You have heard that it was said of old: ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that anyone who looks with lust at a woman has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
However, if the wicked renounce all of the sins that they have committed and keep all my statutes and do what is right and just, they shall surely live; they shall not die.
In other words, God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, and not holding people’s transgressions against them, and he committed to us the message of reconciliation.
Is anyone among you sick? He should send for the presbyters of the Church so that they may pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. The prayer of faith will save the sick person, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed any sins, he will be forgiven.
For this reason, he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who have been called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since his death has served to redeem the sins that were committed under the first covenant.
When someone sins and does any of the things that the Lord has forbidden, even if he does not realize he did it, he has still committed an offense and must bear his guilt.
But the one who did not know those wishes, and who acted in such a manner as to deserve a beating, will be beaten less severely. Much will be demanded of a person to whom much has been given, and even more will be asked of a person to whom more has been entrusted.
They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and offered worship and service to the creature rather than to the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. That is why God abandoned them to their shameful passions. Their women exchanged natural intercourse for unnatural practices. Likewise, men gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another. Men committed shameful acts with men and received in their own persons the fitting penalty for their perversion. Furthermore, since these people did not see fit to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their depraved way of thinking and to all types of vile behavior.
Recognizing that laws are not designed for the upright. They are for the lawless and insubordinate, for the godless and sinful, for the unholy and irreligious; they are for those who slay their fathers and mothers, for murderers, for those who are fornicators, sodomites, slave traders, liars, perjurers, and for whatever else is contrary to the sound teaching that conforms to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which has been entrusted to me.
You did not choose me. Rather, I chose you. And I appointed you to go out and bear fruit, fruit that will remain, so that the Father may give you whatever you ask him in my name.