exhorting and encouraging you and insisting that you live in a way worthy of God who calls you to his own kingdom and his glory.

Do not be carried away by all sorts of strange teachings. ¹  For it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not ritual meals, ²  which have never benefited those who participated in them.

If we say we have fellowship with him and yet keep on walking ¹  in the darkness, we are lying and not practicing ²  the truth.

I rejoiced greatly because I have found some ¹  of your children living according to the truth, ²  just as the Father commanded us. ³ 

But you have a few individuals ¹  in Sardis who have not stained ²  their clothes, and they will walk with me dressed ³  in white, because they are worthy.

(Look! I will come like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays alert and does not lose ¹  his clothes so that he will not have to walk around naked and his shameful condition ²  be seen.) ³ 

The nations ¹  will walk by its light and the kings of the earth will bring their grandeur ²  into it.

Jesus replied, ¹  “The light is with you for a little while longer. ²  Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you. ³  The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going.

As ¹  he was walking by the Sea of Galilee he saw two brothers, Simon (called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea (for they were fishermen). ² 

He ¹  saw them straining at the oars, because the wind was against them. As the night was ending, ²  he came to them walking on the sea, ³  for ⁴  he wanted to pass by them. ⁵ 

The Pharisees and the experts in the law asked him, “Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat ¹  with unwashed hands?”

So ¹  he answered them, ²  “Go tell ³  John what you have seen and heard: ⁴  The blind see, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the ⁵  deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have good news proclaimed to them.

“Beware ¹  of the experts in the law. ²  They ³  like walking around in long robes, and they love elaborate greetings ⁴  in the marketplaces and the best seats ⁵  in the synagogues ⁶  and the places of honor at banquets.

Then Jesus spoke out again, ¹  “I am the light of the world. ²  The one who follows me will never ³  walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

Jesus replied, ¹  “Are there not twelve hours in a day? If anyone walks around in the daytime, he does not stumble, ²  because he sees the light of this world. ³ 

Thus Jesus no longer went ¹  around publicly ²  among the Judeans, ³  but went away from there to the region near the wilderness, to a town called Ephraim, ⁴  and stayed there with his disciples.

I tell you the solemn truth, ¹  when you were young, you tied your clothes around you ²  and went wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and others will tie you up ³  and bring you where you do not want to go.”

But Peter said, “I have no silver or gold, ¹  but what I do have I give you. In the name ²  of Jesus Christ ³  the Nazarene, stand up and ⁴  walk!”

When Peter saw this, he declared to the people, “Men of Israel, ¹  why are you amazed at this? Why ²  do you stare at us as if we had made this man ³  walk by our own power or piety?

They have been informed about you – that you teach all the Jews now living ¹  among the Gentiles to abandon ²  Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children ³  or live ⁴  according to our customs.