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
g“All flesh is like grass
and all its glory like the flower of grass.
The grass withers,
and the flower falls,
25 hbut the word of the Lord remains forever.”
And this word iis the good news that was preached to you.
6 o“Seek the Lord while he may be found;
call upon him while he is near;
7 let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts;
let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him,
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
9 pFor as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
10 q“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven
and do not return there but water the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
rgiving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty,
but sit shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
14 cI have given them your word, and dthe world has hated them ebecause they are not of the world, fjust as I am not of the world. 15 I gdo not ask that you htake them out of the world, but that you ikeep them from jthe evil one.1 16 kThey are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 lSanctify them2 in the truth; myour word is truth. 18 nAs you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. 19 And ofor their sake pI consecrate myself,3 that they also qmay be sanctified4 in truth.
