They are a fulfilment of Isaiah's prophecy, " 'You will listen and listen, and never understand, And you will look and look, and never see!

It is so too with the ones sown on the rocky ground; they gladly accept the message as soon as they hear it,

Zechariah said to the angel, "How am I to know that this is so? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in life."

Besides there is a great chasm set between you and us, so that those who want to go over from this side to you cannot, and they cannot cross from your side to us.'

"If you are the Christ, tell us so." But he said to them, "If I tell you, you will not believe me,

They answered, "You were born in utter sin, and are you trying to teach us?" So they excluded him from the synagogue.

So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, "How much longer are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are really the Christ, tell us so frankly!"

"Do not be afraid, Daughter of Zion! See, your king is coming mounted on an ass's colt!"

Let them all be one. Just as you, Father, are in union with me and I am with you, let them be in union with us, so that the world may believe that you sent me.

But now the Law no longer applies to us; we have died to what once controlled us, so that we can now serve in the new Spirit, not under the old letter.

But there is so much immorality that every man had better have a wife of his own, and every woman a husband of her own.

Now these things happened to warn us, so that we should not long for what is evil as they did.

It is so with the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in decay, it is raised free from decay.

If the meaning of my preaching of the good news is veiled at all, it is so only in the case of those who are on the way to destruction.

for he has responded to my appeal, but he goes to you really of his own accord, he is so devoted to you.

I appeal to you personally, by the gentleness and forbearance of Christ??he Paul who is so humble when face to face with you, but so bold in dealing with you when he is far away!

This is the freedom with which Christ has freed us. So stand firm in it, and do not get under a yoke of slavery again.

But God is so rich in mercy that because of the great love he had for us,

who died for us so that whether we are still alive or fall asleep we may live with him.

We know what love means from the fact that he laid down his life for us; so we also ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.

Dear friends, if God has loved us so, we ought to love one another.