earth quakes and writhes because the LORD’s intentions against Babylon stand: to make the land of Babylon a desolation, without inhabitant.

⁹ This third I will bring through the fire; I will refine them like silver and test them like gold. They will call on My name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘They are My people,’ and they will say, ‘The LORD is our God.’”

³⁰ Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. This is the first commandment.’

⁴⁸ When the Gentiles heard this, they rejoiced and glorified the word of the Lord, and all who were appointed for eternal life believed.

⁶ And you also are among those who are called to belong to Jesus Christ. ⁷ To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

³ Not only that, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; ⁴ perseverance, character; and character, hope. ⁵ And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us.

³⁰ And those He predestined, He also called; those He called, He also justified; those He justified, He also glorified.

³⁵ Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? ³⁶ As it is written: “For Your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” ³⁷ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor principalities nor powers, neither the present nor the future, ³⁹ neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

¹¹ Yet before the twins were born or had done anything good or evil, in order that God’s plan of election might stand,

²³ What if He did this to make the riches of His glory known to the vessels of His mercy, whom He prepared in advance for glory— ²⁴ including us, whom He has called not only from the Jews, but also from the Gentiles?

⁹ God, who has called you into fellowship with His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful.

¹⁵ All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is extending to more and more people may overflow in thanksgiving, to the glory of God. ¹⁶ Therefore we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, yet the inner self is being renewed day by day. ¹⁷ For our light and momentary affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory that is far beyond comparison.

¹ Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is dismantled, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.

¹⁵ But when God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me by His grace, was pleased

⁸ Such persuasion does not come from the One who calls you.

⁹ And He has made known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Christ ¹⁰ as a plan for the fullness of time, to bring all things in heaven and on earth together in Christ. ¹¹ In Him we were also chosen as God’s own, having been predestined according to the plan of Him who works out everything by the counsel of His will,

¹¹ according to the eternal purpose that He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.

¹⁹ because I know that through your prayers and the provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, my distress will turn out for my deliverance. ²⁰ I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have complete boldness so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.

⁹ For God has not appointed us to suffer wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.

⁵ All this is clear evidence of God’s righteous judgment. And so you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering. ⁶ After all, it is only right for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, ⁷ and to grant relief to you who are oppressed and to us as well. This will take place when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels

¹³ But we should always thank God for you, brothers who are loved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning to be saved by the sanctification of the Spirit and by faith in the truth. ¹⁴ To this He called you through our gospel, so that you may share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

⁹ He has saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works, but by His own purpose and by the grace He granted us in Christ Jesus before time began.

¹⁹ Nevertheless, God’s firm foundation stands, bearing this seal: “The Lord knows those who are His,” and, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord must turn away from iniquity.”

⁶ For the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and He chastises every son He receives.” ⁷ Endure suffering as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? ⁸ If you do not experience discipline like everyone else, then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. ⁹ Furthermore, we have all had earthly fathers who disciplined us, and we respected them. Should we not much more submit to the Father of our spirits and live? ¹⁰ Our fathers disciplined us for a short time as they thought best, but God disciplines us for our good, so that we may share in His holiness. ¹¹ No discipline seems enjoyable at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it yields a harvest of righteousness and peace to those who have been trained by it. ¹² Therefore strengthen your limp hands and weak knees.

¹² Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love Him.

⁷ so that the proven character of your faith—more precious than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, honor, and glory, at the revelation of Jesus Christ. ⁸ Though you have not known Him, you love Him; and though you do not see Him now, you believe in Him and rejoice with an inexpressible and glorious joy,

¹⁰ And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to His eternal glory in Christ Jesus, will Himself restore you, secure you, strengthen you, and establish you.

¹⁰ And love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins.

¹⁹ We love Him because He first loved us.

² By this we know that we love the children of God: when we love God and keep His commandments. ³ For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome,

¹⁹ Those I love, I rebuke and discipline. Therefore be earnest and repent.

¹² Then Moses said to the LORD, “Look, You have been telling me, ‘Lead this people up,’ but You have not let me know whom You will send with me. Yet You have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have found favor in My sight.’

¹⁷ So the LORD said to Moses, “I will do this very thing you have asked, for you have found favor in My sight, and I know you by name.”

⁶ For the LORD guards the path of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.

²⁷ I will indeed appoint him as My firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth.

⁵ “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”

²³ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness!’

