Robbing God

⁷ “Since the days of your ancestors, you have turned from my statutes; you have not kept them.^(A) Return to me,^(B) and I will return to you,”^(C) says the Lord of Armies.

Yet you ask, “How can we return?”

The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant

²¹ Then Peter approached him and asked, “Lord, how many times must I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? As many as seven times?” ^(A)

²² “I tell you, not as many as seven,” Jesus replied, “but seventy times seven.^[a]

⁴ Remain in me, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me.^{(A) 5} I am the vine; ^(B) you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit,^(C) because you can do nothing without me. ⁶ If anyone does not remain in me, he is thrown aside^(D) like a branch and he withers. They gather them, throw them into the fire,^(E) and they are burned.^(F)

Demonic Influence

4 Now the Spirit^(A) explicitly says that in later times^(B) some will depart from the faith,^(C) paying attention to deceitful spirits^(D) and the teachings of demons,^(E)

¹⁶ Pay close attention to your life and your teaching; persevere in these things, for in doing this you will save^(A) both yourself and your hearers.^(B)

³⁵ So don’t throw away your confidence, which has a great reward.^{(A) 36} For you need endurance, so that after you have done God’s will, you may receive what was promised.^(B)

³⁹ But we are not those who draw back and are destroyed, but those who have faith and are saved.

⁹ If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive^(A) us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

2 My little children, I am writing you these things so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate^(A) with the Father—Jesus Christ the righteous one.

Remaining with God

²⁴ What you have heard from the beginning is to remain in you. If what you have heard from the beginning remains in you, then you will remain in the Son^(A) and in the Father.^{(B) 25} And this is the promise that he himself made to us: eternal life.^(C)