Study Desk

Brothers, don't be children in your thinking. In evil, be like infants; but in your thinking, be grown-up.

So, just to be "fair" (I am using the language of children), open wide your hearts too.

Look, I am ready this third time to come and visit you; and I will not be a burden to you; for it is not what you own that I want, but you! Children are not supposed to save up for their parents, but parents for their children.

Be assured, then, that it is those who live by trusting and being faithful who are really children of Avraham.

For in union with the Messiah, you are all children of God through this trusting faithfulness;

So it is with us — when we were "children" we were slaves to the elemental spirits of the universe;

my dear children, I am suffering the pains of giving birth to you all over again — and this will go on until the Messiah takes shape in you.

Now, to make a midrash on these things: the two women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai and bears children for slavery — this is Hagar.

Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the present Yerushalayim, for she serves as a slave along with her children.

for the Tanakh says, "Rejoice, you barren woman who does not bear children! Break forth and shout, you who are not in labor! For the deserted wife will have more children than the one whose husband is with her!"

You, brothers, like Yitz'chak, are children referred to in a promise of God.

So, brothers, we are children not of the slave woman, but of the free woman.

So imitate God, as his dear children;

For you used to be darkness; but now, united with the Lord, you are light. Live like children of light,

Children, what you should do in union with the Lord is obey your parents, for this is right.

Fathers, don't irritate your children and make them resentful; instead, raise them with the Lord's kind of discipline and guidance.

so that you may be blameless and pure children of God, without defect in the midst of a twisted and perverted generation , among whom you shine like stars in the sky,

Children, obey your parents in everything; for this pleases the Lord.

Fathers, don't irritate your children and make them resentful, or they will become discouraged.

As emissaries of the Messiah, we could have made our weight felt; but instead, we were gentle when we were with you, like a mother feeding and caring for her children.