⁵⁰ For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother.”

⁴⁰ And the King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of Mine, you did for Me.’

¹⁶ They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

¹⁹ For them I sanctify Myself, so that they too may be sanctified by the truth.

²² I have given them the glory You gave Me, so that they may be one as We are one— ²³ I in them and You in Me—that they may be perfectly united, so that the world may know that You sent Me and have loved them just as You have loved Me.

²⁶ And I have made Your name known to them and will continue to make it known, so that the love You have for Me may be in them, and I in them.”

²³ What if He did this to make the riches of His glory known to the vessels of His mercy, whom He prepared in advance for glory—

² God did not reject His people, whom He foreknew. Do you not know what the Scripture says about Elijah, how he appealed to God against Israel, saying,

⁷ No, we speak of the mysterious and hidden wisdom of God, which He destined for our glory before time began.

⁴⁹ And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so also let us bear the likeness of the heavenly man.

¹⁸ And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into His image with intensifying glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

⁴ For He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless in His presence. In love ⁵ He predestined us for adoption as His sons through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of His will,

¹¹ In Him we were also chosen as God’s own, having been predestined according to the plan of Him who works out everything by the counsel of His will,

²⁴ and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

¹⁵ The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. ¹⁶ For in Him all things were created, things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things were created through Him and for Him. ¹⁷ He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. ¹⁸ And He is the head of the body, the church; He is the beginning and firstborn from among the dead, so that in all things He may have preeminence.

⁵ For to which of the angels did God ever say: “You are My Son; today I have become Your Father”? Or again: “I will be His Father, and He will be My Son”? ⁶ And again, when God brings His firstborn into the world, He says: “Let all God’s angels worship Him.”

¹¹ For both the One who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers. ¹² He says: “I will proclaim Your name to My brothers; I will sing Your praises in the assembly.” ¹³ And again: “I will put My trust in Him.” And once again: “Here am I, and the children God has given Me.” ¹⁴ Now since the children have flesh and blood, He too shared in their humanity, so that by His death He might destroy him who holds the power of death, that is, the devil, ¹⁵ and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.

² according to the foreknowledge of God the Father and sanctified by the Spirit for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by His blood: Grace and peace be yours in abundance.

²⁰ He was known before the foundation of the world, but was revealed in the last times for your sake.

⁵ and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who loves us and has washed us from our sins by His blood, ⁶ who has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father—to Him be the glory and power forever and ever! Amen.

⁹ I brought you from the ends of the earth and called you from its farthest corners. I said, ‘You are My servant.’ I have chosen and not rejected you.

³⁹ And this is the will of the Father who sent Me, that I shall lose none of those He has given Me, but raise them up at the last day. ⁴⁰ And it is the will of Him who sent Me that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”

²² I have given them the glory You gave Me, so that they may be one as We are one—

⁶ And you also are among those who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.

²² And this righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all and upon all who believe. There is no distinction, ²³ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, ²⁴ and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. ²⁵ God presented Him as the atoning sacrifice through faith in His blood, in order to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance He had passed over the sins committed beforehand. ²⁶ He did this to demonstrate His righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and to justify the one who has faith in Jesus.

⁸ But God proves His love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

¹ Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

¹⁷ And if we are children, then we are heirs: heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ—if indeed we suffer with Him, so that we may also be glorified with Him. ¹⁸ I consider that our present sufferings are not comparable to the glory that will be revealed in us.

²⁸ And we know that all things work together for the good of those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose.

³³ Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. ³⁴ Who is there to condemn us? For Christ, who died, and more than that was raised to life, is at the right hand of God—and He is interceding for us. ³⁵ Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?

² To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours:

¹¹ And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.

¹⁷ For our light and momentary affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory that is far beyond comparison.

⁶ And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,

⁴ There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called;

¹² encouraging you, comforting you, and urging you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into His own kingdom and glory.

¹¹ This is a trustworthy saying: If we died with Him, we will also live with Him;

⁴ But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, ⁵ He saved us, not by the righteous deeds we had done, but according to His mercy, through the washing of new birth and renewal by the Holy Spirit. ⁶ This is the Spirit He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, ⁷ so that, having been justified by His grace, we would become heirs with the hope of eternal life.

¹⁵ Therefore Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, now that He has died to redeem them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.

⁹ But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, to proclaim the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.

⁹ Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, knowing that to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.

