For this reason I speak to them in parables: Although they see they do not see, and although they hear they do not hear nor do they understand.

So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”

He said to them, “The secret ¹  of the kingdom of God has been given ²  to you. But to those outside, everything is in parables,

For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, ¹  so also the Son gives life to whomever he wishes. ² 

So the chief priests and the Pharisees ¹  called the council ²  together and said, “What are we doing? For this man is performing many miraculous signs.

And now, Father, glorify me at your side ¹  with the glory I had with you before the world was created. ² 

But when the Jews from Thessalonica ¹  heard that Paul had also proclaimed the word of God ²  in Berea, ³  they came there too, inciting ⁴  and disturbing ⁵  the crowds.

From one man ¹  he made every nation of the human race ²  to inhabit the entire earth, ³  determining their set times ⁴  and the fixed limits of the places where they would live, ⁵ 

For in him we live and move about ¹  and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we too are his offspring.’ ² 

So since we are God’s offspring, we should not think the deity ¹  is like gold or silver or stone, an image ²  made by human ³  skill ⁴  and imagination. ⁵ 

They ¹  exchanged the truth of God for a lie ²  and worshiped and served the creation ³  rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Should I take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never!

So then, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; what is old has passed away ¹  – look, what is new ²  has come! ³ 

So put to death whatever in your nature belongs to the earth: ¹  sexual immorality, impurity, shameful passion, ²  evil desire, and greed which is idolatry.

For the one who enters God’s ¹  rest has also rested from his works, just as God did from his own works.

All generous giving and every perfect gift ¹  is from above, coming down ²  from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or the slightest hint of change. ³ 

So then let those who suffer according to the will of God entrust their souls to a faithful Creator as they do good. ¹ 

and saying, ¹  “Where is his promised return? ²  For ever since ³  our ancestors ⁴  died, ⁵  all things have continued as they were ⁶  from the beginning of creation.”

Then ¹  I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and earth had ceased to exist, ²  and the sea existed no more.

And I saw the holy city – the new Jerusalem – descending out of heaven from God, made ready like a bride adorned for her husband.