3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is ⁿborn ^oagain¹ he cannot ^psee the kingdom of God.”

6 ^rThat which is born of the flesh is ^sflesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.¹ 7 ^tDo not marvel that I said to you, ‘You² must be born ^uagain.’

14 If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, ^ahe will receive a reward.

3 and they were singing ^da new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders. ^eNo one could learn that song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth.

27 But ^vnothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s ^wbook of life.

17 Therefore, if anyone is ⁱin Christ, he is ^ja new creation.^{1 k}The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

26 And I will give you ⁱa new heart, and ⁱa new spirit I will put within you. ⁱAnd I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

6 And ^pthe Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, ^qso that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.

28 For ^sno one is a Jew ^twho is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. 29 But a Jew is one ^uinwardly, and ^vcircumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. ^wHis praise is not from man but from God.

5 and ^hhope does not put us to shame, because God’s love ⁱhas been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

God Is Love

7 Beloved, ^jlet us love one another, for love is from God, and ^kwhoever loves has been born of God and knows God.

8 ^vThe wind¹ blows ^wwhere it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

13 who ^wwere born, ^xnot of blood ^ynor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. 17 ^zEvery good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from ^athe Father of lights, ^bwith whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.¹ 18 ^cOf his own will he ^dbrought us forth by the word of truth, ^ethat we should be a kind of ^ffirstfruits of his creatures.

30 And because of him¹ you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us ^swisdom from God, ^trighteousness and ^usanctification and ^vredemption,

13 for ^hit is God who works in you, both to will and to work for ⁱhis good pleasure.

22 Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for ^ba sincere brotherly love, ^clove one another earnestly from a pure heart, 23 ^dsince you have been born again, ^enot of perishable seed but of imperishable, through ^fthe living and abiding word of God; 24 for

And this word ⁱis the good news that was preached to you.

Overcoming the World

1 ^kEveryone who believes that ^lJesus is the Christ has been born of God, and ^meveryone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him.

20 But that is not the way you ^llearned Christ!— 21 assuming that ^myou have heard about him and ⁿwere taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, 22 to ^oput off ^pyour old self,¹ which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through ^qdeceitful desires, 23 and ^rto be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on ^sthe new self, ^tcreated after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

9 ^tDo not lie to one another, seeing that ^uyou have put off ^vthe old self¹ with its practices 10 and ^whave put on ^xthe new self, ^ywhich is being renewed in knowledge ^zafter the image of ^aits creator. 11 ^bHere there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave,² free; but Christ is ^call, and in all.

9 (for ^ethe fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true),

9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact ^xthe Spirit of God dwells in you. ^yAnyone who does not have ^zthe Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.

Keep in Step with the Spirit

16 But I say, ^vwalk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify ^wthe desires of the flesh. 17 For ^xthe desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, ^yto keep you from doing the things you want to do. 18 But if you are ^zled by the Spirit, ^ayou are not under the law. 19 Now ^bthe works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, ^cdivisions, 21 envy,¹ drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that ^dthose who do² such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But ^ethe fruit of the Spirit is ^flove, joy, peace, patience, ^gkindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 ^hgentleness, ⁱself-control; ^jagainst such things there is no law.

Prayer for Spiritual Strength

14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom ^wevery family¹ in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to ^xthe riches of his glory ^yhe may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit ^zin your inner being, 17 ^aso that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being ^brooted and ^cgrounded in love, 18 may have strength to ^dcomprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and ^eheight and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ ^fthat surpasses knowledge, that ^gyou may be filled with all ^hthe fullness of God.

20 ⁱNow to ^jhim who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, ^kaccording to the power at work within us, 21 ^lto him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

8 Bear fruit ^xin keeping with repentance. 9 And do not presume to say to yourselves, ^y‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from ^zthese stones to raise up children for Abraham. 10 Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. ^aEvery tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

20 Thus you will recognize them ^lby their fruits.

4 For ^reveryone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—^sour faith.

18 We know that ⁿeveryone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but ^ohe who was born of God ^pprotects him, and the evil one does not touch him.

By Grace Through Faith

1 ^jAnd you were ^kdead in the trespasses and sins 2 ^lin which you once walked, following the course of this world, following ^mthe prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in ⁿthe sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in ^othe passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body¹ and the mind, and ^pwere by nature ^qchildren of wrath, like the rest of mankind.² 4 But³ God, being ^rrich in mercy, ^sbecause of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even ^twhen we were dead in our trespasses, ^umade us alive together with Christ—^vby grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and ^wseated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable ^xriches of his grace in ^ykindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For ^zby grace you have been saved ^athrough faith. And this is ^bnot your own doing; ^cit is the gift of God, 9 ^dnot a result of works, ^eso that no one may boast. 10 For ^fwe are his workmanship, ^gcreated in Christ Jesus ^hfor good works, ⁱwhich God prepared beforehand, ^jthat we should walk in them.