"How terrible for you, teachers of the Law and Pharisees! You hypocrites! You clean the outside of your cup and plate, while the inside is full of what you have gotten by violence and selfishness.

"How terrible for you, teachers of the Law and Pharisees! You hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look fine on the outside but are full of bones and decaying corpses on the inside.

I know that you test everyone's heart and are pleased with people of integrity. In honesty and sincerity I have willingly given all this to you, and I have seen how your people who are gathered here have been happy to bring offerings to you.

Give my son Solomon a wholehearted desire to obey everything that you command and to build the Temple for which I have made these preparations."

Those who obey God in everything and always do what is right, whose words are true and sincere,

You are pure to those who are pure, but hostile to those who are wicked.

Those who are pure in act and in thought, who do not worship idols or make false promises.

Sincerity and truth are what you require; fill my mind with your wisdom.

Create a pure heart in me, O God, and put a new and loyal spirit in me.

God is indeed good to Israel, to those who have pure hearts.

If you love purity of heart and graciousness of speech, the king will be your friend.

I will sprinkle clean water on you and make you clean from all your idols and everything else that has defiled you.

I will put my spirit in you and will see to it that you follow my laws and keep all the commands I have given you.

He made no difference between us and them; he forgave their sins because they believed.

All these promises are made to us, my dear friends. So then, let us purify ourselves from everything that makes body or soul unclean, and let us be completely holy by living in awe of God.

Everything is pure to those who are themselves pure; but nothing is pure to those who are defiled and unbelieving, for their minds and consciences have been defiled.

Since this is true, how much more is accomplished by the blood of Christ! Through the eternal Spirit he offered himself as a perfect sacrifice to God. His blood will purify our consciences from useless rituals, so that we may serve the living God.

So let us come near to God with a sincere heart and a sure faith, with hearts that have been purified from a guilty conscience and with bodies washed with clean water.

But the wisdom from above is pure first of all; it is also peaceful, gentle, and friendly; it is full of compassion and produces a harvest of good deeds; it is free from prejudice and hypocrisy.

Come near to God, and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners! Purify your hearts, you hypocrites!

Now that by your obedience to the truth you have purified yourselves and have come to have a sincere love for other believers, love one another earnestly with all your heart.

Jacob said, "I have seen God face-to-face, and I am still alive"; so he named the place Peniel.

Even after my skin is eaten by disease, while still in this body I will see God.

I will see him with my own eyes, and he will not be a stranger. My courage failed because you said,

What we see now is like a dim image in a mirror; then we shall see face-to-face. What I know now is only partial; then it will be complete---as complete as God's knowledge of me.

Try to be at peace with everyone, and try to live a holy life, because no one will see the Lord without it.

My dear friends, we are now God's children, but it is not yet clear what we shall become. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he really is.

Everyone who has this hope in Christ keeps himself pure, just as Christ is pure.