2 Samuel 15:16

as children of obedience, not conforming yourselves according to your former lusts as in your ignorance,

Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new.

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

Therefore I urge you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service.

Therefore don’t be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

I will also give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you. I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.

If you were of the world, the world would love its own. But because you are not of the world, since I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

that you no longer should live the rest of your time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God.

and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind,

not by works of righteousness which we did ourselves, but according to his mercy, he saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit,

Don’t love the world or the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, the Father’s love isn’t in him.

Pure religion and undefiled before our God and Father is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

You adulterers and adulteresses, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, for its lusts.

in whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that the light of the Good News of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should not dawn on them.

For this is the will of God: your sanctification, that you abstain from sexual immorality,

Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a right spirit within me.

by which he has granted to us his precious and exceedingly great promises; that through these you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world by lust.

We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.

Oh taste and see that Yahweh is good. Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.

I have given them your word. The world hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, salutes you, always striving for you in his prayers, that you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.

Therefore I consider all of your precepts to be right. I hate every false way.

Cast away from you all your transgressions, in which you have transgressed; and make yourself a new heart and a new spirit: for why will you die, house of Israel?

Therefore the law indeed is holy, and the commandment holy, and righteous, and good.

For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, “He has taken the wise in their craftiness.”

But we all, with unveiled face seeing the glory of the Lord as in a mirror, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord, the Spirit.

who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us out of this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father—

For if, after they have escaped the defilement of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in it and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first.

Don’t be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you.

I have longed for your salvation, Yahweh. Your law is my delight.

The world can’t hate you, but it hates me, because I testify about it, that its works are evil.

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.

in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the children of disobedience.

How I love your law! It is my meditation all day.

I will no more speak much with you, for the prince of the world comes, and he has nothing in me.

For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am fleshly, sold under sin.

For I delight in God’s law after the inward man,

having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of his calling, and what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,

The great dragon was thrown down, the old serpent, he who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. He was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.

“You shall not follow a crowd to do evil. You shall not testify in court to side with a multitude to pervert justice.

The law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of pieces of gold and silver.

How sweet are your promises to my taste, more than honey to my mouth!

knowing that you were redeemed, not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, from the useless way of life handed down from your fathers,

Let your Kingdom come. Let your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

How narrow is the gate, and restricted is the way that leads to life! Few are those who find it.

Therefore we don’t faint, but though our outward man is decaying, yet our inward man is renewed day by day.

if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious:

The world is passing away with its lusts, but he who does God’s will remains forever.

Please take the gift that I brought to you, because God has dealt graciously with me, and because I have enough.” He urged him, and he took it.

You will betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her. You will build a house, and you won’t dwell in it. You will plant a vineyard, and not use its fruit.

Zebulun was a people that jeopardized their lives to the death; Naphtali also, on the high places of the field.

When David came to Ziklag, he sent some of the plunder to the elders of Judah, even to his friends, saying, “Behold, a present for you from the plunder of Yahweh’s enemies.”

Show your marvelous loving kindness, you who save those who take refuge by your right hand from their enemies.

Yahweh’s law is perfect, restoring the soul. Yahweh’s covenant is sure, making wise the simple.

But it shall not be so among you, but whoever wants to become great among you shall be your servant.

so that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense to the day of Christ,

Someone told David, saying, “Ahithophel is among the conspirators with Absalom.” David said, “Yahweh, please turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness.”

Ahithophel said to Absalom, “Go in to your father’s concubines that he has left to keep the house. Then all Israel will hear that you are abhorred by your father. Then the hands of all who are with you will be strong.”

So they spread a tent for Absalom on the top of the house, and Absalom went in to his father’s concubines in the sight of all Israel.

David came to his house at Jerusalem; and the king took the ten women his concubines, whom he had left to keep the house, and put them in custody, and provided them with sustenance, but didn’t go in to them. So they were shut up to the day of their death, living in widowhood.

He returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and came, and stood before him; and he said, “See now, I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel. Now therefore, please take a gift from your servant.”

then let my wife grind for another, and let others sleep with her.

Hide me from the conspiracy of the wicked, from the noisy crowd of the ones doing evil;

A man’s gift makes room for him, and brings him before great men.

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.

Test all things, and hold firmly that which is good.

While Israel lived in that land, Reuben went and lay with Bilhah, his father’s concubine, and Israel heard of it. Now the sons of Jacob were twelve.

She sent and called Barak the son of Abinoam out of Kedesh Naphtali, and said to him, “Hasn’t Yahweh, the God of Israel, commanded, ‘Go and lead the way to Mount Tabor, and take with you ten thousand men of the children of Naphtali and of the children of Zebulun?

and his second, Chileab, of Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite; and the third, Absalom the son of Maacah the daughter of Talmai king of Geshur;

For you did this secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun.’ ”

However he would not listen to her voice; but being stronger than she, he forced her, and lay with her.

After this, Absalom prepared a chariot and horses for himself, and fifty men to run before him.

Now therefore make confession to Yahweh, the God of your fathers, and do his pleasure; and separate yourselves from the peoples of the land, and from the foreign women.”

I will extol you, Yahweh, for you have raised me up, and have not made my foes to rejoice over me.

Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven; but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

I thought it necessary therefore to entreat the brothers that they would go before to you and arrange ahead of time the generous gift that you promised before, that the same might be ready as a matter of generosity, and not of greediness.

For this cause, we also, since the day we heard this, don’t cease praying and making requests for you, that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,

For you need endurance so that, having done the will of God, you may receive the promise.

She gave him Bilhah her servant as wife, and Jacob went in to her.

“Naphtali is a doe set free, who bears beautiful fawns.

She said, “Give me a blessing. Because you have set me in the land of the South, give me also springs of water.” So he gave her the upper springs and the lower springs.

She said to him, “Give me a blessing; because you have set me in the land of the South, give me also springs of water.” Then Caleb gave her the upper springs and the lower springs.

Barak called Zebulun and Naphtali together to Kedesh. Ten thousand men followed him; and Deborah went up with him.

Now this present which your servant has brought to my lord, let it be given to the young men who follow my lord.

Abigail hurried, and arose, and rode on a donkey, with five ladies of hers who followed her; and she went after the messengers of David, and became his wife.

The rich man had very many flocks and herds,

I gave you your master’s house, and your master’s wives into your bosom, and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah; and if that would have been too little, I would have added to you many more such things.

“This is what Yahweh says: ‘Behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house; and I will take your wives before your eyes, and give them to your neighbor, and he will lie with your wives in the sight of this sun.

Yahweh, how my adversaries have increased! Many are those who rise up against me.

Don’t be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what is the good, well-pleasing, and perfect will of God.