1 Thessalonians 1:4

“Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Before you were born, I sanctified you. I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

But now Yahweh who created you, Jacob, and he who formed you, Israel, says: “Don’t be afraid, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by your name. You are mine.

All who dwell on the earth will worship him, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been killed.

For whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the Lord’s work, because you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before times eternal,

Yahweh, your Redeemer, and he who formed you from the womb says: “I am Yahweh, who makes all things; who alone stretches out the heavens; who spreads out the earth by myself;

Listen, islands, to me. Listen, you peoples, from afar: Yahweh has called me from the womb; from the inside of my mother, he has mentioned my name.

And be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving each other, just as God also in Christ forgave you.

If therefore there is any exhortation in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any tender mercies and compassion,

everyone who is called by my name, and whom I have created for my glory, whom I have formed, yes, whom I have made.’ ”

Then the King will tell those on his right hand, ‘Come, blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world;

with all lowliness and humility, with patience, bearing with one another in love,

I have relied on you from the womb. You are he who took me out of my mother’s womb. I will always praise you.

Don’t you be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you. Yes, I will uphold you with the right hand of my righteousness.

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared before that we would walk in them.

Give diligence to present yourself approved by God, a workman who doesn’t need to be ashamed, properly handling the Word of Truth.

Whom he predestined, those he also called. Whom he called, those he also justified. Whom he justified, those he also glorified.

But now faith, hope, and love remain—these three. The greatest of these is love.

Yes, and for this very cause adding on your part all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence; and in moral excellence, knowledge;

the people which I formed for myself, that they might declare my praise.

Love is patient and is kind. Love doesn’t envy. Love doesn’t brag, is not proud,

You therefore, beloved, knowing these things beforehand, beware, lest being carried away with the error of the wicked, you fall from your own steadfastness.

This is what Yahweh who made you, and formed you from the womb, who will help you says: “Don’t be afraid, Jacob my servant; and you, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen.

Remember these things, Jacob and Israel; for you are my servant. I have formed you. You are my servant. Israel, you will not be forgotten by me.

He has shown you, O man, what is good. What does Yahweh require of you, but to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?

Don’t be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.

But Jeshurun grew fat, and kicked. You have grown fat. You have grown thick. You have become sleek. Then he abandoned God who made him, and rejected the Rock of his salvation.

God is within her. She shall not be moved. God will help her at dawn.

But if we hope for that which we don’t see, we wait for it with patience.

We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, for those who are called according to his purpose.

God didn’t reject his people, which he foreknew. Or don’t you know what the Scripture says about Elijah? How he pleads with God against Israel:

Be therefore imitators of God, as beloved children.

To this end we also pray always for you, that our God may count you worthy of your calling, and fulfill every desire of goodness and work of faith with power,

to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better than that of Abel.

Listen, my beloved brothers. Didn’t God choose those who are poor in this world to be rich in faith, and heirs of the Kingdom which he promised to those who love him?

Finally, all of you be like-minded, compassionate, loving as brothers, tenderhearted, courteous,

Sanctify them in your truth. Your word is truth.

to the assembly of God which is at Corinth—those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called saints, with all who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place, both theirs and ours:

For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision amounts to anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith working through love.

that he might present the assembly to himself gloriously, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without defect.

Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect; but I press on, that I may take hold of that for which also I was taken hold of by Christ Jesus.

to the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

yet now he has reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and without defect and blameless before him,

Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, to the assembly of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

For God called us not for uncleanness, but in sanctification.

But we are bound to always give thanks to God for you, brothers loved by the Lord, because God chose you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief in the truth,

Let’s therefore draw near with boldness to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and may find grace for help in time of need.

let’s draw near with a true heart in fullness of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and having our body washed with pure water,

Without faith it is impossible to be well pleasing to him, for he who comes to God must believe that he exists, and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him.

We love him, because he first loved us.

“I know your works, your love, faith, service, patient endurance, and that your last works are more than the first.

Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, “Look, this is the blood of the covenant, which Yahweh has made with you concerning all these words.”

He shall kill the bull before Yahweh. Aaron’s sons, the priests, shall present the blood and sprinkle the blood around on the altar that is at the door of the Tent of Meeting.

He was king in Jeshurun, when the heads of the people were gathered, all the tribes of Israel together.

For you formed my inmost being. You knit me together in my mother’s womb.

Don’t be afraid, you worm Jacob, and you men of Israel. I will help you,” says Yahweh. “Your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.

I will sow her to me in the earth; and I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy; and I will tell those who were not my people, ‘You are my people;’ and they will say, ‘My God!’ ”

Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you; not as the world gives, I give to you. Don’t let your heart be troubled, neither let it be fearful.

him, being delivered up by the determined counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by the hand of lawless men, crucified and killed;

As the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of God. As many as were appointed to eternal life believed.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Grace to you, and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

and have put on the new man, who is being renewed in knowledge after the image of his Creator,

For God didn’t appoint us to wrath, but to the obtaining of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

We are bound to always give thanks to God for you, brothers, even as it is appropriate, because your faith grows exceedingly, and the love of each and every one of you toward one another abounds,

For God is not unrighteous, so as to forget your work and the labor of love which you showed toward his name, in that you served the saints, and still do serve them.

We desire that each one of you may show the same diligence to the fullness of hope even to the end,

who was foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world, but was revealed in this last age for your sake,

In the past, you were not a people, but now are God’s people, who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.

but in the hidden person of the heart, in the incorruptible adornment of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God.

Yahweh said to Satan, “Yahweh rebuke you, Satan! Yes, Yahweh who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Isn’t this a burning stick plucked out of the fire?”

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, God’s love, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.

However God’s firm foundation stands, having this seal, “The Lord knows those who are his,” and, “Let every one who names the name of the Lord depart from unrighteousness.”

Therefore, brothers, be more diligent to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never stumble.

remembering without ceasing your work of faith and labor of love and perseverance of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, before our God and Father.

to all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Who could bring a charge against God’s chosen ones? It is God who justifies.

For being not yet born, neither having done anything good or bad, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him who calls,

As he says also in Hosea, “I will call them ‘my people,’ which were not my people; and her ‘beloved,’ who was not beloved.”

even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and without defect before him in love,

Put on therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, a heart of compassion, kindness, lowliness, humility, and perseverance;

according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, that you may obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with his blood: Grace to you and peace be multiplied.