The Spirit Himself testifies together with our spirit that we are God’s children,

Dear friends, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him because we will see Him as He is.

This is how we know that we love God’s children when we love God and obey His commands.

Look at how great a love the Father has given us that we should be called God’s children. And we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it didn’t know Him.

This is how God’s children—and the Devil’s children—are made evident.

Whoever does not do what is right is not of God, especially the one who does not love his brother.

That is, it is not the children by physical descent who are God’s children, but the children of the promise are considered to be the offspring.

that the creation itself will also be set free from the bondage of corruption into the glorious freedom of God’s children.

Instead, we have renounced shameful secret things, not walking in deceit or distorting God’s message, but commending ourselves to every person’s conscience in God’s sight by an open display of the truth.

In fact, He was crucified in weakness, but He lives by God’s power. For we also are weak in Him, yet toward you we will live with Him by God’s power.

For we are not like the many who market God’s message for profit. On the contrary, we speak with sincerity in Christ, as from God and before God.

For we are God’s coworkers. You are God’s field, God’s building.

And what agreement does God’s sanctuary have with idols? For we are the sanctuary of the living God, as God said:

I will dwell among them
and walk among them,
and I will be their God,
and they will be My people.

If we accept the testimony of men, God’s testimony is greater, because it is God’s testimony that He has given about His Son.

For you remember our labor and hardship, brothers. Working night and day so that we would not burden any of you, we preached God’s gospel to you.

We praise our Lord and Father with it, and we curse men who are made in God’s likeness with it.

God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent His One and Only Son into the world so that we might live through Him.

But if our unrighteousness highlights God’s righteousness, what are we to say? I use a human argument: Is God unrighteous to inflict wrath?

On the contrary, we speak God’s hidden wisdom in a mystery, a wisdom God predestined before the ages for our glory.

For this is our confidence: The testimony of our conscience is that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially toward you, with God-given sincerity and purity, not by fleshly wisdom but by God’s grace.

I have written to you, children,
because you have come to know the Father.
I have written to you, fathers,
because you have come to know
the One who is from the beginning.
I have written to you, young men,
because you are strong,
God’s word remains in you,
and you have had victory over the evil one.

and not just as we had hoped. Instead, they gave themselves especially to the Lord, then to us by God’s will.

until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God’s Son, growing into a mature man with a stature measured by Christ’s fullness.

And we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him.

Therefore, brothers, we are not children of the slave but of the free woman.

Now we know that whatever the law says speaks to those who are subject to the law, so that every mouth may be shut and the whole world may become subject to God’s judgment.

We know that God’s judgment on those who do such things is based on the truth.

Then Paul and Barnabas boldly said: “It was necessary that God’s message be spoken to you first. But since you reject it and consider yourselves unworthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles!

Being God’s offspring then, we shouldn’t think that the divine nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image fashioned by human art and imagination.

Working together with Him, we also appeal to you, “Don’t receive God’s grace in vain.”

But as God’s ministers, we commend ourselves in everything:

by great endurance, by afflictions,
by hardship, by difficulties,

Therefore, we ourselves boast about you among God’s churches—about your endurance and faith in all the persecutions and afflictions you endure.

And we sent Timothy, our brother and God’s coworker in the gospel of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you concerning your faith,

But we do see Jesus—made lower than the angels for a short time so that by God’s grace He might taste death for everyone—crowned with glory and honor because of His suffering in death.

They told Aaron:

Make us gods who will go before us. As for this Moses who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we don’t know what’s happened to him.

For every one of God’s promises is “Yes” in Him. Therefore, the “Amen” is also spoken through Him by us for God’s glory.

You are from God, little children, and you have conquered them, because the One who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.

For the time has come for judgment to begin with God’s household, and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who disobey the gospel of God?

If anyone destroys God’s sanctuary, God will destroy him; for God’s sanctuary is holy, and that is what you are.

“Caesar’s,” they said to Him.

Then He said to them, “Therefore give back to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”

“Our father is Abraham!” they replied.

“If you were Abraham’s children,” Jesus told them, “you would do what Abraham did.

This hope will not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

All those led by God’s Spirit are God’s sons.

A person should consider us in this way: as servants of Christ and managers of God’s mysteries.

Therefore, consider God’s kindness and severity: severity toward those who have fallen but God’s kindness toward you—if you remain in His kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off.

For government is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, because it does not carry the sword for no reason. For government is God’s servant, an avenger that brings wrath on the one who does wrong.

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but it is God’s power to us who are being saved.

For since, in God’s wisdom, the world did not know God through wisdom, God was pleased to save those who believe through the foolishness of the message preached.

Yet to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is God’s power and God’s wisdom,

because God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.

But by God’s grace I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not ineffective. However, I worked more than any of them, yet not I, but God’s grace that was with me.

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by God’s will, and Timothy our brother:

To God’s church at Corinth, with all the saints who are throughout Achaia.

He has put His trust in God; let God rescue Him now—if He wants Him! For He said, ‘I am God’s Son.’”

Then Jesus told them, “Give back to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” And they were amazed at Him.

Because of our God’s merciful compassion,
the Dawn from on high will visit us

It is a clear evidence of God’s righteous judgment that you will be counted worthy of God’s kingdom, for which you also are suffering,

He opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he sits in God’s sanctuary, publicizing that he himself is God.

I have become its servant, according to God’s administration that was given to me for you, to make God’s message fully known,

“Well then,” He told them, “give back to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s.”

Shepherd God’s flock among you, not overseeing out of compulsion but freely, according to God’s will; not for the money but eagerly;

Adulteresses! Don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? So whoever wants to be the world’s friend becomes God’s enemy.

The one who is from God listens to God’s words. This is why you don’t listen, because you are not from God.”

Then I heard a loud voice from the throne:

Look! God’s dwelling is with humanity,
and He will live with them.
They will be His people,
and God Himself will be with them
and be their God.

in God’s sight. As it is written: I have made you the father of many nations. He believed in God, who gives life to the dead and calls things into existence that do not exist.

He did not waver in unbelief at God’s promise but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God,

For the mind-set of the flesh is hostile to God because it does not submit itself to God’s law, for it is unable to do so.

Who can bring an accusation against God’s elect?
God is the One who justifies.

Because they disregarded the righteousness from God and attempted to establish their own righteousness, they have not submitted themselves to God’s righteousness.

Don’t you yourselves know that you are God’s sanctuary and that the Spirit of God lives in you?

I always thank my God for you because of God’s grace given to you in Christ Jesus,

For God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of God’s glory in the face of Jesus Christ.

But if I should be delayed, I have written so that you will know how people ought to act in God’s household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth.

And He told them: “You are the ones who justify yourselves in the sight of others, but God knows your hearts. For what is highly admired by people is revolting in God’s sight.

Paul, a slave of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to build up the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness,

So the Scripture was fulfilled that says, Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him for righteousness, and he was called God’s friend.

For God sent Him, and He speaks God’s words, since He gives the Spirit without measure.

They sang the song of God’s servant Moses and the song of the Lamb:

Great and awe-inspiring are Your works,
Lord God, the Almighty;
righteous and true are Your ways,
King of the Nations.

For God has put it into their hearts to carry out His plan by having one purpose and to give their kingdom to the beast until God’s words are accomplished.

He found favor in God’s sight and asked that he might provide a dwelling place for the God of Jacob.

But Stephen, filled by the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven. He saw God’s glory, with Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and he said,