"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called God's sons!

"You have heard that they were told, 'You must love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for your persecutors, read more. so that you may show yourselves true sons of your Father in heaven, for he makes his sun rise on bad and good alike, and makes the rain fall on the upright and the wrongdoers.

so that you may show yourselves true sons of your Father in heaven, for he makes his sun rise on bad and good alike, and makes the rain fall on the upright and the wrongdoers. For if you love only those who love you, what reward can you expect? Do not the very tax-collectors do that? read more. And if you are polite to your brothers and no one else, what is there remarkable in that? Do not the very heathen do that? So you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is.

"But take care not to do your good deeds in public for people to see, for, if you do, you will get no reward from your Father in heaven.

But if you do not forgive others when they offend you, your heavenly Father will not forgive you for your offenses.

Look at the wild birds. They do not sow or reap, or store their food in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more account than they?

At that same time Jesus said, "I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for hiding all this from the learned and intelligent and revealing it to children.

At that same time Jesus said, "I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for hiding all this from the learned and intelligent and revealing it to children.

Then the upright will shine out like the sun, in their Father's kingdom. Let him who has ears listen!

And he went on a little way, and threw himself on his face, and prayed, saying, "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass by me. Yet not as I please but as you do!"

And whenever you stand up to pray, if you have a grievance against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven too may forgive you your offenses."

But love your enemies, and help them and lend to them, never despairing, and you will be richly rewarded, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind even to the ungrateful and the wicked. You must be merciful, just as your Father is.

Everything has been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows who the Son is but the Father, nor who the Father is but the Son, and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him."

He said to them, "When you pray, say, 'Father, your name be revered! Your kingdom come!

So if you, bad as you are, know enough to give your children what is good, how much more surely will your Father in heaven give the holy Spirit to those who ask him for it!"

Then Jesus gave a loud cry, and said, "Father, I intrust my spirit to your hands!" With these words he expired.

But to all who did receive him and believe in him he gave the right to become children of God, owing their birth not to nature nor to any human or physical impulse, but to God. read more. So the Word became flesh and blood and lived for a while among us, abounding in blessing and truth, and we saw the honor God had given him, such honor as an only son receives from his father.

Jesus answered him, "I tell you, no one can see the Kingdom of God unless he is born over again from above!" Nicodemus said to him, "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter his mother's womb over again and be born?" read more. Jesus answered, "I tell you, if a man does not owe his birth to water and spirit, he cannot get into the Kingdom of God. Whatever owes its birth to the physical is physical, and whatever owes its birth to the Spirit is spiritual.

Whatever owes its birth to the physical is physical, and whatever owes its birth to the Spirit is spiritual. Do not wonder at my telling you that you must be born over again from above. read more. The wind blows wherever it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. That is the way with everyone who owes his birth to the Spirit."

No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him to me; then I myself will raise him to life on the Last Day.

And he added, "This is why I said to you, 'No one can come to me unless he is enabled to do so by the Father.' "

They answered, "Our father is Abraham." Jesus said to them, "If you are Abraham's children, then do what Abraham did. But instead you are trying to kill me, a man who has told you the truth he has heard from God. Abraham would not have done that. read more. You are doing as your father does." They said to him, "We are not illegitimate children. We have one father, God himself." Jesus said to them, "If God were your father, you would love me, for I have come from God. I have not come of my own accord, but he has sent me.

Jesus answered, "Is it not declared in your Law, 'I said, "You are gods" '?

Jesus said to him, "I am Way and Truth and Life. No one can come to the Father except through me.

When that day comes you will know that I am in union with my Father and you are with me and I am with you.

Jesus said to her, "You must not cling to me, for I have not yet gone up to my Father, but go to my brothers and say to them that I am going up to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God."

But these have been recorded so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and through believing you may have life as his followers.

