Brethren, you were called to freedom. However, make sure that you do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh. Instead, serve one another in love.
Set me as a seal on your heart, as a seal upon your arm. For love is as strong as death, and ardor is as relentless as the netherworld. Its flames are flashes of fire, an unending blaze.
The Lord, your God, is in your midst, a warrior and a savior. He will rejoice over you with gladness and renew you through his love. He will exult over you with shouts of joy.
For the grace of God has appeared bringing salvation to the entire human race. It teaches us to reject godless ways and worldly desires, and in the present age to lead lives that are temperate, just, and godly.
And so now, O Israel, what does the Lord, your God, require of you but to fear the Lord, your God, to walk in all of his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord, your God, with all your heart and all your soul, and to observe the commandments and the statutes that I am giving you today for your own good.
For God would not be so unjust as to ignore your work and the love that you have shown for his name by the services you have rendered to the saints and still continue to render.
Keep in mind, therefore, that the Lord, your God, is God. He is a faithful God who keeps his covenant of mercy to the thousandth generation toward those who love him and observe his commandments.
Take heed to follow the commandments and the laws that Moses, the servant of the Lord, gave you: to love the Lord, your God, and to walk in his ways and to observe his commandments, holding fast to him and serving him with all your heart and all your soul.
And not only that, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we realize that suffering develops perseverance, and perseverance produces character, and character produces hope.
I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will ever snatch them from my hand. My Father who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one can snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.