And God said, “Behold, I give you every plant that produces seeds upon the earth and every tree that has fruit with its seed inside of it: these shall be your food.”
Through the grace that God has bestowed upon me, I advise every one of you not to think of yourself too highly, but to regard yourself objectively, based on the measure of faith that God has granted.
By these he has given us his precious promises, great beyond all price, so that through them you may escape from the corruption with which evil desires have infected the world and thereby may come to share in the divine nature.
For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, Jews as well as Greeks, slaves as well as free men, and we were all given the same Spirit to drink.
His divine power has bestowed on us everything that is necessary for life and for devotion through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and virtue.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In his great mercy he has given us a new birth to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
God saved us and called us to a life of holiness, not because of our works but according to his own purpose and the grace that has been bestowed upon us in Christ Jesus from all eternity.
See what love the Father has bestowed on us, enabling us to be called the children of God, and that is what we are. If the world does not recognize us, that is because it did not know him.
This is the conclusion I have reached: it is fitting for a man to eat and drink and find satisfaction in the results of his labors under the sun during the brief span of life that God has allotted him.
Therefore, you will be given this sign by the Lord himself: The virgin will be with child, and she will give birth to a son, and she will name him Immanuel.
For all have sinned and thereby are deprived of the glory of God, and all are justified by the gift of his grace that is given freely through the redemption in Christ Jesus.
Because I delivered the poor who appealed for help and the orphan who had no one to protect him. The blessing of the wretched was given to me, and I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy.
He has made everything suitable for its time, and he has given men a sense of past and future, but they never have the slightest comprehension of what God has wrought from beginning to end.
This water prefigured Baptism, which now saves you. It does so not by the washing away of dirt from the body but by the pledge of a good conscience given to God through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
If you heed the voice of the Lord, your God, and you carefully observe all of the commandments that I have given you today, then the Lord, your God, will lift you up above all the other nations upon the earth.
Then he took a cup, and after offering thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink from this, all of you. For this is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed on behalf of many for the forgiveness of sins.”
You shall obey his statutes and the commandments that I give you today, so that all may go well with you and your children after you, and that you may live long in the land that the Lord, your God, has given you for all time.