¹³ But rejoice that you share in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed at the revelation of His glory. ¹⁴ If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. Indeed, on their part He is blasphemed, but on your part He is glorified.

¹⁰ Therefore, brothers, strive to make your calling and election sure. For if you practice these things you will never stumble,

¹⁴ They will make war against the Lamb, and the Lamb will triumph over them, because He is Lord of lords and King of kings; and He will be accompanied by His called and chosen and faithful ones.”

⁹ Then the angel told me to write, “Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.”

¹ After these events, the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.”

⁹ Only do not rebel against the LORD, and do not be afraid of the people of the land, for they will be like bread for us. Their protection has been removed, and the LORD is with us. Do not be afraid of them!”

²⁹ Blessed are you, O Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by the LORD? He is the shield that protects you, the sword in which you boast. Your enemies will cower before you, and you shall trample their high places.”

⁴² And because the LORD, the God of Israel, fought for Israel, Joshua captured all these kings and their land in one campaign.

⁶ Jonathan said to the young man bearing his armor, “Come, let us cross over to the outpost of these uncircumcised men. Perhaps the LORD will work on our behalf. Nothing can hinder the LORD from saving, whether by many or by few.”

⁴⁵ But David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD of Hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. ⁴⁶ This day the LORD will deliver you into my hand. This day I will strike you down, cut off your head, and give the carcasses of the Philistines to the birds of the air and the creatures of the earth. Then the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. ⁴⁷ And all those assembled here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the LORD saves; for the battle is the LORD’s, and He will give all of you into our hands.”

¹ Of David. The LORD is my light and my salvation—whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life—whom shall I dread? ² When the wicked came upon me to devour my flesh, my enemies and foes stumbled and fell. ³ Though an army encamps around me, my heart will not fear; though a war breaks out against me, I will keep my trust.

¹ For the choirmaster. Of the sons of Korah. According to Alamoth. A song. God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in times of trouble. ² Therefore we will not fear, though the earth is transformed and the mountains are toppled into the depths of the seas, ³ though their waters roar and foam and the mountains quake in the surge. Selah

⁷ The LORD of Hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah

¹¹ The LORD of Hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah

⁴ In God, whose word I praise—in God I trust. I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?

¹¹ in God I trust; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?

¹¹ For the LORD God is a sun and a shield; the LORD gives grace and glory; He withholds no good thing from those who walk with integrity. ¹² O LORD of Hosts, how blessed is the man who trusts in You!

⁶ The LORD is on my side; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?

⁷ Because the Lord GOD helps Me, I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set My face like flint, and I know that I will not be put to shame. ⁸ The One who vindicates Me is near. Who will dare to contend with Me? Let us confront each other! Who has a case against Me? Let him approach Me! ⁹ Surely the Lord GOD helps Me. Who is there to condemn Me? See, they will all wear out like a garment; the moths will devour them.

¹⁹ They will fight against you but will never overcome you, since I am with you to deliver you,” declares the LORD.

¹¹ But the LORD is with me like a fearsome warrior. Therefore, my persecutors will stumble and will not prevail. Since they have not succeeded, they will be utterly put to shame, with an everlasting disgrace that will never be forgotten.

²⁸ I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them out of My hand. ²⁹ My Father who has given them to Me is greater than all. No one can snatch them out of My Father’s hand. ³⁰ I and the Father are one.”

¹ What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather, has discovered?

¹² “Do not lay a hand on the boy or do anything to him,” said the angel, “for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your only son from me.”

¹¹ For the LORD God is a sun and a shield; the LORD gives grace and glory; He withholds no good thing from those who walk with integrity.

¹⁰ Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush Him and to cause Him to suffer; and when His soul is made a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, and the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand.

¹⁶ For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that everyone who believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.

²⁵ He was delivered over to death for our trespasses and was raised to life for our justification.

⁶ For at the right time, while we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷ Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die.

²¹ For if God did not spare the natural branches, He will certainly not spare you either.

¹⁵ All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is extending to more and more people may overflow in thanksgiving, to the glory of God.

⁴ For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them deep into hell, placing them in chains of darkness to be held for judgment; ⁵ if He did not spare the ancient world when He brought the flood on its ungodly people, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, among the eight;

⁹ Satan answered the LORD, “Does Job fear God for nothing? ¹⁰ Have You not placed a hedge on every side around him and his household and all that he owns? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. ¹¹ But stretch out Your hand and strike all that he has, and he will surely curse You to Your face.”

