"Whoever welcomes you welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.

Some, however, did receive him and believed in him; so he gave them the right to become God's children.

They did not become God's children by natural means, that is, by being born as the children of a human father; God himself was their Father.

I am telling you the truth: whoever receives anyone I send receives me also; and whoever receives me receives him who sent me."

But God has brought you into union with Christ Jesus, and God has made Christ to be our wisdom. By him we are put right with God; we become God's holy people and are set free.

For we are all partners with Christ if we hold firmly to the end the confidence we had at the beginning.

The testimony is this: God has given us eternal life, and this life has its source in his Son.

Whoever has the Son has this life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.

We know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we know the true God. We live in union with the true God---in union with his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and this is eternal life.

Be on your guard, then, so that you will not lose what we have worked for, but will receive your reward in full.

Anyone who does not stay with the teaching of Christ, but goes beyond it, does not have God. Whoever does stay with the teaching has both the Father and the Son.

My dear friends, I was doing my best to write to you about the salvation we share in common, when I felt the need of writing at once to encourage you to fight on for the faith which once and for all God has given to his people.

Everything you do or say, then, should be done in the name of the Lord Jesus, as you give thanks through him to God the Father.

Now, descendants of Jacob, let us walk in the light which the LORD gives us!

and their people will say, "Let us go up the hill of the LORD, to the Temple of Israel's God. He will teach us what he wants us to do; we will walk in the paths he has chosen. For the LORD's teaching comes from Jerusalem; from Zion he speaks to his people."

Jesus answered him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one goes to the Father except by me.

For our life is a matter of faith, not of sight.

so that it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. This life that I live now, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave his life for me.

I urge you, then---I who am a prisoner because I serve the Lord: live a life that measures up to the standard God set when he called you.

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.

Now, the important thing is that your way of life should be as the gospel of Christ requires, so that, whether or not I am able to go and see you, I will hear that you are standing firm with one common purpose and that with only one desire you are fighting together for the faith of the gospel.

Finally, our friends, you learned from us how you should live in order to please God. This is, of course, the way you have been living. And now we beg and urge you in the name of the Lord Jesus to do even more.

if we say that we remain in union with God, we should live just as Jesus Christ did.