John 1:1-18

1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was with God in the beginning. 3All things were created through him, and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created. 4In him was life, and that life was the light of men. 5That light shines in the darkness, and yet the darkness did not overcome it.

6There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 7He came as a witness to testify about the light, so that all might believe through him. 8He was not the light, but he came to testify about the light. 9The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world.

10He was in the world, and the world was created through him, and yet the world did not recognize him. 11He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12But to all who did receive him, he gave them the right to be children of God, to those who believe in his name, 13who were born, not of natural descent, or of the will of the flesh, or of the will of man, but of God.

14The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We observed his glory, the glory as the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. 15(John testified concerning him and exclaimed, “This was the one of whom I said, ‘The one coming after me ranks ahead of me, because he existed before me.’”) 16Indeed, we have all received grace upon grace from his fullness, 17for the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18No one has ever seen God. The one and only Son, who is himself God and is at the Father’s side  — he has revealed him.

Colossians 1:15-23

15 He is the image of the invisible God,

the firstborn over all creation.

16 For everything was created by him,

in heaven and on earth,

the visible and the invisible,

whether thrones or dominions

or rulers or authorities —

all things have been created through him and for him.

17 He is before all things,

and by him all things hold together.

18 He is also the head of the body, the church;

he is the beginning,

the firstborn from the dead,

so that he might come to have

first place in everything.

19 For God was pleased to have

all his fullness dwell in him,

20 and through him to reconcile

everything to himself,

whether things on earth or things in heaven,

by making peace

through his blood, shed on the cross.

21 Once you were alienated and hostile in your minds as expressed in your evil actions. 22 But now he has reconciled you by his physical body through his death, to present you holy, faultless, and blameless before him  —  23 if indeed you remain grounded and steadfast in the faith and are not shifted away from the hope of the gospel that you heard. This gospel has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and I, Paul, have become a servant of it.

John 3:1-21

1There was a man from the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2This man came to him at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one could perform these signs you do unless God were with him.”

3Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 

4“How can anyone be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked him. “Can he enter his mother’s womb a second time and be born?”

5Jesus answered, “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh, and whatever is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7Do not be amazed that I told you that you must be born again. 8The wind blows where it pleases, and you hear its sound, but you don’t know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

9“How can these things be?” asked Nicodemus.

10 “Are you a teacher of Israel and don’t know these things?” Jesus replied. 11“Truly I tell you, we speak what we know and we testify to what we have seen, but you do not accept our testimony. 12If I have told you about earthly things and you don’t believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? 13No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven — the Son of Man.

14 “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. 16For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18Anyone who believes in him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God. 19This is the judgment: The light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. 20For everyone who does evil hates the light and avoids it, so that his deeds may not be exposed. 21But anyone who lives by the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be shown to be accomplished by God.”

2 Corinthians 5:14-21

14For the love of Christ compels us, since we have reached this conclusion, that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15And he died for all so that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for the one who died for them and was raised.

16From now on, then, we do not know anyone from a worldly perspective. Even if we have known Christ from a worldly perspective, yet now we no longer know him in this way. 17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come! 18Everything is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. 19That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and he has committed the message of reconciliation to us.

20Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us. We plead on Christ’s behalf, “Be reconciled to God.” 21He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Romans 5:1-8

1Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2We have also obtained access through him by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we boast in the hope of the glory of God. 3And not only that, but we also boast in our afflictions, because we know that affliction produces endurance, 4endurance produces proven character, and proven character produces hope. 5This hope will not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

6For while we were still helpless, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. 7For rarely will someone die for a just person — though for a good person perhaps someone might even dare to die. 8But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 6:4-14

4Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life. 5For if we have been united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly also be in the likeness of his resurrection. 6For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be rendered powerless so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin, 7since a person who has died is freed from sin. 8Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him, 9because we know that Christ, having been raised from the dead, will not die again. Death no longer rules over him. 10For the death he died, he died to sin once for all time; but the life he lives, he lives to God. 11So, you too consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

12Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, so that you obey its desires. 13And do not offer any parts of it to sin as weapons for unrighteousness. But as those who are alive from the dead, offer yourselves to God, and all the parts of yourselves to God as weapons for righteousness. 14For sin will not rule over you, because you are not under the law but under grace.

Ephesians 1:1-14

1Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by God’s will:

To the faithful saints in Christ Jesus at Ephesus.

2Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

3Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavens in Christ. 4For he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in love before him. 5He predestined us to be adopted as sons through Jesus Christ for himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, 6to the praise of his glorious grace that he lavished on us in the Beloved One.

7In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace 8that he richly poured out on us with all wisdom and understanding. 9He made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he purposed in Christ 10as a plan for the right time  — to bring everything together in Christ, both things in heaven and things on earth in him.