For it is through union with him that we live and move and exist, as some of your poets have said, " 'For we are also his offspring.'

and decisively declared Son of God in his holiness of spirit, by being raised from the dead??esus Christ our Lord,

For all who are guided by God's Spirit are God's sons. It is not a consciousness of servitude that has been imparted to you, to fill you with fear again, but the consciousness of adoption as sons, which makes us cry, "Abba!" that is, Father. read more. The Spirit itself testifies with our spirits that we are God's children, and if children, heirs also; heirs of God, and fellow-heirs with Christ, if we really share his sufferings in order to share his glory too. For I consider what we suffer now not to be compared with the glory that is to burst upon us. For creation is waiting with eager longing for the sons of God to be disclosed. For it was not the fault of creation that it was frustrated; it was by the will of him who condemned it to that, and in the hope that creation itself would be set free from its bondage to decay, and have the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that all creation has been groaning in agony together until now. More than that, we ourselves, though we have in the Spirit a foretaste of the future, groan to ourselves as we wait to be declared God's sons, through the redemption of our bodies.

More than that, we ourselves, though we have in the Spirit a foretaste of the future, groan to ourselves as we wait to be declared God's sons, through the redemption of our bodies. It was in this hope that we were saved. But a hope that can be seen is not a hope, for who hopes for what he sees? read more. But when we hope for something that we do not see, we wait persistently for it.

For those whom he had marked out from the first he predestined to be made like his Son, so that he should be the eldest of many brothers;

For those whom he had marked out from the first he predestined to be made like his Son, so that he should be the eldest of many brothers;

For they are Israelites, and to them belong the rights of sonship, God's glorious presence, the divine agreements and legislation, the Temple service, the promises,

That is to say, it is not his physical descendants who are children of God, but his descendants born in fulfilment of the promise who are considered his true posterity.

Just as he says in Hosea, "I will call a people that was not mine, my people, And her who was not beloved, my beloved, And in the very place where they were told, 'You are no people of mine,' They shall be called sons of the living God."

And in the very place where they were told, 'You are no people of mine,' They shall be called sons of the living God."

There is no distinction between Jew and Greek for they all have the same Lord, and he is generous to all who call upon him. For everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.

But I ask again, did Israel fail to understand? Why, to begin with, Moses said, "I will make you jealous of what is no nation at all, I will exasperate you at a senseless nation."

But before this faith came, we were kept shut up under the Law, in order to obtain the faith that was to be revealed.

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

I mean this: As long as the heir is a minor, he is no better than a slave, although he is the owner of all the property, but he is under guardians and trustees until the time fixed by his father. read more. So when we were minors, we were slaves to material ways of looking at things, but when the proper time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, and made subject to law, to ransom those who were subject to law, so that we might receive adoption. And because you are sons, God has sent into our hearts the spirit of his Son, with the cry, "Abba!" that is, Father. So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir, made so by God.

So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir, made so by God.

Now we, brothers, are like Isaac, children born in fulfilment of the promise.

He foreordained us to become his sons through Jesus Christ, in fulfilment of his generous purpose, so that we might praise the splendid blessing which he has given us through his beloved Son. read more. It is through union with him and through his blood that we have been delivered and our offenses forgiven, in the abundance of his mercy which he has lavished upon us. He has given us perfect insight into his secret purpose and understanding of it, in following out the design he planned to carry out in Christ, and in arranging, when the time should have fully come, that everything in heaven and on earth should be unified in Christ??11 the Christ through whom it is our lot to have been predestined by the design of him who in everything carries out the purpose of his will,

to win praise for his glory, by having been the first to believe in Christ. You also have heard the message of the truth, the good news of your salvation, and believed in him, and through union with him you have been marked with the seal of the holy Spirit that was promised, read more. which is the advance installment of our inheritance, so that we may get full possession of it, and praise his glory for it.

which is the advance installment of our inheritance, so that we may get full possession of it, and praise his glory for it. This is why I, for my part, since I have heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus that prevails among you and among all God's people, read more. never cease to thank God for you when I mention you in my prayers. The God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, grant you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation through the knowledge of himself, enlightening the eyes of your mind so that you may know what the hope is to which he calls you, and how gloriously rich his inheritance is among God's people,

so that you will be blameless and honest, faultless children of God in the midst of a crooked and perverted age, in which you appear like stars in a dark world,

For to what angel did God ever say, "You are my Son! I have today become your Father"? Or again, "I will become his Father, and he shall become my Son"?