⁴ “Skin for skin!” Satan replied. “A man will give up all he owns in exchange for his life. ⁵ But stretch out Your hand and strike his flesh and bones, and he will surely curse You to Your face.” ⁶ “Very well,” said the LORD to Satan. “He is in your hands, but you must spare his life.”

⁶ For you needlessly demanded security from your brothers and deprived the naked of their clothing. ⁷ You gave no water to the weary and withheld food from the famished, ⁸ while the land belonged to a mighty man, and a man of honor lived on it. ⁹ You sent widows away empty-handed, and the strength of the fatherless was crushed. ¹⁰ Therefore snares surround you, and sudden peril terrifies you; ¹¹ it is so dark you cannot see, and a flood of water covers you. ¹² Is not God as high as the heavens? Look at the highest stars, how lofty they are! ¹³ Yet you say: ‘What does God know? Does He judge through thick darkness? ¹⁴ Thick clouds veil Him so He does not see us as He traverses the vault of heaven.’ ¹⁵ Will you stay on the ancient path that wicked men have trod? ¹⁶ They were snatched away before their time, and their foundations were swept away by a flood. ¹⁷ They said to God, ‘Depart from us. What can the Almighty do to us?’ ¹⁸ But it was He who filled their houses with good things; so I stay far from the counsel of the wicked. ¹⁹ The righteous see it and are glad; the innocent mock them: ²⁰ ‘Surely our foes are destroyed, and fire has consumed their excess.’ ²¹ Reconcile now and be at peace with Him; thereby good will come to you. ²² Receive instruction from His mouth, and lay up His words in your heart. ²³ If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored. If you remove injustice from your tents ²⁴ and consign your gold to the dust and the gold of Ophir to the stones of the ravines, ²⁵ then the Almighty will be your gold and the finest silver for you. ²⁶ Surely then you will delight in the Almighty and lift up your face to God. ²⁷ You will pray to Him, and He will hear you, and you will fulfill your vows. ²⁸ Your decisions will be carried out, and light will shine on your ways. ²⁹ When men are brought low and you say, ‘Lift them up!’ then He will save the lowly. ³⁰ He will deliver even one who is not innocent, rescuing him through the cleanness of your hands.”

⁸ He keeps company with evildoers and walks with wicked men. ⁹ For he has said, ‘It profits a man nothing that he should delight in God.’

⁷ After the LORD had spoken these words to Job, He said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My wrath is kindled against you and your two friends. For you have not spoken about Me accurately, as My servant Job has. ⁸ So now, take seven bulls and seven rams, go to My servant Job, and sacrifice a burnt offering for yourselves. Then My servant Job will pray for you, for I will accept his prayer and not deal with you according to your folly. For you have not spoken accurately about Me, as My servant Job has.” ⁹ So Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite went and did as the LORD had told them; and the LORD accepted Job’s request.

¹¹ Hostile witnesses come forward; they make charges I know nothing about.

¹ “Here is My Servant, whom I uphold, My Chosen One, in whom My soul delights. I will put My Spirit on Him, and He will bring justice to the nations.

¹ Then the angel showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, with Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. ² And the LORD said to Satan: “The LORD rebukes you, Satan! Indeed, the LORD, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebukes you! Is not this man a firebrand snatched from the fire?” ³ Now Joshua was dressed in filthy garments as he stood before the angel. ⁴ So the angel said to those standing before him, “Take off his filthy clothes!” Then he said to Joshua, “See, I have removed your iniquity, and I will clothe you with splendid robes.”

²⁴ For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders that would deceive even the elect, if that were possible.

⁷ Will not God bring about justice for His elect who cry out to Him day and night? Will He continue to defer their help?

²⁶ He did this to demonstrate His righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and to justify the one who has faith in Jesus.

⁸ The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and foretold the gospel to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.”

⁴ Brothers who are beloved by God, we know that He has chosen you,

¹ Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ for the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness,

¹⁰ And I heard a loud voice in heaven saying: “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of His Christ. For the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down—he who accuses them day and night before our God. ¹¹ They have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony. And they did not love their lives so as to shy away from death.

²⁴ to be gracious to him and say, ‘Spare him from going down to the Pit; I have found his ransom,’

²⁹ But when He remains silent, who can condemn Him? When He hides His face, who can see Him? Yet He watches over both man and nation,

³³ the LORD will not leave them in their power or let them be condemned under judgment.

