- Go and learn what this text means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.
- All this took place in order to fulfill what the Lord had announced through the prophet:
“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and give birth to a son,
and they shall name him Emmanuel,”
a name that means “God is with us.” - What then? Should we sin because we are not under the Law but under grace? Of course not!
- Treasures obtained by wicked means profit nothing,
but a righteous life brings delivery from death. - As servants of God, behave as free people, but do not use your freedom as a means to cover up wrongdoing.
- What then shall we say? Should we persist in sin in order that grace may abound? Of course not! We have died to sin. How can we live in it any longer?
- The Lord is slow to anger but great in power,
and he will never allow the guilty
to escape punishment.
He makes his way in whirlwind and storm,
and the clouds are the dust beneath his feet. - Rather, I discipline my body and bring it under control, for fear that after preaching to others I myself may be disqualified.
- For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.
- The fear of others will prove to be a snare,
but whoever trusts in the Lord is secure. - Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not a single letter, not even a tiny portion of a letter, will disappear from the Law until all things have been accomplished.
- Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.
- What then should we say? That the Law is sinful? Absolutely not! Yet if it had not been for the Law, I would not have known what sin was. I would not have known what covet is if the Law had not said, “You shall not covet.”
- May the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with all of you.
- 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.
- Consequently, anyone united to Christ is a new creation. The old order has passed away. Behold, all has become new.
- This, in fact, is what you have been called to do, because Christ himself suffered for you and left an example for you to follow in his footsteps.
- And I say to you: You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of the netherworld will not prevail against it.
- Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and undefiled is this: to come to the aid of orphans and widows in their hardships and to keep oneself untarnished by the world.
- Let no one deceive you in any way.
That Day cannot come before the final rebellion occurs and the lawless one is revealed, the son of destruction. He is the adversary who sets himself in opposition to, and exalts himself above, every so-called god or object of worship, and who even seats himself in the temple of God, declaring himself to be God. - Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her in order to sanctify her by cleansing her with water and the word.
- Adulterers! Do you not know that love of the world results in enmity with God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a lover of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
- 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. - Wives, be subject to your husbands as you are to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, just as Christ is the head of the Church, the body of which he is the Savior.
- Many shall be purified, cleansed, and refined, but the wicked will persist in their evil ways.
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.Whoever believes in me,
as Scripture has said,
‘Streams of living water
shall flow from within him.’