11In him we have also received an inheritance, because we were predestined according to the plan of the one who works out everything in agreement with the purpose of his will, 12so that we who had already put our hope in Christ might bring praise to his glory.

13In him you also were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and when you believed. 14The Holy Spirit is the down payment of our inheritance, until the redemption of the possession, to the praise of his glory.

Ephesians 2:1-10

1And you were dead in your trespasses and sins 2in which you previously walked according to the ways of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit now working in the disobedient. 3We too all previously lived among them in our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts, and we were by nature children under wrath as the others were also. 4But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love that he had for us, 5made us alive with Christ even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace! 6He also raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus, 7so that in the coming ages he might display the immeasurable riches of his grace through his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift —  9not from works, so that no one can boast. 10For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time for us to do.

Colossians 2:6-15

6So then, just as you have received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to walk in him, 7being rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, and overflowing with gratitude.

8Be careful that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit based on human tradition, based on the elements of the world, rather than Christ. 9For the entire fullness of God’s nature dwells bodily in Christ, 10and you have been filled by him, who is the head over every ruler and authority. 11You were also circumcised in him with a circumcision not done with hands, by putting off the body of flesh, in the circumcision of Christ, 12when you were buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. 13And when you were dead in trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made you alive with him and forgave us all our trespasses. 14He erased the certificate of debt, with its obligations, that was against us and opposed to us, and has taken it away by nailing it to the cross. 15He disarmed the rulers and authorities and disgraced them publicly; he triumphed over them in him.

Romans 8:1-17

1Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus, 2because the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. 3For what the law could not do since it was weakened by the flesh, God did. He condemned sin in the flesh by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh as a sin offering, 4in order that the law’s requirement would be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5For those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit have their minds set on the things of the Spirit. 6Now the mindset of the flesh is death, but the mindset of the Spirit is life and peace. 7The mindset of the flesh is hostile to God because it does not submit to God’s law. Indeed, it is unable to do so. 8Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 9You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him. 10Now if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. 11And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, then he who raised Christ from the dead will also bring your mortal bodies to life through his Spirit who lives in you.

12So then, brothers and sisters, we are not obligated to the flesh to live according to the flesh, 13because if you live according to the flesh, you are going to die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14For all those led by God’s Spirit are God’s sons. 15For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear. Instead, you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father!” 16The Spirit himself testifies together with our spirit that we are God’s children, 17and if children, also heirs  — heirs of God and coheirs with Christ — if indeed we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.

Ephesians 4:17-24

17Therefore, I say this and testify in the Lord: You should no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thoughts. 18They are darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them and because of the hardness of their hearts. 19They became callous and gave themselves over to promiscuity for the practice of every kind of impurity with a desire for more and more.

20But that is not how you came to know Christ, 21assuming you heard about him and were taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus, 22to take off your former way of life, the old self that is corrupted by deceitful desires, 23to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24and to put on the new self, the one created according to God’s likeness in righteousness and purity of the truth.

Colossians 3:1-17

1So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

5Therefore, put to death what belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desire, and greed, which is idolatry. 6Because of these, God’s wrath is coming upon the disobedient, 7and you once walked in these things when you were living in them. 8But now, put away all the following: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and filthy language from your mouth. 9Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old self with its practices 10and have put on the new self. You are being renewed in knowledge according to the image of your Creator. 11In Christ there is not Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all.

12Therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and dearly loved, put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, 13bearing with one another and forgiving one another if anyone has a grievance against another. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you are also to forgive. 14Above all, put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. 15And let the peace of Christ, to which you were also called in one body, rule your hearts. And be thankful. 16Let the word of Christ dwell richly among you, in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another through psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. 17And whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Galatians 5:13-25

13For you were called to be free, brothers and sisters; only don’t use this freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but serve one another through love. 14For the whole law is fulfilled in one statement: Love your neighbor as yourself. 15But if you bite and devour one another, watch out, or you will be consumed by one another.

16I say, then, walk by the Spirit and you will certainly not carry out the desire of the flesh. 17For the flesh desires what is against the Spirit, and the Spirit desires what is against the flesh; these are opposed to each other, so that you don’t do what you want. 18But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

19Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, moral impurity, promiscuity, 20idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions, 21envy, drunkenness, carousing, and anything similar. I am warning you about these things — as I warned you before — that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness, and self-control. The law is not against such things. 24Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. 26Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

John 15:1-8

1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2Every branch in me that does not produce fruit he removes, and he prunes every branch that produces fruit so that it will produce more fruit. 3You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4Remain in me, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me. 5I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without me. 6If anyone does not remain in me, he is thrown aside like a branch and he withers. They gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are burned. 7If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you want and it will be done for you. 8My Father is glorified by this: that you produce much fruit and prove to be my disciples.