³¹ For He stands at the right hand of the needy one, to save him from the condemners of his soul.

¹² Therefore I will allot Him a portion with the great, and He will divide the spoils with the strong, because He has poured out His life unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors. Yet He bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors.

²⁰ In those days and at that time, declares the LORD, a search will be made for Israel’s guilt, but there will be none, and for Judah’s sins, but they will not be found; for I will forgive the remnant I preserve.

²⁸ just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.”

¹⁹ After the Lord had spoken to them, He was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God.

¹⁹ In a little while the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you also will live.

²³ In that day you will no longer ask Me anything. Truly, truly, I tell you, whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give you.

²⁶ In that day you will ask in My name. I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf. ²⁷ For the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me and have believed that I came from God.

²⁰ I am not asking on behalf of them alone, but also on behalf of those who will believe in Me through their message, ²¹ that all of them may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I am in You. May they also be one in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. ²² I have given them the glory You gave Me, so that they may be one as We are one— ²³ I in them and You in Me—that they may be perfectly united, so that the world may know that You sent Me and have loved them just as You have loved Me. ²⁴ Father, I want those You have given Me to be with Me where I am, that they may see the glory You gave Me because You loved Me before the foundation of the world.

⁵⁶ “Look,” he said, “I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” ⁵⁷ At this they covered their ears, cried out in a loud voice, and rushed together at him. ⁵⁸ They dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile the witnesses laid their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. ⁵⁹ While they were stoning him, Stephen appealed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” ⁶⁰ Falling on his knees, he cried out in a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.

²⁷ And He who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

⁹ For this reason Christ died and rose and returned to life, that He might be the Lord of both the dead and the living.

¹³ Therefore let us stop judging one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother’s way.

¹³ Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.” ¹⁴ He redeemed us in order that the blessing promised to Abraham would come to the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.

¹ Therefore, since you have been raised with Christ, strive for the things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.

³ The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His nature, upholding all things by His powerful word. After He had provided purification for our sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.

¹⁴ Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we profess. ¹⁵ For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who was tempted in every way that we are, yet was without sin.

²⁵ Therefore He is able to save completely those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to intercede for them.

¹ The point of what we are saying is this: We do have such a high priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, ² and who ministers in the sanctuary and true tabernacle set up by the Lord, not by man.

¹⁰ They consist only in food and drink and special washings—external regulations imposed until the time of reform. ¹¹ But when Christ came as high priest of the good things to come, He went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not made by hands and is not a part of this creation. ¹² He did not enter by the blood of goats and calves, but He entered the Most Holy Place once for all by His own blood, thus securing eternal redemption. ¹³ For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that their bodies are clean, ¹⁴ how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself unblemished to God, purify your consciences from works of death, so that we may serve the living God!

²⁴ For Christ did not enter a man-made copy of the true sanctuary, but He entered heaven itself, now to appear on our behalf in the presence of God.

¹⁰ And by that will, we have been sanctified through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. ¹¹ Day after day every priest stands to minister and to offer again and again the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. ¹² But when this Priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, He sat down at the right hand of God. ¹³ Since that time, He waits for His enemies to be made a footstool for His feet, ¹⁴ because by a single offering He has made perfect for all time those who are being sanctified.

¹⁹ Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, ²⁰ by the new and living way opened for us through the curtain of His body, ²¹ and since we have a great priest over the house of God, ²² let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

¹ Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off every encumbrance and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with endurance the race set out for us. ² Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

²² who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers subject to Him.

¹ My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate before the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. ² He Himself is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

¹⁷ But from everlasting to everlasting the loving devotion of the LORD extends to those who fear Him, and His righteousness to their children’s children—

³ The LORD appeared to us in the past, saying: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have drawn you with loving devotion.

¹⁰ Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

²⁸ Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Instead, fear the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. ²⁹ Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. ³⁰ And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. ³¹ So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

¹² But before all this, they will seize you and persecute you. On account of My name they will deliver you to the synagogues and prisons, and they will bring you before kings and governors. ¹³ This will be your opportunity to serve as witnesses. ¹⁴ So make up your mind not to worry beforehand how to defend yourselves. ¹⁵ For I will give you speech and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to contradict or resist. ¹⁶ You will be betrayed even by parents and relatives and friends and brothers, and some of you will be put to death. ¹⁷ And you will be hated by everyone because of My name. ¹⁸ Yet not even a hair of your head will perish.

