Readings for Lent and Easter

⁸ Without having seen him, you love him. Without seeing him now, but trusting in him, you continue to be full of joy that is glorious beyond words. ⁹ And you are receiving what your trust is aiming at, namely, your deliverance.

¹⁰ The prophets, who prophesied about this gift of deliverance that was meant for you, pondered and inquired diligently about it. ¹¹ They were trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of the Messiah in them was referring in predicting the Messiah’s sufferings and the glorious things to follow. ¹² It was revealed to them that their service when they spoke about these things was not for their own benefit, but for yours. And these same things have now been proclaimed to you by those who communicated the Good News to you through the Ruach HaKodesh sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things!

¹³ Therefore, get your minds ready for work, keep yourselves under control, and fix your hopes fully on the gift you will receive when Yeshua the Messiah is revealed. ¹⁴ As people who obey God, do not let yourselves be shaped by the evil desires you used to have when you were still ignorant. ¹⁵ On the contrary, following the Holy One who called you, become holy yourselves in your entire way of life; ¹⁶ since the Tanakh says,

“You are to be holy because I am holy.”^[a]

¹⁷ Also, if you are addressing as Father the one who judges impartially according to each person’s actions, you should live out your temporary stay on earth in fear.