Finally, brothers and sisters, rejoice! Strive for full restoration, encourage one another, be of one mind, live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you. Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. Better a little with the fear of the Lord
than great wealth with turmoil. Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, saying: “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!” Do everything in love. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it,
the world, and all who live in it. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world. Heal me, Lord, and I will be healed;
save me and I will be saved,
for you are the one I praise. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God. Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble. You, God, are my God,
earnestly I seek you;
I thirst for you,
my whole being longs for you,
in a dry and parched land
where there is no water. Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. That God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. Surely he took up our pain
and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted. For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.” Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near. Then I acknowledged my sin to you
and did not cover up my iniquity.
I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord.”
And you forgave the guilt of my sin. But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance. You will again have compassion on us;
you will tread our sins underfoot
and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea. See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still. Good will come to those who are generous and lend freely,
who conduct their affairs with justice. So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the Lord your God disciplines you. May the Lord our God be with us as he was with our ancestors; may he never leave us nor forsake us.