²⁸ I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them out of My hand.

¹ It was now just before the Passover Feast, and Jesus knew that His hour had come to leave this world and return to the Father. Having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the very end.

³³ I have told you these things so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take courage; I have overcome the world!”

²³ I only know that in town after town the Holy Spirit warns me that chains and afflictions await me. ²⁴ But I consider my life of no value to me, if only I may finish my course with joy and complete the ministry I have received from the Lord Jesus—the ministry of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.

¹⁷ And if we are children, then we are heirs: heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ—if indeed we suffer with Him, so that we may also be glorified with Him.

¹¹ To this very hour we are hungry and thirsty, we are poorly clothed, we are brutally treated, we are homeless.

⁴ Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships, and calamities; ⁵ in beatings, imprisonments, and riots; in labor, sleepless nights, and hunger; ⁶ in purity, knowledge, patience, and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love; ⁷ in truthful speech and in the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left; ⁸ through glory and dishonor, slander and praise; viewed as imposters, yet genuine; ⁹ as unknown, yet well-known; dying, and yet we live on; punished, yet not killed; ¹⁰ sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.

²³ Are they servants of Christ? I am speaking like I am out of my mind, but I am so much more: in harder labor, in worse beatings, in more imprisonments, in frequent danger of death. ²⁴ Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. ²⁵ Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked. I spent a night and a day in the open sea. ²⁶ In my frequent journeys, I have been in danger from rivers and from bandits, in danger from my countrymen and from the Gentiles, in danger in the city and in the country, in danger on the sea and among false brothers, ²⁷ in labor and toil and often without sleep, in hunger and thirst and often without food, in cold and exposure.

¹² For this reason, even though I suffer as I do, I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him for that day.

¹⁶ At my first defense, no one stood with me, but everyone deserted me. May it not be charged against them. ¹⁷ But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message would be fully proclaimed, and all the Gentiles would hear it. So I was delivered from the mouth of the lion. ¹⁸ And the Lord will rescue me from every evil action and bring me safely into His heavenly kingdom. To Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

³ Consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. ⁴ In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. ⁵ And you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons: “My son, do not take lightly the discipline of the Lord, and do not lose heart when He rebukes you. ⁶ For the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and He chastises every son He receives.” ⁷ Endure suffering as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? ⁸ If you do not experience discipline like everyone else, then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. ⁹ Furthermore, we have all had earthly fathers who disciplined us, and we respected them. Should we not much more submit to the Father of our spirits and live? ¹⁰ Our fathers disciplined us for a short time as they thought best, but God disciplines us for our good, so that we may share in His holiness. ¹¹ No discipline seems enjoyable at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it yields a harvest of righteousness and peace to those who have been trained by it.

² Consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you encounter trials of many kinds,

¹² Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial that has come upon you, as though something strange were happening to you.

⁵ and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who loves us and has washed us from our sins by His blood,

²² Yet for Your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.

⁷ As when one plows and breaks up the soil, so our bones have been scattered at the mouth of Sheol.

⁷ He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so He did not open His mouth.

¹⁹ For I was like a gentle lamb led to slaughter; I did not know that they had plotted against me: “Let us destroy the tree with its fruit; let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be remembered no more.”

³ But You know me, O LORD; You see me and test my heart toward You. Drag away the wicked like sheep to the slaughter and set them apart for the day of carnage.

⁴⁰ I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with male goats.

² They will put you out of the synagogues. In fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God.

³² The eunuch was reading this passage of Scripture: “He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before the shearer is silent, so He did not open His mouth.

⁹ For it seems to me that God has displayed us apostles at the end of the procession, like prisoners appointed for death. We have become a spectacle to the whole world, to angels as well as to men.

³⁰ And why do we endanger ourselves every hour?

¹⁰ We always carry around in our body the death of the Lord Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. ¹¹ For we who are alive are always consigned to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our mortal body.

²⁵ Then Jehoshaphat and his people went to carry off the plunder, and they found on the bodies an abundance of goods and valuables—more than they could carry away. They were gathering the plunder for three days because there was so much. ²⁶ On the fourth day they assembled in the Valley of Beracah, where they blessed the LORD. Therefore that place is called the Valley of Beracah to this day. ²⁷ Then all the men of Judah and Jerusalem, with Jehoshaphat at their head, returned joyfully to Jerusalem, for the LORD had made them rejoice over their enemies.

