Discipline always seems for the time to be a thing of pain, not of joy; but those who are trained by it reap the fruit of it afterwards in the peace of an upright life.
so that you may lead a life that is worthy of the Lord and give him entire satisfaction. May you be fruitful and increase in the doing of all good, as you thus know God!
which has reached you as it spreads over all the world with fruit and increase. Such has been your life from the day you learned to know what God's grace really is.
but now that you are set free from sin, now that you have passed into the service of God, your gain is consecration, and the end of that is life eternal.
But you are the elect race, the royal priesthood, the consecrated nation, the People who belong to Him, that you may proclaim the wondrous deeds of Him who has called you from darkness to his wonderful light —
Conduct yourselves properly before pagans; so that for all their slander of you as bad characters, they may come to glorify God when you are put upon your trial, by what they see of your good deeds.
come and, like living stones yourselves, be built into a spiritual house, to form a consecrated priesthood for the offering of those spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
You have not chosen me, it is I who have chosen you, appointing you to go and bear fruit — fruit that lasts, so that the Father may grant you whatever you ask in my name.