Beloved, we are God’s children now. What we shall be has not yet been revealed. However, we do know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he really is. Everyone who has this hope in him keeps himself pure, just as he is pure.
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.
Come now and let us discuss this, says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be like snow. Though they are as red as crimson, they shall become as white as wool.
Anyone who is victorious will be dressed like these in white robes, and I shall not blot his name from the book of life. Rather, I shall acknowledge it in the presence of my Father and his angels.
Follow my statutes and keep my commandments and obey them. Then I will give you rain in its proper season and the yield of the land shall increase and the trees of the field shall bear their fruit.
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.”
Behold, he is coming with the clouds; every eye will see him, even those who pierced him. All the peoples of the earth will mourn him. So shall it be. Amen.
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.”
So shall my word be that issues forth from my mouth. It will not return to me unfulfilled, but it will accomplish my purpose and achieve what I sent it forth to do.
Just as he came forth naked from his mother’s womb, so shall he depart, naked as he came, with nothing remaining from his labor that he can carry away in his hands.
For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, how much more certain it is that, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.
They shall be mine, says the Lord of hosts, my own special possession on the day when I act, and I will have compassion on them as a father has compassion on the son who serves him.
For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall also be united with him in his resurrection. We know that our old self was crucified with him, so that our sinful body might be destroyed and we might no longer be enslaved to sin.
You shall not oppress the widow or the orphan. If you mistreat them and they cry out to me for help, I will surely hear their cry, and my fury will burn and I will put you to death by the sword. Your wives will be widows and your children will be orphans.