John 15:9-17

9 “As the Father has loved me, I have also loved you. Remain in my love. 10If you keep my commands you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.

11 “I have told you these things so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete. 

12 “This is my command: Love one another as I have loved you. 13No one has greater love than this: to lay down his life for his friends. 14You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15I do not call you servants anymore, because a servant doesn’t know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything I have heard from my Father. 16You did not choose me, but I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce fruit and that your fruit should remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give you.

17 “This is what I command you: Love one another.

1 John 4:7-21

7Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his one and only Son into the world so that we might live through him. 10Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another. 12No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God remains in us and his love is made complete in us. 13This is how we know that we remain in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. 14And we have seen and we testify that the Father has sent his Son as the world’s Savior. 15Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God — God remains in him and he in God. 16And we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us.

God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him. 17In this, love is made complete with us so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment, because as he is, so also are we in this world. 18There is no fear in love; instead, perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment. So the one who fears is not complete in love. 19We love because he first loved us. 20If anyone says, “I love God,” and yet hates his brother or sister, he is a liar. For the person who does not love his brother or sister whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21And we have this command from him: The one who loves God must also love his brother and sister.

Philippians 2:1-11

1If, then, there is any encouragement in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, 2make my joy complete by thinking the same way, having the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. 3Do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility consider others as more important than yourselves. 4Everyone should look not to his own interests, but rather to the interests of others.

5Adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus,

6who, existing in the form of God,

did not consider equality with God

as something to be exploited.

7Instead he emptied himself

by assuming the form of a servant,

taking on the likeness of humanity.

And when he had come as a man,

8he humbled himself by becoming obedient

to the point of death —

even to death on a cross.

9For this reason God highly exalted him

and gave him the name

that is above every name,

10so that at the name of Jesus

every knee will bow  —

in heaven and on earth

and under the earth  —

11and every tongue will confess

that Jesus Christ is Lord,

to the glory of God the Father.

John 14:5-14

5“Lord,” Thomas said, “we don’t know where you’re going. How can we know the way?”

6Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7If you know me, you will also know my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

8“Lord,” said Philip, “show us the Father, and that’s enough for us.”

9Jesus said to him, “Have I been among you all this time and you do not know me, Philip? The one who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I speak to you I do not speak on my own. The Father who lives in me does his works. 11Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. Otherwise, believe because of the works themselves.

12 “Truly I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do. And he will do even greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. 13Whatever you ask in my name, I will do it so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.

John 14:15-21

15 “If you love me, you will keep my commands. 16And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever. 17He is the Spirit of truth. The world is unable to receive him because it doesn’t see him or know him. But you do know him, because he remains with you and will be in you.

18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I am coming to you. 19In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me. Because I live, you will live too. 20On that day you will know that I am in my Father, you are in me, and I am in you. 21The one who has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. And the one who loves me will be loved by my Father. I also will love him and will reveal myself to him.”

John 17:1-19

1Jesus spoke these things, looked up to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, 2since you gave him authority over all people, so that he may give eternal life to everyone you have given him. 3This is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and the one you have sent — Jesus Christ. 4I have glorified you on the earth by completing the work you gave me to do. 5Now, Father, glorify me in your presence with that glory I had with you before the world existed.

6 “I have revealed your name to the people you gave me from the world. They were yours, you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. 7Now they know that everything you have given me is from you, 8because I have given them the words you gave me. They have received them and have known for certain that I came from you. They have believed that you sent me.

9 “I pray for them. I am not praying for the world but for those you have given me, because they are yours. 10Everything I have is yours, and everything you have is mine, and I am glorified in them. 11I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by your name that you have given me, so that they may be one as we are one. 12While I was with them, I was protecting them by your name that you have given me. I guarded them and not one of them is lost, except the son of destruction, so that the Scripture may be fulfilled. 13Now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy completed in them. 14I have given them your word. The world hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15I am not praying that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. 18As you sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. 19I sanctify myself for them, so that they also may be sanctified by the truth.

John 17:20-26

20 “I pray not only for these, but also for those who believe in me through their word. 21May they all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us, so that the world may believe you sent me. 22I have given them the glory you have given me, so that they may be one as we are one. 23I am in them and you are in me, so that they may be made completely one, that the world may know you have sent me and have loved them as you have loved me.

24 “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, so that they will see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the world’s foundation. 25Righteous Father, the world has not known you. However, I have known you, and they have known that you sent me. 26I made your name known to them and will continue to make it known, so that the love you have loved me with may be in them and I may be in them.”