and teach them to obey everything I have commanded you. And I will be with you always, to the end of the age."

When the people found Jesus on the other side of the lake, they said to him, "Teacher, when did you get here?"

There is no need to write you about love for each other. You yourselves have been taught by God how you should love one another.

None of them will have to teach their friends or tell their neighbors, 'Know the Lord.' For they will all know me, from the least to the greatest.

But as for you, Christ has poured out his Spirit on you. As long as his Spirit remains in you, you do not need anyone to teach you. For his Spirit teaches you about everything, and what he teaches is true, not false. Obey the Spirit's teaching, then, and remain in union with Christ.

Turn to the LORD and pray to him, now that he is near.

Let the wicked leave their way of life and change their way of thinking. Let them turn to the LORD, our God; he is merciful and quick to forgive.

"Now I, the Sovereign LORD, am telling you Israelites that I will judge each of you by what you have done. Turn away from all the evil you are doing, and don't let your sin destroy you.

Give up all the evil you have been doing, and get yourselves new minds and hearts. Why do you Israelites want to die?

I may warn someone evil that he is going to die, but if he stops sinning and does what is right and good---

for example, if he returns the security he took for a loan or gives back what he stole---if he stops sinning and follows the laws that give life, he will not die, but live.

Do those things that will show that you have turned from your sins.

The ax is ready to cut down the trees at the roots; every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown in the fire.

Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If any of you want to come with me, you must forget yourself, carry your cross, and follow me.

so that we might be holy and righteous before him all the days of our life.

By our baptism, then, we were buried with him and shared his death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from death by the glorious power of the Father, so also we might live a new life.

And we know that our old being has been put to death with Christ on his cross, in order that the power of the sinful self might be destroyed, so that we should no longer be the slaves of sin.

For if you live according to your human nature, you are going to die; but if by the Spirit you put to death your sinful actions, you will live.

The night is nearly over, day is almost here. Let us stop doing the things that belong to the dark, and let us take up weapons for fighting in the light.

Let us conduct ourselves properly, as people who live in the light of day---no orgies or drunkenness, no immorality or indecency, no fighting or jealousy.

Surely you know that the wicked will not possess God's Kingdom. Do not fool yourselves; people who are immoral or who worship idols or are adulterers or homosexual perverts

Some of you were like that. But you have been purified from sin; you have been dedicated to God; you have been put right with God by the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

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.

And those who belong to Christ Jesus have put to death their human nature with all its passions and desires.

Even before the world was made, God had already chosen us to be his through our union with Christ, so that we would be holy and without fault before him. Because of his love

So get rid of your old self, which made you live as you used to---the old self that was being destroyed by its deceitful desires.

and you must put on the new self, which is created in God's likeness and reveals itself in the true life that is upright and holy.

But now, by means of the physical death of his Son, God has made you his friends, in order to bring you, holy, pure, and faultless, into his presence.

You must put to death, then, the earthly desires at work in you, such as sexual immorality, indecency, lust, evil passions, and greed (for greed is a form of idolatry).

At one time you yourselves used to live according to such desires, when your life was dominated by them.

Do not lie to one another, for you have put off the old self with its habits

God did not call us to live in immorality, but in holiness.

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

Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

I appeal to you, my friends, as strangers and refugees in this world! Do not give in to bodily passions, which are always at war against the soul.

Your conduct among the heathen should be so good that when they accuse you of being evildoers, they will have to recognize your good deeds and so praise God on the Day of his coming.

From now on, then, you must live the rest of your earthly lives controlled by God's will and not by human desires.

And now the heathen are surprised when you do not join them in the same wild and reckless living, and so they insult you.

In this way he has given us the very great and precious gifts he promised, so that by means of these gifts you may escape from the destructive lust that is in the world, and may come to share the divine nature.

If people have escaped from the corrupting forces of the world through their knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and then are again caught and conquered by them, such people are in worse condition at the end than they were at the beginning.

What happened to them shows that the proverbs are true: "A dog goes back to what it has vomited" and "A pig that has been washed goes back to roll in the mud."

Do not love the world or anything that belongs to the world. If you love the world, you do not love the Father.

The world and everything in it that people desire is passing away; but those who do the will of God live forever.

They said to you, "When the last days come, people will appear who will make fun of you, people who follow their own godless desires."

so that his people would obey his laws and keep all his commands. Praise the LORD!

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.

So then, whoever disobeys even the least important of the commandments and teaches others to do the same, will be least in the Kingdom of heaven. On the other hand, whoever obeys the Law and teaches others to do the same, will be great in the Kingdom of heaven.

I tell you, then, that you will be able to enter the Kingdom of heaven only if you are more faithful than the teachers of the Law and the Pharisees in doing what God requires.

They both lived good lives in God's sight and obeyed fully all the Lord's laws and commands.

so that we might be holy and righteous before him all the days of our life.

The ax is ready to cut down the trees at the roots; every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown in the fire."

He answered, "Whoever has two shirts must give one to the man who has none, and whoever has food must share it."

"Don't collect more than is legal," he told them.

And so I do my best always to have a clear conscience before God and people.

But as Paul went on discussing about goodness, self-control, and the coming Day of Judgment, Felix was afraid and said, "You may leave now. I will call you again when I get the chance."

(I use everyday language because of the weakness of your natural selves.) At one time you surrendered yourselves entirely as slaves to impurity and wickedness for wicked purposes. In the same way you must now surrender yourselves entirely as slaves of righteousness for holy purposes.

Do not let anyone look down on you because you are young, but be an example for the believers in your speech, your conduct, your love, faith, and purity.

Be obedient to God, and do not allow your lives to be shaped by those desires you had when you were still ignorant.

The scripture says, "Be holy because I am holy."

For you know what was paid to set you free from the worthless manner of life handed down by your ancestors. It was not something that can be destroyed, such as silver or gold;

For this very reason do your best to add goodness to your faith; to your goodness add knowledge;

to your godliness add Christian affection; and to your Christian affection add love.

Since all these things will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people should you be? Your lives should be holy and dedicated to God,

if we say that we remain in union with God, we should live just as Jesus Christ did.

This calls for endurance on the part of God's people, those who obey God's commandments and are faithful to Jesus.

Remember that the LORD has chosen the righteous for his own, and he hears me when I call to him.

We are proud that our conscience assures us that our lives in this world, and especially our relations with you, have been ruled by God-given frankness and sincerity, by the power of God's grace and not by human wisdom.

And so the Lord knows how to rescue godly people from their trials and how to keep the wicked under punishment for the Day of Judgment,

I cannot talk with you much longer, because the ruler of this world is coming. He has no power over me,

I gave them your message, and the world hated them, because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.

I do not ask you to take them out of the world, but I do ask you to keep them safe from the Evil One.

Do not conform yourselves to the standards of this world, but let God transform you inwardly by a complete change of your mind. Then you will be able to know the will of God---what is good and is pleasing to him and is perfect.

In order to set us free from this present evil age, Christ gave himself for our sins, in obedience to the will of our God and Father.

At that time you followed the world's evil way; you obeyed the ruler of the spiritual powers in space, the spirit who now controls the people who disobey God.

Demas fell in love with this present world and has deserted me, going off to Thessalonica. Crescens went to Galatia, and Titus to Dalmatia.

We know that we belong to God even though the whole world is under the rule of the Evil One.