⁸ He will swallow up death forever. The Lord GOD will wipe away the tears from every face and remove the disgrace of His people from the whole earth. For the LORD has spoken.

⁵⁴ When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come to pass: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”

⁵⁷ But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!

¹⁴ But thanks be to God, who always leads us triumphantly as captives in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of Him.

⁹ But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest on me.

¹⁹ Have you been thinking all along that we were making a defense to you? We speak before God in Christ, and all of this, beloved, is to build you up.

² and walk in love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant sacrificial offering to God.

²⁵ Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her

⁴ because everyone born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world: our faith. ⁵ Who then overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.

⁹ Look at those who belong to the synagogue of Satan, who claim to be Jews but are liars instead. I will make them come and bow down at your feet, and they will know that I love you.

⁹ After this I looked and saw a multitude too large to count, from every nation and tribe and people and tongue, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands. ¹⁰ And they cried out in a loud voice: “Salvation to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

⁷ When the two witnesses have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the Abyss will wage war with them, and will overpower and kill them. ⁸ Their bodies will lie in the street of the great city—figuratively called Sodom and Egypt—where their Lord was also crucified. ⁹ For three and a half days all peoples and tribes and tongues and nations will view their bodies and will not permit them to be laid in a tomb. ¹⁰ And those who dwell on the earth will gloat over them, and will celebrate and give one another gifts, because these two prophets had tormented them. ¹¹ But after the three and a half days, the breath of life from God entered the two witnesses, and they stood on their feet, and great fear fell upon those who saw them. ¹² And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Come up here.” And they went up to heaven in a cloud as their enemies watched them.

¹¹ They have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony. And they did not love their lives so as to shy away from death.

²¹ being fully persuaded that God was able to do what He had promised.

⁸ If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.

⁵⁴ When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come to pass: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” ⁵⁵ “Where, O Death, is your sting? Where, O Hades, is your victory?” ⁵⁶ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. ⁵⁷ But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ! ⁵⁸ Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast and immovable. Always excel in the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

¹³ And in keeping with what is written: “I believed, therefore I have spoken,” we who have the same spirit of faith also believe and therefore speak,

⁴ So while we are in this tent, we groan under our burdens, because we do not wish to be unclothed but clothed, so that our mortality may be swallowed up by life. ⁵ And God has prepared us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a pledge of what is to come.

¹⁴ And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.

²¹ far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.

¹¹ Put on the full armor of God, so that you can make your stand against the devil’s schemes. ¹² For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this world’s darkness, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

¹⁶ For in Him all things were created, things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things were created through Him and for Him.

¹⁵ And having disarmed the powers and authorities, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

¹³ All these people died in faith, without having received the things they were promised. However, they saw them and welcomed them from afar. And they acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.

⁸ Be sober-minded and alert. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. ⁹ Resist him, standing firm in your faith and in the knowledge that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kinds of suffering. ¹⁰ And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to His eternal glory in Christ Jesus, will Himself restore you, secure you, strengthen you, and establish you.

¹⁶ But I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display My power to you, and that My name might be proclaimed in all the earth. ¹⁷ Still, you lord it over My people and do not allow them to go.

⁶ They devise injustice and say, “We have perfected a secret plan.” For the inner man and the heart are mysterious.

³ The floodwaters have risen, O LORD; the rivers have raised their voice; the seas lift up their pounding waves. ⁴ Above the roar of many waters—the mighty breakers of the sea—the LORD on high is majestic.

⁵ The intentions of a man’s heart are deep waters, but a man of understanding draws them out.

¹⁰ As my hand seized the idolatrous kingdoms whose images surpassed those of Jerusalem and Samaria, ¹¹ and as I have done to Samaria and its idols, will I not also do to Jerusalem and her idols?” ¹² So when the Lord has completed all His work against Mount Zion and Jerusalem, He will say, “I will punish the king of Assyria for the fruit of his arrogant heart and the proud look in his eyes. ¹³ For he says: ‘By the strength of my hand I have done this, and by my wisdom, for I am clever. I have removed the boundaries of nations and plundered their treasures; like a mighty one I subdued their rulers. ¹⁴ My hand reached as into a nest to seize the wealth of the nations. Like one gathering abandoned eggs, I gathered all the earth. No wing fluttered, no beak opened or chirped.’”

