Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has caused us to be born anew to a life of hope through Jesus Christ's resurrection from the dead,

and like new-born babes crave the pure spiritual milk that will make you grow up to salvation,

No one who is a child of God commits sin, for God's nature remains in his heart, and he cannot sin, because he is a child of God.

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God, and everyone who loves is a child of God and knows God.

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is a child of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves those who are his children.

Nor of the will of the

And that is not all, for there was Rebecca too, when she was about to bear twin sons to our forefather Isaac.

Nor of the will of man

I am telling the truth as a Christian, it is no falsehood, for my conscience under the holy Spirit's influence bears me witness in it,

Brothers, my heart is full of good will toward them; my prayer to God is that they may be saved.

I did the planting, Apollos the watering, but it was God who made the plants grow.

For it is God who in his good will is at work in your hearts, inspiring your will and your action.

Of his own accord he brought us into being through the message of truth, so that we might be a kind of first-fruits among his creatures.

Of god

Whatever owes its birth to the physical is physical, and whatever owes its birth to the Spirit is spiritual.

he saved us, not for any upright actions we had performed, but from his own mercy, through the bath of regeneration and renewal by the holy Spirit,

Now, dear children, keep in union with him, so that if he appears, we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame when he comes.

General references

For even his brothers did not believe in him.

Whoever is sprung from God listens to God's words. The reason you refuse to listen is that you are not sprung from God."

So it depends not on human will or exertion, but on the mercy of God.

For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God through your faith.