1 We must attain the gifts of God by faith and obedience,
which we must carry on in an orderly pursuing of the
duties of our several stations, without envy or contention.
24 The necessity of different orders among men.
33 We have none of us anything but what we received of God:
whom therefore we ought in every condition thankfully to obey.
HOW blessed and wonderful,
beloved, are the gifts of God.
2 Life in immortality! brightness
in righteousness! truth in full
assurance! faith in confidence!
temperance in holiness!
3 And all this has God subjected
to our understandings:
4 What therefore shall those
things be which he has prepared
for them that wait for him?
5 The Creator and Father of
spirits, the Most Holy; he only
knows both the greatness and
beauty of them,
6 Let us therefore strive with
all earnestness, that we may be
found in the number of those that
wait for him, that so we may
receive the reward which he has
promised.
7 But how, beloved, shall we do
this? We must fix our minds by
faith towards God, and seek those
things that are pleasing and
acceptable unto him.
8 We must act conformably to
his holy will; and follow the way
of truth, casting off from us all
unrighteousness and iniquity,
together with all covetousness,
strife, evil manners, deceit,
whispering, detractions; all
hatred of God, pride and boasting;
vain-glory and ambition;
9 For they that do these things
are odious to God; and not only
they that do them, but also all
such as approve of those that do
them.