³³ Behold, the Lord GOD of Hosts will lop off the branches with terrifying power. The tall trees will be cut down, the lofty ones will be felled.

²¹ In that day the LORD will punish the host of heaven above and the kings of the earth below.

¹¹ The tree grew large and strong; its top reached the sky, and it was visible to the ends of the earth.

¹⁸ As for you, O king, the Most High God gave your father Nebuchadnezzar sovereignty and greatness, glory and honor. ¹⁹ Because of the greatness that He bestowed on him, the people of every nation and language trembled in fear before him. He killed whom he wished and kept alive whom he wished; he exalted whom he wished and humbled whom he wished. ²⁰ But when his heart became arrogant and his spirit was hardened with pride, he was deposed from his royal throne, and his glory was taken from him. ²¹ He was driven away from mankind, and his mind was like that of a beast. He lived with the wild donkeys and ate grass like an ox, and his body was drenched with the dew of heaven until he acknowledged that the Most High God rules over the kingdom of mankind, setting over it whom He wishes. ²² But you his son, O Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, even though you knew all this. ²³ Instead, you have exalted yourself against the Lord of heaven. The vessels from His house were brought to you, and as you drank wine from them with your nobles, wives, and concubines, you praised your gods of silver and gold, bronze and iron, wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or understand. But you have failed to glorify the God who holds in His hand your very breath and all your ways.

²⁷ For the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me and have believed that I came from God.

⁸ But God proves His love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

³⁵ Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?

³³ O, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and untraceable His ways!

¹¹ in order that Satan should not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.

³ I am afraid, however, that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may be led astray from the simplicity that is in Christ.

⁴ For He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless in His presence. In love

⁴ But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, ⁵ made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in our trespasses. It is by grace you have been saved! ⁶ And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, ⁷ in order that in the coming ages He might display the surpassing riches of His grace, demonstrated by His kindness to us in Christ Jesus.

¹⁸ will have power, together with all the saints, to comprehend the length and width and depth and height ¹⁹ of the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

⁴ He will oppose and exalt himself above every so-called god or object of worship. So he will seat himself as God in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God.

⁹ The coming of the lawless one will be accompanied by the working of Satan, with every kind of power, sign, and false wonder, ¹⁰ and with every wicked deception directed against those who are perishing, because they refused the love of the truth that would have saved them. ¹¹ For this reason God will send them a powerful delusion so that they believe the lie, ¹² in order that judgment may come upon all who have disbelieved the truth and delighted in wickedness.

⁹ This is how God’s love was revealed among us: God sent His one and only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him. ¹⁰ And love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins.

¹⁶ And we have come to know and believe the love that God has for us. God is love; whoever abides in love abides in God, and God in him.

²⁴ But I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned the so-called deep things of Satan: I will place no further burden upon you.

⁹ And the great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.

¹ Then I saw a beast with ten horns and seven heads rising out of the sea. There were ten royal crowns on its horns and blasphemous names on its heads. ² The beast I saw was like a leopard, with the feet of a bear and the mouth of a lion. And the dragon gave the beast his power and his throne and great authority. ³ One of the heads of the beast appeared to be mortally wounded. But the mortal wound was healed, and the whole world marveled and followed the beast. ⁴ They worshiped the dragon who had given authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast, and who can wage war against it?” ⁵ The beast was given a mouth to speak arrogant and blasphemous words, and authority to make war for 42 months. ⁶ And the beast opened its mouth to speak blasphemy against God and to slander His name and His tabernacle—those who dwell in heaven. ⁷ Then the beast was permitted to wage war against the saints and to conquer them, and it was given authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation. ⁸ And all who dwell on the earth will worship the beast—all whose names have not been written from the foundation of the world in the Book of Life belonging to the Lamb who was slain.

¹⁴ Because of the signs it was given to perform on behalf of the first beast, it deceived my own people who dwell on the earth, telling them to make an image to the beast that had been wounded by the sword and yet had lived.

²⁰ But the beast was captured along with the false prophet, who on its behalf had performed signs deceiving those who had the mark of the beast and worshiped its image. Both the beast and the false prophet were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur.

³ And he threw him into the Abyss, shut it, and sealed it over him, so that he could not deceive the nations until the thousand years were complete. And after that, he must be released for a brief period of time.

⁷ When the thousand years are complete, Satan will be released from his prison,