Jesus ¹  answered them, “I tell you the truth, ²  if you have faith and do not doubt, not only will you do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen.

For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him. But the tax collectors and prostitutes did believe. Although ¹  you saw this, you did not later change your minds ²  and believe him.

So give orders to secure the tomb until the third day. Otherwise his disciples may come and steal his body ¹  and say to the people, ‘He has been raised from the dead,’ and the last deception will be worse than the first.”

Therefore produce ¹  fruit ²  that proves your repentance, and don’t begin to say ³  to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ ⁴  For I tell you that God can raise up children for Abraham from these stones! ⁵ 

You people ¹  are from ²  your father the devil, and you want to do what your father desires. ³  He ⁴  was a murderer from the beginning, and does not uphold the truth, ⁵  because there is no truth in him. Whenever he lies, ⁶  he speaks according to his own nature, ⁷  because he is a liar and the father of lies. ⁸ 

You heard me say to you, ¹  ‘I am going away and I am coming back to you.’ If you loved me, you would be glad ²  that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I am. ³ 

I ¹  am no longer in the world, but ²  they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them safe ³  in your name ⁴  that you have given me, so that they may be one just as we are one. ⁵ 

And he received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised, ¹  so that he would become ²  the father of all those who believe but have never been circumcised, ³  that they too could have righteousness credited to them.

(I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh.) ¹  For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.

What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Absolutely not! Certainly, I ¹  would not have known sin except through the law. For indeed I would not have known what it means to desire something belonging to someone else ²  if the law had not said, “Do not covet.” ³ 

I urge you, brothers and sisters, ¹  by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to agree together, ²  to end your divisions, ³  and to be united by the same mind and purpose. ⁴ 

No trial has overtaken you that is not faced by others. ¹  And God is faithful: He ²  will not let you be tried beyond what you are able to bear, ³  but with the trial will also provide a way out so that you may be able to endure it.

For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body. Whether Jews or Greeks or slaves ¹  or free, we were all made to drink of the one Spirit.

For our reason for confidence ¹  is this: the testimony of our conscience, that with pure motives ²  and sincerity which are from God ³  – not by human wisdom ⁴  but by the grace of God – we conducted ourselves in the world, and all the more ⁵  toward you.

So then, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence but even more in my absence, continue working out your salvation with awe and reverence, ¹ 

More than that, I now regard all things as liabilities compared to the far greater value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things – indeed, I regard them as dung! ¹  – that I may gain Christ,

Let no one who delights in humility and the worship of angels pass judgment on you. That person goes on at great lengths ¹  about what he has supposedly seen, but he is puffed up with empty notions by his fleshly mind. ² 

Finally then, brothers and sisters, ¹  we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received instruction from us about how ²  you must live and please God (as you are in fact living) ³  that you do so more and more.

And in this regard we pray for you always, that our God will make you worthy of his calling ¹  and fulfill by his power your every desire for goodness and every work of faith,

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, ¹  we must get rid of every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and run with endurance the race set out for us,