Study Desk

He who is a child of God listens to God's words. You do not listen to them: and why? It is because you are not God's children."

and not for the nation only, but in order to unite into one body all the far-scattered children of God.

Dear children, I am still with you a little longer. You will seek me, but, as I said to the Jews, `Where I am going you cannot come,' so for the present I say to you.

He called to them. "Children," He said, "have you any food there?" "No," they answered.

For to you belongs the promise, and to your children, and to all who are far off, whoever the Lord our God may call."

that God has amply fulfilled it to our children in raising up Jesus; as it is also written in the second Psalm, `Thou art My Son: to-day I have become Thy Father.'

When, however, our time was up, we left and went on our way, all the disciples and their wives and children coming to see us off. Then, after kneeling down on the beach and praying,

Now what they have been repeatedly told about you is that you teach all the Jews among the Gentiles to abandon Moses, and that you forbid them to circumcise their children or observe old-established customs.

The Spirit Himself bears witness, along with our own spirits, to the fact that we are children of God;

and if children, then heirs too--heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ; if indeed we are sharers in Christ's sufferings, in order that we may also be sharers in His glory.

Yet there was always the hope that at last the Creation itself would also be set free from the thraldom of decay so as to enjoy the liberty that will attend the glory of the children of God.

nor because they are Abraham's true children. But the promise was "Through Isaac shall your posterity be reckoned."

In other words, it is not the children by natural descent who count as God's children, but the children made such by the promise are regarded as Abraham's posterity.

Nor is that all: later on there was Rebecca too. She was soon to bear two children to her husband, our forefather Isaac--

I am not writing all this to shame you, but I am offering you advice as my dearly-loved children.

For, in such cases, the unbelieving husband has become--and is--holy through union with a Christian woman, and the unbelieving wife is holy through union with a Christian brother. Otherwise your children would be unholy, but in reality they have a place among God's people.

Brethren, do not prove yourselves to be children in your minds. As regards evil, indeed, be utter babes, but as regards your minds prove yourselves to be men of ripe years.

If, however, the service that proclaims death--its code being engraved in writing upon stones--came with glory, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily on the face of Moses because of the brightness of his face--a vanishing brightness;

who used to throw a veil over his face to hide from the gaze of the children of Israel the passing away of what was but transitory.

And in just requital--I speak as to my children--let your hearts expand also.