till we all of us arrive at oneness in faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God, and at mature manhood and the stature of full-grown men in Christ.
»All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one fully knows the Son except the Father, nor does any one fully know the Father except the Son and all to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him.«
that they may all be one, even as Thou art in me, O Father, and I am in Thee; that they also may be in us; that the world may believe that Thou didst send me.
Among all those who had embraced the faith there was but one heart and soul, so that none of them claimed any of his possessions as his own, but everything they had was common property;
Now I entreat you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to cultivate a spirit of harmony –all of you– and that there be no divisions among you, but rather a perfect union through your having one mind and one judgement.
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.
Yet when we are among mature believers we do speak words of wisdom; a wisdom not belonging, however, to the present age nor to the leaders of the present age who are soon to pass away.
For God who said, »Out of darkness let light shine,« is He who has shone in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God's glory, which is radiant on the face of Christ.
For I always beseech the God of our Lord Jesus Christ –the Father most glorious– to give you a spirit of wisdom and penetration through an intimate knowledge of Him,
by setting aside the Law with its commandments, expressed, as they were, in definite decrees. His design was to unite the two sections of humanity in Himself so as to form one new man,
Nay, I even reckon all things as pure loss because of the priceless privilege of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. And for His sake I have suffered the loss of everything, and reckon it all as mere refuse, in order that I may win Christ and be found in union with Him,
Him we preach, admonishing every one and instructing every one, with all possible wisdom, so that we may bring every one into God's presence, made perfect through Christ.
in order that their hearts may be cheered, they themselves being welded together in love and enjoying all the advantages of a reasonable certainty, till at last they attain the full knowledge of God's truth, which is Christ Himself.
Such persons are mere babes. But solid food is for adults–that is, for those who through constant practice have their spiritual faculties carefully trained to distinguish good from evil.
It is by means of these that He has granted us His precious and wondrous promises, in order that through them you may, one and all, become sharers in the very nature of God, having completely escaped the corruption which exists in the world through earthly cravings.
And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding so that we know the true One, and are in union with the true One–that is, we are in union with His Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and the Life of the Ages.