Truly I say to you, It will be better for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of God's judging than for that town.

They say to him, Caesar's. Then he said to them, Give to Caesar the things which are Caesar's, and to God the things which are God's.

Whoever does God's pleasure, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.

And crying out with a loud voice he said, What have I to do with you, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? In God's name, do not be cruel to me.

And he said to them, Truly you put on one side the law of God, so that you may keep the rules which have been handed down to you.

And Jesus, answering, said to them, Have God's faith.

And Jesus said to them, Give to Caesar the things which are Caesar's, and to God the things which are God's. And they were full of wonder at him.

And the angel said to her, Have no fear, Mary, for you have God's approval.

But he made answer and said to his father, See, all these years I have been your servant, doing your orders in everything: and you never gave me even a young goat so that I might have a feast with my friends:

I say to you, This man went back to his house with God's approval, and not the other: for everyone who makes himself high will be made low and whoever makes himself low will be made high.

And he said, Then give to Caesar the things which are Caesar's, and to God the things which are God's.

And the people were looking on. And the rulers made sport of him, saying, He was a saviour of others; let him do something for himself, if he is the Christ, the man of God's selection.

And he said to him, Truly I say to you all, You will see heaven opening and God's angels going up and coming down on the Son of man.

For he whom God has sent says God's words; and God does not give him the Spirit by measure.

He who has faith in the Son has eternal life; but he who has not faith in the Son will not see life; God's wrath is resting on him.

If any man is ready to do God's pleasure he will have knowledge of the teaching and of where it comes from--from God or from myself.

We have knowledge that God does not give ear to sinners, but if any man is a worshipper of God and does his pleasure, to him God's ears are open.

Do you say of him whom the Father made holy and sent into the world, Your words are evil; because I said, I am God's Son?

When this came to his ears, Jesus said, The end of this disease is not death, but the glory of God, so that the Son of God may have glory because of it.

They will put you out of the Synagogues: yes, the time is coming when whoever puts you to death will have the belief that he is doing God's pleasure.

Jesus gave this answer: You would have no power at all over me if it was not given to you by God; so that he who gave me up to you has the greater sin.

So then, let your hearts be changed and be turned to God, so that your sins may be completely taken away, and times of blessing may come from the Lord;

This is the man who was in the church in the waste land with the angel who was talking to him in Sinai, and with our fathers; and to him were given the living words of God, so that he might give them to you.

Now the place in the book where he was reading was this: He was taken, like a sheep, to be put to death; and as a lamb is quiet when its wool is being cut, so he made no sound:

Now David, having done God's work for his generation, went to sleep, and was put with his fathers, and his body came to destruction:

And when there had been much discussion, Peter got up and said to them, My brothers, you have knowledge that some time back it was God's pleasure that by my mouth the good news might be given to the Gentiles so that they might have faith.

And those who were near said, Do you say such words against God's high priest

And now I am here to be judged because of the hope given by God's word to our fathers;

To make their eyes open, turning them from the dark to the light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may have forgiveness of sins and a heritage among those who are made holy by faith in me.

And so, by God's help, I am here today, witnessing to small and great, saying nothing but what the prophets and Moses said would come about;

But you who are judging another for doing what you do yourself, are you hoping that God's decision will not take effect against you?

Or is it nothing to you that God had pity on you, waiting and putting up with you for so long, not seeing that in his pity God's desire is to give you a change of heart?

But by your hard and unchanged heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of the revelation of God's judging in righteousness;

For God's word, that the earth would be his heritage, was given to Abraham, not through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.

Was then that which is good, death to me? In no way. But the purpose was that sin might be seen to be sin by working death to me through that which is good; so that through the orders of the law sin might seem much more evil.

That is, it is not the children of the flesh, but the children of God's undertaking, who are named as the seed.

For this is the word of God's undertaking, At this time will I come, and Sarah will have a son.

Before the children had come into existence, or had done anything good or bad, in order that God's purpose and his selection might be effected, not by works, but by him whose purpose it is,

Because, not having knowledge of God's righteousness, and desiring to give effect to their righteousness, they have not put themselves under the righteousness of God.

Because God's selection and his mercies may not be changed.

So in the same way these have gone against the orders of God, so that by the mercy given to you they may now get mercy.

For he is the servant of God to you for good. But if you do evil, have fear; for the sword is not in his hand for nothing: he is God's servant, making God's punishment come on the evil-doer.

For the same reason, make payment of taxes; because the authority is God's servant, to take care of such things at all times.

Let not him who takes food have a low opinion of him who does not: and let not him who does not take food be a judge of him who does; for he has God's approval.

To be a servant of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, doing the work of a priest in the good news of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles might be pleasing to God, being made holy by the Holy Spirit.

So I have pride in Christ Jesus in the things which are God's.

For because, by the purpose of God, the world, with all its wisdom, had not the knowledge of God, it was God's pleasure, by so foolish a thing as preaching, to give salvation to those who had faith in him.

But to those of God's selection, Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power and the wisdom of God.

For you see God's design for you, my brothers, that he has not taken a great number of the wise after the flesh, not the strong, not the noble:

But we have not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which comes from God, so that we may have knowledge of the things which are freely given to us by God.

