When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said, "I am the Almighty God. Obey me and always do what is right.

I am the LORD your God, and you must keep yourselves holy, because I am holy.

to say to the community of Israel, "Be holy, because I, the LORD your God, am holy.

You shall be holy and belong only to me, because I am the LORD and I am holy. I have set you apart from the other nations so that you would belong to me alone.

Be completely faithful to the LORD."

There was a man named Job, living in the land of Uz, who worshiped God and was faithful to him. He was a good man, careful not to do anything evil.

He had seven sons and three daughters,

and owned seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, one thousand head of cattle, and five hundred donkeys. He also had a large number of servants and was the richest man in the East.

Notice good people, observe the righteous; peaceful people have descendants,

Be merciful just as your Father is merciful.

No pupils are greater than their teacher; but all pupils, when they have completed their training, will be like their teacher.

All these promises are made to us, my dear friends. So then, let us purify ourselves from everything that makes body or soul unclean, and let us be completely holy by living in awe of God.

We are glad when we are weak but you are strong. And so we also pray that you will become perfect.

And now, my friends, good-bye! Strive for perfection; listen to my appeals; agree with one another; live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you.

I do not claim that I have already succeeded or have already become perfect. I keep striving to win the prize for which Christ Jesus has already won me to himself.

So I run straight toward the goal in order to win the prize, which is God's call through Christ Jesus to the life above.

So we preach Christ to everyone. With all possible wisdom we warn and teach them in order to bring each one into God's presence as a mature individual in union with Christ.

Greetings from Epaphras, another member of your group and a servant of Christ Jesus. He always prays fervently for you, asking God to make you stand firm, as mature and fully convinced Christians, in complete obedience to God's will.

Make sure that your endurance carries you all the way without failing, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

Instead, be holy in all that you do, just as God who called you is holy.

The scripture says, "Be holy because I am holy."

In the same way your light must shine before people, so that they will see the good things you do and praise your Father in heaven.

so that you may become the children of your Father in heaven. For he makes his sun to shine on bad and good people alike, and gives rain to those who do good and to those who do evil.

For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles, pray to God.

Since you are God's dear children, you must try to be like him.

Your life must be controlled by love, just as Christ loved us and gave his life for us as a sweet-smelling offering and sacrifice that pleases God.

Everyone who has this hope in Christ keeps himself pure, just as Christ is pure.