If what was built on the foundation survives the fire, the builder will receive a reward.

Through him you believe in God, who raised him from death and gave him glory; and so your faith and hope are fixed on God.

I write to you, my children, because you know the Father. I write to you, fathers, because you know him who has existed from the beginning. I write to you, young people, because you are strong; the word of God lives in you, and you have defeated the Evil One.

Be sure, then, to keep in your hearts the message you heard from the beginning. If you keep that message, then you will always live in union with the Son and the Father.

Those who are children of God do not continue to sin, for God's very nature is in them; and because God is their Father, they cannot continue to sin.

The seeds that fell on rocky ground stand for those who hear the message and receive it gladly. But it does not sink deep into them; they believe only for a while but when the time of testing comes, they fall away.

The seeds that fell in good soil stand for those who hear the message and retain it in a good and obedient heart, and they persist until they bear fruit.

But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith will not fail. And when you turn back to me, you must strengthen your brothers."

For when we are in union with Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor the lack of it makes any difference at all; what matters is faith that works through love.

Do not lose your courage, then, because it brings with it a great reward.

We are not people who turn back and are lost. Instead, we have faith and are saved.

To have faith is to be sure of the things we hope for, to be certain of the things we cannot see.

It is by faith that we understand that the universe was created by God's word, so that what can be seen was made out of what cannot be seen.

It was faith that kept Enoch from dying. Instead, he was taken up to God, and nobody could find him, because God had taken him up. The scripture says that before Enoch was taken up, he had pleased God.

It was faith that made Noah hear God's warnings about things in the future that he could not see. He obeyed God and built a boat in which he and his family were saved. As a result, the world was condemned, and Noah received from God the righteousness that comes by faith.

Whoever believes that Jesus is the Messiah is a child of God; and whoever loves a father loves his child also.

For our love for God means that we obey his commands. And his commands are not too hard for us,

Who can defeat the world? Only the person who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.

Why am I so sad? Why am I so troubled? I will put my hope in God, and once again I will praise him, my savior and my God.

Why am I so sad? Why am I so troubled? I will put my hope in God, and once again I will praise him, my savior and my God.

Happy are those who have the God of Jacob to help them and who depend on the LORD their God,

Yet hope returns when I remember this one thing:

Fresh as the morning, as sure as the sunrise.

The LORD is good to everyone who trusts in him,

endurance brings God's approval, and his approval creates hope.

This hope does not disappoint us, for God has poured out his love into our hearts by means of the Holy Spirit, who is God's gift to us.

For it was by hope that we were saved; but if we see what we hope for, then it is not really hope. For who of us hopes for something we see?

But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

May God, the source of hope, fill you with all joy and peace by means of your faith in him, so that your hope will continue to grow by the power of the Holy Spirit.

When the true message, the Good News, first came to you, you heard about the hope it offers. So your faith and love are based on what you hope for, which is kept safe for you in heaven.

God's plan is to make known his secret to his people, this rich and glorious secret which he has for all peoples. And the secret is that Christ is in you, which means that you will share in the glory of God.

But we belong to the day, and we should be sober. We must wear faith and love as a breastplate, and our hope of salvation as a helmet.

Our great desire is that each of you keep up your eagerness to the end, so that the things you hope for will come true.

We have this hope as an anchor for our lives. It is safe and sure, and goes through the curtain of the heavenly temple into the inner sanctuary.

Through him you believe in God, who raised him from death and gave him glory; and so your faith and hope are fixed on God.

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

I may be able to speak the languages of human beings and even of angels, but if I have no love, my speech is no more than a noisy gong or a clanging bell.

I may give away everything I have, and even give up my body to be burned ---but if I have no love, this does me no good.

love is not ill-mannered or selfish or irritable; love does not keep a record of wrongs;

Love never gives up; and its faith, hope, and patience never fail.

Now, concerning what you wrote about food offered to idols. It is true, of course, that "all of us have knowledge," as they say. Such knowledge, however, puffs a person up with pride; but love builds up.

But the person who loves God is known by him.

For all of us must appear before Christ, to be judged by him. We will each receive what we deserve, according to everything we have done, good or bad, in our bodily life.

He died for all, so that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but only for him who died and was raised to life for their sake.

For when we are in union with Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor the lack of it makes any difference at all; what matters is faith that works through love.

If we love others, we live in the light, and so there is nothing in us that will cause someone else to sin.

Dear friends, let us love one another, because love comes from God. Whoever loves is a child of God and knows God.

And God showed his love for us by sending his only Son into the world, so that we might have life through him.

Dear friends, if this is how God loved us, then we should love one another.

We are sure that we live in union with God and that he lives in union with us, because he has given us his Spirit.

If we declare that Jesus is the Son of God, we live in union with God and God lives in union with us.

Love is made perfect in us in order that we may have courage on the Judgment Day; and we will have it because our life in this world is the same as Christ's.

Love is eternal. There are inspired messages, but they are temporary; there are gifts of speaking in strange tongues, but they will cease; there is knowledge, but it will pass.

It is love, then, that you should strive for. Set your hearts on spiritual gifts, especially the gift of proclaiming God's message.

Do all your work in love.

Jesus replied, "The most important one is this: 'Listen, Israel! The Lord our God is the only Lord.

The second most important commandment is this: 'Love your neighbor as you love yourself.' There is no other commandment more important than these two."

The man answered, " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind'; and 'Love your neighbor as you love yourself.' "

As for you, my friends, you were called to be free. But do not let this freedom become an excuse for letting your physical desires control you. Instead, let love make you serve one another.

But if you act like wild animals, hurting and harming each other, then watch out, or you will completely destroy one another.

For what our human nature wants is opposed to what the Spirit wants, and what the Spirit wants is opposed to what our human nature wants. These two are enemies, and this means that you cannot do what you want to do.

What human nature does is quite plain. It shows itself in immoral, filthy, and indecent actions;

they are envious, get drunk, have orgies, and do other things like these. I warn you now as I have before: those who do these things will not possess the Kingdom of God.

I pray that your love will keep on growing more and more, together with true knowledge and perfect judgment,

And to all these qualities add love, which binds all things together in perfect unity.

The purpose of this order is to arouse the love that comes from a pure heart, a clear conscience, and a genuine faith.

For the Spirit that God has given us does not make us timid; instead, his Spirit fills us with power, love, and self-control.

Dear friends, let us love one another, because love comes from God. Whoever loves is a child of God and knows God.

And God showed his love for us by sending his only Son into the world, so that we might have life through him.

How happy I was to find that some of your children live in the truth, just as the Father commanded us.

This love I speak of means that we must live in obedience to God's commands. The command, as you have all heard from the beginning, is that you must all live in love.