Ephesians 6:20

For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

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.

For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? For if I were still pleasing men, I wouldn’t be a servant of Christ.

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,

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

Only let your way of life be worthy of the Good News of Christ, that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your state, that you stand firm in one spirit, with one soul striving for the faith of the Good News;

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also love one another.

But as for me, I am full of power by Yahweh’s Spirit, and of judgment, and of might, to declare to Jacob his disobedience, and to Israel his sin.

But Peter and John answered them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, judge for yourselves,

to the end that you should walk worthily of God, who calls you into his own Kingdom and glory.

But the midwives feared God, and didn’t do what the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the baby boys alive.

When they had appointed him a day, many people came to him at his lodging. He explained to them, testifying about God’s Kingdom, and persuading them concerning Jesus, both from the law of Moses and from the prophets, from morning until evening.

even as it is written, “Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and a rock of offense; and no one who believes in him will be disappointed.”

Walk in love, even as Christ also loved us and gave himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling fragrance.

Fight the good fight of faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you confessed the good confession in the sight of many witnesses.

Jesus went about in all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the Good News of the Kingdom, and healing every disease and every sickness among the people.

Now, Lord, look at their threats, and grant to your servants to speak your word with all boldness,

I say this not to condemn you, for I have said before that you are in our hearts to die together and live together.

For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and fill up on my part that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the assembly,

and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us, and washed us from our sins by his blood—

Yahweh’s hand was on Elijah; and he tucked his cloak into his belt and ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel.

As the cold of snow in the time of harvest, so is a faithful messenger to those who send him; for he refreshes the soul of his masters.

I set watchmen over you, saying, ‘Listen to the sound of the trumpet!’ But they said, ‘We will not listen!’

Your prophets have seen false and foolish visions for you. They have not uncovered your iniquity, to reverse your captivity, but have seen for you false revelations and causes of banishment.

You, son of man, don’t be afraid of them, neither be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns are with you, and you dwell among scorpions. Don’t be afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they are a rebellious house.

When Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house (now his windows were open in his room toward Jerusalem) and he kneeled on his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did before.

He called the multitude to himself with his disciples, and said to them, “Whoever wants to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

“The lord said to the servant, ‘Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.

I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

When they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were gathered together. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness.

But when they believed Philip preaching good news concerning God’s Kingdom and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.

except that the Holy Spirit testifies in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions wait for me.

“Now, behold, I know that you all, among whom I went about preaching God’s Kingdom, will see my face no more.

So he took him, and brought him to the commanding officer, and said, “Paul, the prisoner, summoned me and asked me to bring this young man to you. He has something to tell you.”

and hope doesn’t disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

But God commends his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

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.

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

Yes, and if I am poured out on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice, and rejoice with you all.

together with Onesimus, the faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you. They will make known to you everything that is going on here.

Even so, affectionately longing for you, we were well pleased to impart to you, not the Good News of God only, but also our own souls, because you had become very dear to us.

Therefore don’t be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner; but endure hardship for the Good News according to the power of God,

Greet Prisca and Aquila, and the house of Onesiphorus.

to Titus, my true child according to a common faith: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior.

yet for love’s sake I rather beg, being such a one as Paul, the aged, but also a prisoner of Jesus Christ.

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

seeing that his divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and virtue,

To Adam he said, “Because you have listened to your wife’s voice, and ate from the tree, about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ the ground is cursed for your sake. You will eat from it with much labor all the days of your life.

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, Yahweh appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty. Walk before me and be blameless.

Oh magnify Yahweh with me. Let’s exalt his name together.

Then Jeremiah spoke to all the princes and to all the people, saying, “Yahweh sent me to prophesy against this house and against this city all the words that you have heard.

Now if you are ready whenever you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipe, and all kinds of music to fall down and worship the image which I have made, good; but if you don’t worship, you shall be cast the same hour into the middle of a burning fiery furnace. Who is that god that will deliver you out of my hands?”

