»I have given you power to tread serpents and scorpions underfoot, and to trample on all the power of the Enemy; and in no case shall anything do you harm.
»Which of you men, if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in their pasture and go in search of the lost one till he finds it?«
For if their having been cast aside has carried with it the reconciliation of the world, what will their being accepted again be but Life out of death?
and no longer lend your faculties as unrighteous weapons for Sin to use. On the contrary surrender your very selves to God as living men who have risen from the dead, and surrender your several faculties to God, to be used as weapons to maintain the right.
And to you –dead as you once were in your transgressions and in the uncircumcision of your natural state– He has nevertheless given Life with Himself, having forgiven us all our transgressions.
These men –sunken rocks!– are those who share the pleasure of your love-feasts, unrestrained by fear while caring only for themselves; clouds without water, driven away by the winds; trees that cast their fruit, barren, doubly dead, uprooted;
»To the minister of the Church at Sardis write as follows:« `This is what He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars says. I know your doings–you are supposed to be alive, but in reality you are dead.