hindering

⁷You have run well. So what has impeded you, that you would not obey the truth?

¹Therefore, set aside all malice and all deceitfulness, as well as falseness and envy and every detraction. ²Like newborn infants, desire the milk of reasonableness without guile, so that by this you may increase unto salvation, ³if it is true that you have tasted that the Lord is sweet. ⁴And approaching him as if he were a living stone, rejected by men, certainly, but elect and honored by God, ⁵be also yourselves like living stones, built upon him, a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, so as to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. ⁶Because of this, Scripture asserts: “Behold, I am setting in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious. And whoever will have believed in him will not be confounded.”

²My brothers, when you have fallen into various trials, consider everything a joy, ³knowing that the proving of your faith exercises patience, ⁴and patience brings a work to perfection, so that you may be perfect and whole, deficient in nothing.

¹³For false apostles, such as these deceitful workers, are presenting themselves as if they were Apostles of Christ.

¹⁴Yet truly, Jesus said to them: “Allow the little children to come to me, and do not choose to prohibit them. For the kingdom of heaven is among such as these.”

¹⁶Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be saved. For the unremitting prayer of a just person prevails over many things.

¹Now there was a man among the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. ²He went to Jesus at night, and he said to him: “Rabbi, we know that you have arrived as a teacher from God. For no one would be able to accomplish these signs, which you accomplish, unless God were with him.” ³Jesus responded and said to him, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless one has been reborn anew, he is not able to see the kingdom of God.” ⁴Nicodemus said to him: “How could a man be born when he is old? Surely, he cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb to be reborn?” ⁵Jesus responded: “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless one has been reborn by water and the Holy Spirit, he is not able to enter into the kingdom of God. ⁶What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.

⁴²Now they were persevering in the doctrine of the Apostles, and in the communion of the breaking of the bread, and in the prayers.

⁵²Woe to you, experts in the law! For you have taken away the key of knowledge. You yourselves do not enter, and those who were entering, you would have prohibited.”

²³For all have sinned and all are in need of the glory of God.

¹⁶For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, so that all who believe in him may not perish, but may have eternal life.

²⁸And we know that, for those who love God, all things work together unto good, for those who, in accordance with his purpose, are called to be saints.

¹⁸For we wanted to come to you, (indeed, I, Paul, attempted to do so once, and then again,) but Satan impeded us.

¹⁰Now therefore, why do you tempt God to impose a yoke upon the necks of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear?

¹My little sons, this I write to you, so that you may not sin. But if anyone has sinned, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the Just One. ²And he is the propitiation for our sins. And not only for our sins, but also for those of the whole world. ³And we can be sure that we have known him by this: if we observe his commandments. ⁴Whoever claims that he knows him, and yet does not keep his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. ⁵But whoever keeps his word, truly in him the charity of God is perfected. And by this we know that we are in him. ⁶Whoever declares himself to remain in him, ought to walk just as he himself walked.

¹³And they brought to him the little children, so that he might touch them. But the disciples admonished those who brought them. ¹⁴But when Jesus saw this, he took offense, and he said to them: “Allow the little ones to come to me, and do not prohibit them. For of such as these is the kingdom of God.

¹And again, he began to teach by the sea. And a great crowd was gathered to him, so much so that, climbing into a boat, he was seated on the sea. And the entire crowd was on the land along the sea. ²And he taught them many things in parables, and he said to them, in his doctrine: ³“Listen. Behold, the sower went out to sow. ⁴And while he was sowing, some fell along the way, and the birds of the air came and ate it. ⁵Yet truly, others fell upon stony ground, where it did not have much soil. And it rose up quickly, because it had no depth of soil. ⁶And when the sun was risen, it was scorched. And because it had no root, it withered away.

²⁰For you permit it when someone guides you into servitude, even if he devours you, even if he takes from you, even if he is extolled, even if he strikes you repeatedly on the face.