But a time is coming –nay, has already come– when the true worshippers will worship the Father with true spiritual worship; for indeed the Father desires such worshippers.
You will be excluded from the synagogues; nay more, the time is coming when any one who has murdered one of you will suppose he is offering service to God.
»Remember that the time is coming, nay, has already come, for you all to be dispersed each to his own home and to leave me alone. And yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me.«
»In most solemn truth I tell you that a time is coming –nay, has already come– when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear it will live.«
I call God to witness –to whom I render priestly and spiritual service by telling the Good News about His Son– how unceasingly I make mention of you in His presence,
You have not for the second time acquired the consciousness of being –a consciousness which fills you with terror. But you have acquired a deep inward conviction of having been adopted as sons– a conviction which prompts us to cry aloud, »Abba! our Father!«
In the same way the Spirit also helps us in our weakness; for we do not know what prayers to offer nor in what way to offer them. But the Spirit Himself pleads for us in yearnings that can find no words,
Pray with unceasing prayer and entreaty on every fitting occasion in the Spirit, and be always on the alert to seize opportunities for doing so, with unwearied persistence and entreaty on behalf of all God's people,
For we are the true circumcision–we who render to God a spiritual worship and make our boast in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in outward ceremonies:
But you are a chosen race, a priesthood of kingly lineage, a holy nation, a people belonging specially to God, that you may make known the perfections of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvellous light.