Leviticus 21:13

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.

Of his own will he gave birth to us by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures.

Nevertheless you have a few names in Sardis that didn’t defile their garments. They will walk with me in white, for they are worthy.

This mystery is great, but I speak concerning Christ and of the assembly.

Let’s rejoice and be exceedingly glad, and let’s give the glory to him. For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his wife has made herself ready.”

For your Maker is your husband; Yahweh of Armies is his name. The Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer. He will be called the God of the whole earth.

I will betroth you to me forever. Yes, I will betroth you to me in righteousness, in justice, in loving kindness, and in compassion.

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.

If anyone serves me, let him follow me. Where I am, there my servant will also be. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.

Because of him, you are in Christ Jesus, who was made to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption:

They sang a new song, saying, “You are worthy to take the book and to open its seals: for you were killed, and bought us for God with your blood out of every tribe, language, people, and nation,

These will war against the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings, and those who are with him are called chosen and faithful.”

“ ‘If you offer a meal offering of first fruits to Yahweh, you shall offer for the meal offering of your first fruits fresh heads of grain parched with fire and crushed.

“ ‘They shall not marry a woman who is a prostitute, or profane. A priest shall not marry a woman divorced from her husband; for he is holy to his God.

Therefore you shall sanctify him, for he offers the bread of your God. He shall be holy to you, for I Yahweh, who sanctify you, am holy.

He shall not marry a widow, or one divorced, or a woman who has been defiled, or a prostitute. He shall take a virgin of his own people as a wife.

“Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned my wrath away from the children of Israel, in that he was jealous with my jealousy among them, so that I didn’t consume the children of Israel in my jealousy.

About Levi he said, “Your Thummim and your Urim are with your godly one, whom you proved at Massah, with whom you contended at the waters of Meribah.

They shall not take for their wives a widow, or her who is put away; but they shall take virgins of the offspring of the house of Israel, or a widow who is the widow of a priest.

“Then the Kingdom of Heaven will be like ten virgins, who took their lamps, and went out to meet the bridegroom.

The next day, he saw Jesus coming to him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. This, my joy, therefore is made full.

Again, therefore, Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life.”

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

I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband.

Every firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb; and if you will not redeem it, then you shall break its neck; and you shall redeem all the firstborn of man among your sons.

You shall bring the first of the first fruits of your ground into the house of Yahweh your God. “You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.

As an offering of first fruits you shall offer them to Yahweh, but they shall not rise up as a pleasant aroma on the altar.

“Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, ‘When you have come into the land which I give to you, and shall reap its harvest, then you shall bring the sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest.

You shall bring out of your habitations two loaves of bread for a wave offering made of two tenths of an ephah of fine flour. They shall be baked with yeast, for first fruits to Yahweh.

Yahweh said to Moses, “Count all the firstborn males of the children of Israel from a month old and upward, and take the number of their names.

“But the vow of a widow, or of her who is divorced, everything with which she has bound her soul shall stand against her.

that you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you shall bring in from your land that Yahweh your God gives you. You shall put it in a basket, and shall go to the place which Yahweh your God shall choose to cause his name to dwell there.

and they commanded the people, saying, “When you see the ark of Yahweh your God’s covenant, and the Levitical priests bearing it, then leave your place and follow it.

Nevertheless, my brothers who went up with me made the heart of the people melt; but I wholly followed Yahweh my God.

Ruth said, “Don’t urge me to leave you, and to return from following you, for where you go, I will go; and where you stay, I will stay. Your people will be my people, and your God my God.

As soon as the commandment went out, the children of Israel gave in abundance the first fruits of grain, new wine, oil, honey, and of all the increase of the field; and they brought in the tithe of all things abundantly.

She shall be led to the king in embroidered work. The virgins, her companions who follow her, shall be brought to you.

Remember your congregation, which you purchased of old, which you have redeemed to be the tribe of your inheritance: Mount Zion, in which you have lived.

Your oils have a pleasing fragrance. Your name is oil poured out, therefore the virgins love you.

I was asleep, but my heart was awake. It is the voice of my beloved who knocks: “Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled; for my head is filled with dew, and my hair with the dampness of the night.”

There are sixty queens, eighty concubines, and virgins without number.

Yahweh says, “Where is the bill of your mother’s divorce, with which I have put her away? Or to which of my creditors have I sold you? Behold, you were sold for your iniquities, and your mother was put away for your transgressions.

Israel was holiness to Yahweh, the first fruits of his increase. All who devour him will be held guilty. Evil will come on them,” ’ says Yahweh.”

Kill utterly the old man, the young man, the virgin, little children and women; but don’t come near any man on whom is the mark. Begin at my sanctuary.” Then they began at the old men who were before the house.

Woe to those who are at ease in Zion, and to those who are secure on the mountain of Samaria, the notable men of the chief of the nations, to whom the house of Israel come!

A scribe came, and said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.”

For whoever does the will of my Father who is in heaven, he is my brother, and sister, and mother.”

“The Kingdom of Heaven is like a certain king, who made a wedding feast for his son,

But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day.

He said to them, “Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them?

Take heed, therefore, to yourselves, and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the assembly of the Lord and God which he purchased with his own blood.

so that no one should say that I had baptized you into my own name.

“Foods for the belly, and the belly for foods,” but God will bring to nothing both it and them. But the body is not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body.

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

But if you marry, you have not sinned. If a virgin marries, she has not sinned. Yet such will have oppression in the flesh, and I want to spare you.

Now I beg you, brothers—you know the house of Stephanas, that it is the first fruits of Achaia, and that they have set themselves to serve the saints—

For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote to you with many tears, not that you should be made to grieve, but that you might know the love that I have so abundantly for you.

For I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy. For I married you to one husband, that I might present you as a pure virgin to Christ.

who is a pledge of our inheritance, to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of his glory.

The overseer therefore must be without reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, sensible, modest, hospitable, good at teaching;

Their wives in the same way must be reverent, not slanderers, temperate, and faithful in all things.

forbidding marriage and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.

if anyone is blameless, the husband of one wife, having children who believe, who are not accused of loose or unruly behavior.

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.

Now to him who is able to keep them from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory in great joy,

These are those who were not defiled with women, for they are virgins. These are those who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. These were redeemed by Jesus from among men, the first fruits to God and to the Lamb.

Peter said to him, “Lord, why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.”

Therefore, my brothers, you also were made dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you would be joined to another, to him who was raised from the dead, that we might produce fruit to God.

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.

knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus, and will present us with you.

I am afraid for you, that I might have wasted my labor for you.

For God is my witness, how I long after all of you in the tender mercies of Christ Jesus.

We proclaim him, admonishing every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus;

As you know, we exhorted, comforted, and implored every one of you, as a father does his own children,