but we do see Jesus, who was "made for a little while inferior to angels, crowned with glory and honor" because he suffered death, so that by the favor of God he might taste the bitterness of death on behalf of every human being. For it was appropriate that he who is the great First Cause of the universe should, in guiding his many children to his glorious salvation, make their leader in it fully qualified through what he suffered. read more. For both he who purifies them and they who are purified spring from one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers, and say, "I will tell your name to my brothers, In the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise"; and again "I will put my trust in God"; and again, "Here I am with the children that God has given me." Therefore since these children referred to have the same mortal nature, Jesus also shared it, like them, in order that by his death he might dethrone the lord of death, the devil, and free from their slavery men who had always lived in fear of death. For of course it was not angels but the descendants of Abraham that he came to help. And so he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might prove a compassionate high priest as well as one faithful in his service to God, in order to forgive the people's sins. For because he has himself been tempted in what he has suffered he is able to help others who are in trial.

You have not yet resisted unto death in your struggle with sin, and you have forgotten the challenge addressed to you as God's sons, "My son, do not think lightly of the Lord's discipline, Or give up when he corrects you. read more. For it is those whom the Lord loves that he disciplines, And he chastises every son that he acknowledges." You must submit to it as discipline. God is dealing with you as his sons. For where is there a son whom his father does not discipline? But if you have none of that discipline which all sons undergo, you are illegitimate children, and not true sons. When our earthly fathers disciplined us we treated them with respect; should we not far more submit to the Father of our spirits, and so have life? For they disciplined us for a short time and as they thought proper, but he does it for our good, to make us share his holiness. Discipline is never pleasant at the time; it is painful; but to those who are trained by it, it afterward yields the peace of character. So tighten your loosening hold! Stiffen your wavering stand! And keep your feet in straight paths, so that limbs that are lame may not be dislocated but instead be cured.

Every good gift and every perfect present is from heaven, and comes down from the Father of the heavenly lights, about whom there is no variation of changing shadow. 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.

A religious observance that is pure and stainless in the sight of God the Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their trouble, and keep one's self unstained by the world.

With it we bless the Lord our Father, and with it we curse men made in God's likeness.

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 if you address him as Father who judges everyone impartially by what he does, you must live reverently all the time you stay here,

for you have been born anew from a germ not perishable, but imperishable, through the message of the living, everlasting God.

Free yourselves, therefore, from all malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of any kind, and like new-born babes crave the pure spiritual milk that will make you grow up to salvation, read more. since you have tasted the Lord's kindness. Come to him, as to a living stone rejected by men, but chosen and prized in the sight of God, and build yourselves up as living stones into a spiritual house for a consecrated priesthood, so as to offer spiritual sacrifices that through Jesus Christ will be acceptable to God. For it says in Scripture, "Here I lay a choice stone in Zion, a costly cornerstone; No one who believes in it will ever be disappointed!" It is you, therefore, who believe who see its value, but for men who do not believe, "The stone which the builders refused has been made a cornerstone," and "A stone to stumble over, and a rock to trip them up." They stumble over the message because they will not obey it; that is their destiny. But you are the chosen race, the royal priesthood, the consecrated nation, his own people, so that you may declare the virtues of him who has called you out of darkness into his wonderful light; you who were once "no people" but are now "God's people"; once "unpitied" but now "pitied indeed."

you who were once "no people" but are now "God's people"; once "unpitied" but now "pitied indeed."

for all that there is in the world, the things that our physical nature and our eyes crave, and the proud display of life??hese do not come from the Father, but from the world;

No one who disowns the Son can have the Father. Whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father too.

If you know that he is upright, you may be sure that everyone who acts uprightly is his child.

Dear friends, we are God's children now; it has not yet been disclosed what we are to be. We know that if he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

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.

for every child of God is victorious over the world. Our faith is the victory that has triumphed over the world.

He who is victorious will possess all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son. But the cowardly, unfaithful, and polluted??urderers, immoral people, those who practice magic or idolatry, and all liars will find themselves in the burning lake of fire and brimstone. This is the second death."