reflecting

¹Therefore, as most beloved sons, be imitators of God. ²And walk in love, just as Christ also loved us and delivered himself for us, as an oblation and a sacrifice to God, with a fragrance of sweetness. ³But let not any kind of fornication, or impurity, or rapacity so much as be named among you, just as is worthy of the saints, ⁴nor any indecent, or foolish, or abusive talk, for this is without purpose; but instead, give thanks. ⁵For know and understand this: no one who is a fornicator, or lustful, or rapacious (for these are a kind of service to idols) holds an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. ⁶Let no one seduce you with empty words. For because of these things, the wrath of God was sent upon the sons of unbelief.

²²to set aside your earlier behavior, the former man, who was corrupted, by means of desire, unto error, ²³and so be renewed in the spirit of your mind, ²⁴and so put on the new man, who, in accord with God, is created in justice and in the holiness of truth.

¹⁸Yet truly, all of us, as we gaze upon the unveiled glory of the face of the Lord, are transfigured into the same image, from one glory to another. And this is done by the Spirit of the Lord.

¹²Now we see through a glass darkly. But then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know, even as I am known.

¹⁰But when you are invited, go, sit down in the lowest place, so that, when he who invited you arrives, he may say to you, ‘Friend, go up higher.’ Then you will have glory in the sight of those who sit at table together with you. ¹¹For everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled, and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted.”

¹Be imitators of me, as I also am of Christ. ²Now I praise you, brothers, because you are mindful of me in everything, in such a way as to hold to my precepts as I have handed them down to you. ³So I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ. But the head of woman is man. Yet truly, the head of Christ is God. ⁴Every man praying or prophesying with his head covered disgraces his head. ⁵But every woman praying or prophesying with her head not covered disgraces her head. For it is the same as if her head were shaven. ⁶So if a woman is not veiled, let her hair be cut off. Truly then, if it is a disgrace for a woman to have her hair cut off, or to have her head shaven, then she should cover her head.

²²So be doers of the Word, and not listeners only, deceiving yourselves. ²³For if anyone is a listener of the Word, but not also a doer, he is comparable to a man gazing into a mirror upon the face that he was born with; ²⁴and after considering himself, he went away and promptly forgot what he had seen. ²⁵But he who gazes upon the perfect law of liberty, and who remains in it, is not a forgetful hearer, but instead a doer of the work. He shall be blessed in what he does.

²⁸There is neither Jew nor Greek; there is neither servant nor free; there is neither male nor female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus.

¹And so, I beg you, brothers, by the mercy of God, that you offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, with the subservience of your mind. ²And do not choose to be conformed to this age, but instead choose to be reformed in the newness of your mind, so that you may demonstrate what is the will of God: what is good, and what is well-pleasing, and what is perfect.

⁶Come, let us adore and fall prostrate, and let us weep before the Lord who made us.

²⁶And he said: “Let us make Man to our image and likeness. And let him rule over the fish of the sea, and the flying creatures of the air, and the wild beasts, and the entire earth, and every animal that moves on the earth.” ²⁷And God created man to his own image; to the image of God he created him; male and female, he created them. ²⁸And God blessed them, and he said, “Increase and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and the flying creatures of the air, and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.”

¹And so the heavens and the earth were completed, with all their adornment. ²And on the seventh day, God fulfilled his work, which he had made. And on the seventh day he rested from all his work, which he had accomplished. ³And he blessed the seventh day and sanctified it. For in it, he had ceased from all his work: the work whereby God created whatever he should make. ⁴These are the generations of heaven and earth, when they were created, in the day when the Lord God made heaven and earth, ⁵and every sapling of the field, before it would rise up in the land, and every wild plant, before it would germinate. For the Lord God had not brought rain upon the earth, and there was no man to work the land. ⁶But a fountain ascended from the earth, irrigating the entire surface of the land.