Ephesians 5:10

This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it; for then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall have good success.

Also, do not present your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.

I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh, for as you presented your members as servants to uncleanness and to wickedness upon wickedness, even so now present your members as servants to righteousness for sanctification.

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

being confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.

I am the vine. You are the branches. He who remains in me and I in him bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

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.

But you go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ for I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to walk worthily of the calling with which you were called,

But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.

There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear has punishment. He who fears is not made perfect in love.

Moreover as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against Yahweh in ceasing to pray for you: but I will instruct you in the good and the right way.

Or don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own,

But I counted it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother, fellow worker, fellow soldier, and your apostle and servant of my need,

Beloved, don’t believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

What will I give to Yahweh for all his benefits toward me?

Don’t you know that when you present yourselves as servants and obey someone, you are the servants of whomever you obey; whether of sin to death, or of obedience to righteousness?

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

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

This I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and all discernment,

so whatever we ask, we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do the things that are pleasing in his sight.

Samuel said, “Has Yahweh as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying Yahweh’s voice? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.

Let my meditation be sweet to him. I will rejoice in Yahweh.

“In the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed, nor will its sovereignty be left to another people; but it will break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it will stand forever.

for you were bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.

He died for all, that those who live should no longer live to themselves, but to him who for their sakes died and rose again.

Having regard for honorable things, not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of men.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith,

to the end he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, that you may proclaim the excellence of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

The sacrifice made by the wicked is an abomination to Yahweh, but the prayer of the upright is his delight.

“What are the multitude of your sacrifices to me?”, says Yahweh. “I have had enough of the burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed animals. I don’t delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of male goats.

But you will be called Yahweh’s priests. Men will call you the servants of our God. You will eat the wealth of the nations. You will boast in their glory.

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?

For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s farming, God’s building.

Don’t you know that you are a temple of God, and that God’s Spirit lives in you?

and to know Christ’s love which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

As therefore you received Christ Jesus, the Lord, walk in him,

Whatever you do, in word or in deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father, through him.

make you complete in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

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.

Yahweh is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? Yahweh is the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid?

For I desire mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.

I hate, I despise your feasts, and I can’t stand your solemn assemblies.

Indeed all the nations may walk in the name of their gods; but we will walk in the name of Yahweh our God forever and ever.

Now I beg you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, that you strive together with me in your prayers to God for me,

Working together, we entreat also that you do not receive the grace of God in vain,

What agreement does a temple of God have with idols? For you are a temple of the living God. Even as God said, “I will dwell in them and walk in them. I will be their God and they will be my people.”

Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time.

Finally then, brothers, we beg and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, that you abound more and more.

May the God of peace himself sanctify you completely. May your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Let our people also learn to maintain good works for necessary uses, that they may not be unfruitful.

But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceful, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.

“I know your works, and your toil and perseverance, and that you can’t tolerate evil men, and have tested those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and found them false.

and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation.’ These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel.”

He shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him.

So you will find favor, and good understanding in the sight of God and man.

I will bring these to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for all peoples.”

When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and meal offering, I will not accept them; but I will consume them by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence.”

“Speak to all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and in the seventh month for these seventy years, did you at all fast to me, really to me?

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

Or do you despise the riches of his goodness, forbearance, and patience, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?

We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life.

Now I beg you, brothers, through the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfected together in the same mind and in the same judgment.

Now thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and reveals through us the sweet aroma of his knowledge in every place.

We are therefore ambassadors on behalf of Christ, as though God were entreating by us: we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

I know how to be humbled, and I also know how to abound. In everything and in all things I have learned the secret both to be filled and to be hungry, both to abound and to be in need.

Continue steadfastly in prayer, watching in it with thanksgiving,

but Christ is faithful as a Son over his house. We are his house, if we hold fast our confidence and the glorying of our hope firm to the end.

He, in the days of his flesh, having offered up prayers and petitions with strong crying and tears to him who was able to save him from death, and having been heard for his godly fear,

Therefore when he comes into the world, he says, “You didn’t desire sacrifice and offering, but you prepared a body for me.

Through him, then, let’s offer up a sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of lips which proclaim allegiance to his name.

But don’t forget to be doing good and sharing, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.

Beloved, I beg you as foreigners and pilgrims, to abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;

and he made us to be a Kingdom, priests to his God and Father—to him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.

and made us kings and priests to our God, and we will reign on the earth.”

Now I Paul, myself, entreat you by the humility and gentleness of Christ, I who in your presence am lowly among you, but being absent am bold toward you.

that you may walk worthily of the Lord, to please him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God,

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your heart to the Lord.

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, receiving a Kingdom that can’t be shaken, let’s have grace, through which we serve God acceptably, with reverence and awe,

David strapped his sword on his clothing, and he tried to move; for he had not tested it. David said to Saul, “I can’t go with these; for I have not tested them.” Then David took them off.

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, Yahweh, my rock, and my redeemer.

To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to Yahweh than sacrifice.

Is this the fast that I have chosen? A day for a man to humble his soul? Is it to bow down his head like a reed, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under himself? Will you call this a fast, and an acceptable day to Yahweh?

To what purpose does frankincense from Sheba come to me, and the sweet cane from a far country? Your burnt offerings are not acceptable, and your sacrifices are not pleasing to me.”

For he who serves Christ in these things is acceptable to God and approved by men.

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

But I have all things and abound. I am filled, having received from Epaphroditus the things that came from you, a sweet-smelling fragrance, an acceptable and well-pleasing sacrifice to God.

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,

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

For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior,

But if any widow has children or grandchildren, let them learn first to show piety toward their own family and to repay their parents, for this is acceptable in the sight of God.

You also, as living stones, are built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

For what glory is it if, when you sin, you patiently endure beating? But if, when you do well, you patiently endure suffering, this is commendable with God.