- Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for God has already approved what you do.
- And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the Lord’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?
- Then you will understand what is right and just
and fair—every good path. - And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name.
- Good and upright is the Lord;
therefore he instructs sinners in his ways.
He guides the humble in what is right
and teaches them his way. - Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.
- So is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. - Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.
- The one whose walk is blameless,
who does what is righteous,
who speaks the truth from their heart;
whose tongue utters no slander,
who does no wrong to a neighbor,
and casts no slur on others. - For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.
- We all stumble in many ways. Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect, able to keep their whole body in check.
- A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.
- “Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”
- For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.
- Give praise to the Lord, proclaim his name;
make known among the nations what he has done. - Therefore say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: None of my words will be delayed any longer; whatever I say will be fulfilled, declares the Sovereign Lord.’
- “And with you, Lord, is unfailing love”;
and, “You reward everyone
according to what they have done.” - And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.
- This is what I have observed to be good: that it is appropriate for a person to eat, to drink and to find satisfaction in their toilsome labor under the sun during the few days of life God has given them—for this is their lot.
- Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.
- When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened.
- All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).
- I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.
- Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.
- Listen, my son, accept what I say,
and the years of your life will be many.
To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne. 
