Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once His mercy had not been shown you, but now it has.

who had once been disobedient, while God's patience was awaiting in the days when Noah was preparing an ark, in which a few people-- eight, to be exact -- were brought safely through the water.

be shepherds of the flock of God that is among you, not as though you had to but of your own free will, not from the motive of personal profit but freely,