Anyone who is joined to Christ is a new being; the old is gone, the new has come.

God has made us what we are, and in our union with Christ Jesus he has created us for a life of good deeds, which he has already prepared for us to do.

God is indeed good to Israel, to those who have pure hearts.

Can anyone really say that his conscience is clear, that he has gotten rid of his sin?

He has seen you do the things he hates. He has seen you go after pagan gods on the hills and in the fields, like a man lusting after his neighbor's wife or like a stallion after a mare. People of Jerusalem, you are doomed! When will you ever be pure?

I will give them a single purpose in life: to honor me for all time, for their own good and the good of their descendants.

I will give them a new heart and a new mind. I will take away their stubborn heart of stone and will give them an obedient heart.

Give up all the evil you have been doing, and get yourselves new minds and hearts. Why do you Israelites want to die?

I will sprinkle clean water on you and make you clean from all your idols and everything else that has defiled you.

I will put my spirit in you and will see to it that you follow my laws and keep all the commands I have given you.

"Happy are the pure in heart; they will see God!

He made no difference between us and them; he forgave their sins because they believed.

Now that by your obedience to the truth you have purified yourselves and have come to have a sincere love for other believers, love one another earnestly with all your heart.

Do not conform yourselves to the standards of this world, but let God transform you inwardly by a complete change of your mind. Then you will be able to know the will of God---what is good and is pleasing to him and is perfect.

So get rid of your old self, which made you live as you used to---the old self that was being destroyed by its deceitful desires.

and you must put on the new self, which is created in God's likeness and reveals itself in the true life that is upright and holy.

and have put on the new self. This is the new being which God, its Creator, is constantly renewing in his own image, in order to bring you to a full knowledge of himself.

he saved us. It was not because of any good deeds that we ourselves had done, but because of his own mercy that he saved us, through the Holy Spirit, who gives us new birth and new life by washing us.

They will not be like their ancestors, a rebellious and disobedient people, whose trust in God was never firm and who did not remain faithful to him.

They were not loyal to him; they were not faithful to their covenant with him.

Hebron still belongs to the descendants of Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite, because he faithfully obeyed the LORD, the God of Israel.

He committed the same sins as his father and was not completely loyal to the LORD his God, as his great-grandfather David had been.

The LORD did this because David had done what pleased him and had never disobeyed any of his commands, except in the case of Uriah the Hittite.

When he arrived and saw how God had blessed the people, he was glad and urged them all to be faithful and true to the Lord with all their hearts.

So then, my dear friends, stand firm and steady. Keep busy always in your work for the Lord, since you know that nothing you do in the Lord's service is ever useless.

(SEE 1:7)