For we are workers with God: you are God's planting, God's building.

Do you not see that you are God's holy house, and that the Spirit of God has his place in you?

And you are Christ's; and Christ is God's.

But if the one who is not a Christian has a desire to go away, let it be so: the brother or the sister in such a position is not forced to do one thing or the other: but it is God's pleasure that we may be at peace with one another.

But God's approval of us is not based on the food we take: if we do not take it we are no worse for it; and if we take it we are no better.

But I give blows to my body, and keep it under control, for fear that, after having given the good news to others, I myself might not have God's approval.

For divisions are necessary among you, in order that those who have God's approval may be clearly seen among you.

For now we see things in a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now my knowledge is in part; then it will be complete, even as God's knowledge of me.

For if there is a ready mind, a man will have God's approval in the measure of what he has, and not of what he has not.

Now this I say: The law, which came four hundred and thirty years after, does not put an end to the agreement made before by God, so as to make the undertaking without effect.

And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, and yours is the heritage by the right of God's undertaking given to Abraham.

That you were at that time without Christ, being cut off from any part in Israel's rights as a nation, having no part in God's agreement, having no hope, and without God in the world.

I then, the prisoner in the Lord, make this request from my heart, that you will see that your behaviour is a credit to the position which God's purpose has given you,

Take up God's instruments of war, so that you may be able to keep your position against all the deceits of the Evil One.

For this reason take up all the arms of God, so that you may be able to be strong in the evil day, and, having done all, to keep your place.

For in him all the wealth of God's being has a living form,

Being conscious, my brothers, dear to God, that you have been marked out by God's purpose;

But even as the good news was given to us by the approval of God, so we give it out; not as pleasing men, but God by whom our hearts are tested.

Even so, being full of loving desire for you, we took delight in giving you not only God's good news, but even our lives, because you were dear to us.

We sent Timothy, our brother and God's servant in the good news of Christ, to give you strength and comfort in your faith;

So that no man might be moved by these troubles; because you see that these things are part of God's purpose for us.

Because it is God's purpose that our way of life may be not unclean but holy.

For if we have faith that Jesus underwent death and came back again, even so those who are sleeping will come again with him by God's power.

For God's purpose for us is not wrath, but salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,

For it is an act of righteousness on God's part to give trouble as their reward to those who are troubling you,

Or to give attention to stories and long lists of generations, from which come questionings and doubts, in place of God's ordered way of life which is in faith;

And without argument, great is the secret of religion: He who was seen in the flesh, who was given God's approval in the spirit, was seen by the angels, of whom the good news was given among the nations, in whom the world had faith, who was taken up in glory.

I give you orders before God and Christ Jesus and the angels of God's selection, to keep these orders without giving thought to one side more than another.

But God's strong base is unchanging, having this sign, The Lord has knowledge of those who are his: and, Let everyone by whom the name of the Lord is named be turned away from evil.

For it is necessary for a Bishop to be a man of virtue, as God's servant; not pushing himself forward, not quickly moved to wrath or blows, not desiring profit for himself;

And to Apphia, our sister, and to Archippus, our brother in God's army, and to the church in your house:

Because if the word which came through the angels was fixed, and in the past every evil act against God's orders was given its full punishment;

Let us then, though we still have God's word that we may come into his rest, go in fear that some of you may be unable to do so.

So that as it is clear that some have to go in, and that the first hearers of the good news were not able to go in because they went against God's orders,

Because of this, let us have a strong desire to come into that rest, and let no one go after the example of those who went against God's orders.

Every high priest who is taken from among men is given his position to take care of the interests of men in those things which have to do with God, so that he may make offerings for sins.

And though he was a Son, through the pain which he underwent, the knowledge came to him of what it was to be under God's orders;

And though by this time it would be right for you to be teachers, you still have need of someone to give you teaching about the first simple rules of God's revelation; you have become like babies who have need of milk, and not of solid food.

And so, when he had been waiting calmly for a long time, God's word to him was put into effect.

So that when it was God's desire to make it specially clear to those who by his word were to have the heritage, that his purpose was fixed, he made it more certain with an oath;

Now of the things we are saying this is the chief point: We have such a high priest, who has taken his place at the right hand of God's high seat of glory in heaven,

And because by God's law death comes to men once, and after that they are judged;

For, having done what was right in God's eyes, you have need of waiting before his word has effect for you.

For by it our fathers had God's approval.

By faith it is clear to us that the order of events was fixed by the word of God, so that what is seen has not been made from things which only seem to be.

By faith Rahab, the loose woman, was not put to death with those who had gone against God's orders, because she had taken into her house in peace those sent to see the land.

Having our eyes fixed on Jesus, the guide and end of our faith, who went through the pains of the cross, not caring for the shame, because of the joy which was before him, and who has now taken his place at the right hand of God's seat of power.

There is a blessing on the man who undergoes testing; because, if he has God's approval, he will be given the crown of life, which the Lord has said he will give to those who have love for him.

With it we give praise to our Lord and Father; and with it we put a curse on men who are made in God's image.

O you who are false to God, do you not see that the friends of this world are not God's friends? Every man desiring to be a friend of this world makes himself a hater of God.