For the priest’s lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth; for he is the messenger of Yahweh of Armies.

Immediately those who were about to examine him departed from him, and the commanding officer also was afraid when he realized that he was a Roman, because he had bound him.

Now I stand here to be judged for the hope of the promise made by God to our fathers,

For this cause therefore I asked to see you and to speak with you. For because of the hope of Israel I am bound with this chain.”

For the creation waits with eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed.

For though you have ten thousand tutors in Christ, you don’t have many fathers. For in Christ Jesus, I became your father through the Good News.

I beg you therefore, be imitators of me.

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

Knowing therefore the fear of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are revealed to God, and I hope that we are revealed also in your consciences.

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,

for your partnership in furtherance of the Good News from the first day until now;

and that most of the brothers in the Lord, being confident through my bonds, are more abundantly bold to speak the word of God without fear.

However you did well that you shared in my affliction.

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

But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, that through me the message might be fully proclaimed, and that all the Gentiles might hear. So I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.

Therefore, holy brothers, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession: Jesus,

The word which came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, after Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard had let him go from Ramah, when he had taken him being bound in chains among all the captives of Jerusalem and Judah, who were carried away captive to Babylon.

For this cause I, Paul, am the prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles,

It is even right for me to think this way on behalf of all of you, because I have you in my heart, because both in my bonds and in the defense and confirmation of the Good News, you all are partakers with me of grace.

that I may reveal it as I ought to speak.

I beg you for my child, whom I have become the father of in my chains, Onesimus,

A wicked messenger falls into trouble, but a trustworthy envoy gains healing.

Behold, their valiant ones cry outside; the ambassadors of peace weep bitterly.

“Cry aloud! Don’t spare! Lift up your voice like a trumpet! Declare to my people their disobedience, and to the house of Jacob their sins.

Don’t be afraid because of them, for I am with you to rescue you,” says Yahweh.

“You therefore put your belt on your waist, arise, and say to them all that I command you. Don’t be dismayed at them, lest I dismay you before them.

Jeremiah commanded Baruch, saying, “I am restricted. I can’t go into Yahweh’s house.

Then Zedekiah the king commanded, and they committed Jeremiah into the court of the guard. They gave him daily a loaf of bread out of the bakers’ street, until all the bread in the city was gone. Thus Jeremiah remained in the court of the guard.

But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men.

The same night when Herod was about to bring him out, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains. Guards in front of the door kept the prison.

Coming to us and taking Paul’s belt, he bound his own feet and hands, and said, “The Holy Spirit says: ‘So the Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt, and will deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.’ ”

Then the commanding officer came near, arrested him, commanded him to be bound with two chains, and inquired who he was and what he had done.

Paul said, “I pray to God, that whether with little or with much, not only you, but also all that hear me today, might become such as I am, except for these bonds.”

preaching God’s Kingdom, and teaching the things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness, without hindrance.

Are they servants of Christ? (I speak as one beside himself.) I am more so: in labors more abundantly, in prisons more abundantly, in stripes above measure, and in deaths often.

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

on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in opening my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the Good News,

so that it became evident to the whole palace guard, and to all the rest, that my bonds are in Christ,

according to my earnest expectation and hope, that I will in no way be disappointed, but with all boldness, as always, now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death.

but having suffered before and been shamefully treated, as you know, at Philippi, we grew bold in our God to tell you the Good News of God in much conflict.

May the Lord grant mercy to the house of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain,

in which I suffer hardship to the point of chains as a criminal. But God’s word isn’t chained.

Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, to Philemon, our beloved fellow worker,

Now in the things which we are saying, the main point is this. We have such a high priest, who sat down on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens,

For you both had compassion on me in my chains, and joyfully accepted the plundering of your possessions, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and an enduring one in the heavens.

By this we know love, because he laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.

Beloved, while I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I was constrained to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.