Study Desk

God is the only Lawmaker and Judge. He is the only One who can save and destroy. So it is not right for you to judge your neighbor.

Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so God can heal you. When a believing person prays, great things happen.

God planned long ago to choose you by making you his holy people, which is the Spirit's work. God wanted you to obey him and to be made clean by the blood of the death of Jesus Christ. Grace and peace be yours more and more.

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In God's great mercy he has caused us to be born again into a living hope, because Jesus Christ rose from the dead.

Now we hope for the blessings God has for his children. These blessings, which cannot be destroyed or be spoiled or lose their beauty, are kept in heaven for you.

Now that you are obedient children of God do not live as you did in the past. You did not understand, so you did the evil things you wanted.

But be holy in all you do, just as God, the One who called you, is holy.

You pray to God and call him Father, and he judges each person's work equally. So while you are here on earth, you should live with respect for God.

Through Christ you believe in God, who raised Christ from the dead and gave him glory. So your faith and your hope are in God.

Come to the Lord Jesus, the "stone" that lives. The people of the world did not want this stone, but he was the stone God chose, and he was precious.

You also are like living stones, so let yourselves be used to build a spiritual temple—to be holy priests who offer spiritual sacrifices to God. He will accept those sacrifices through Jesus Christ.

Also, he is "a stone that causes people to stumble, a rock that makes them fall." Isaiah 8:14 They stumble because they do not obey what God says, which is what God planned to happen to them.

But you are a chosen people, royal priests, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession. You were chosen to tell about the wonderful acts of God, who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

People who do not believe are living all around you and might say that you are doing wrong. Live such good lives that they will see the good things you do and will give glory to God on the day when Christ comes again.

Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as an excuse to do evil. Live as servants of God.

Show respect for all people: Love the brothers and sisters of God's family, respect God, honor the king.

A person might have to suffer even when it is unfair, but if he thinks of God and can stand the pain, God is pleased.

If you are beaten for doing wrong, there is no reason to praise you for being patient in your punishment. But if you suffer for doing good, and you are patient, then God is pleased.

People insulted Christ, but he did not insult them in return. Christ suffered, but he did not threaten. He let God, the One who judges rightly, take care of him.

Your husbands will see the pure lives you live with your respect for God.