And the LORD said to himself, "I will not hide from Abraham what I am going to do.

I have chosen him in order that he may command his sons and his descendants to obey me and to do what is right and just. If they do, I will do everything for him that I have promised."

The LORD said to me, "Tell the king and his mother to come down from their thrones, because their beautiful crowns have fallen from their heads.

because the LORD hates people who do evil, but he takes righteous people into his confidence.

Jesus answered, "The knowledge about the secrets of the Kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them.

For the person who has something will be given more, so that he will have more than enough; but the person who has nothing will have taken away from him even the little he has.

Whoever is willing to do what God wants will know whether what I teach comes from God or whether I speak on my own authority.

He is the Spirit, who reveals the truth about God. The world cannot receive him, because it cannot see him or know him. But you know him, because he remains with you and is in you.

"Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me. My Father will love those who love me; I too will love them and reveal myself to them."

Jesus answered him, "Those who love me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and my Father and I will come to them and live with them.

I do not call you servants any longer, because servants do not know what their master is doing. Instead, I call you friends, because I have told you everything I heard from my Father.

"I have made you known to those you gave me out of the world. They belonged to you, and you gave them to me. They have obeyed your word,

Whoever does not have the Spirit cannot receive the gifts that come from God's Spirit. Such a person really does not understand them, and they seem to be nonsense, because their value can be judged only on a spiritual basis.

God did what he had purposed, and made known to us the secret plan he had already decided to complete by means of Christ.

I ask that your minds may be opened to see his light, so that you will know what is the hope to which he has called you, how rich are the wonderful blessings he promises his people,

For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

"If you have ears, then, listen to what the Spirit says to the churches! "To those who win the victory I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give each of them a white stone on which is written a new name that no one knows except the one who receives it.

Each one must be circumcised, and this will be a physical sign to show that my covenant with you is everlasting.

He told you what you must do to keep the covenant he made with you---you must obey the Ten Commandments, which he wrote on two stone tablets.

The LORD says, "The time is coming when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah.

The new covenant that I will make with the people of Israel will be this: I will put my law within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.

And this is how all Israel will be saved. As the scripture says, "The Savior will come from Zion and remove all wickedness from the descendants of Jacob.

I will make this covenant with them when I take away their sins."