self denial

²³Then he said to everyone: “If anyone is willing to come after me: let him deny himself, and take up his cross every day, and follow me. ²⁴For whoever will have saved his life, will lose it. Yet whoever will have lost his life for my sake, will save it.

¹¹For the grace of God our Savior has appeared to all men, ¹²instructing us to reject impiety and worldly desires, so that we may live soberly and justly and piously in this age,

²⁰I live; yet now, it is not I, but truly Christ, who lives in me. And though I live now in the flesh, I live in the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and who delivered himself for me.

²⁴Then Jesus said to his disciples: “If anyone is willing to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

²³Then he said to everyone: “If anyone is willing to come after me: let him deny himself, and take up his cross every day, and follow me.

¹And know this: that in the last days perilous times will press near. ²Men will be lovers of themselves, greedy, self-exalting, arrogant, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, wicked, ³without affection, without peace, false accusers, unchaste, cruel, without kindness, ⁴traitorous, reckless, self-important, loving pleasure more than God, ⁵even having the appearance of piety while rejecting its virtue. And so, avoid them.

⁷And the wisdom of the flesh is inimical to God. For it is not subject to the law of God, nor can it be. ⁸So those who are in the flesh are not able to please God.

¹⁴How narrow is the gate, and how straight is the way, which leads to life, and few there are who find it!

²²But the fruit of the Spirit is charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, forbearance, ²³meekness, faith, modesty, abstinence, chastity. There is no law against such things.

²⁶“If anyone comes to me, and does not hate his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brothers, and sisters, and yes, even his own life, he is not able to be my disciple.

¹⁶Do you not know that you are the Temple of God, and that the Spirit of God lives within you?

²⁴For those who are Christ’s have crucified their flesh, along with its vices and desires.

¹And Jesus, filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan. And he was urged by the Spirit into the wilderness ²for forty days, and he was tested by the devil. And he ate nothing in those days. And when they were completed, he was hungry. ³Then the devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, speak to this stone, so that it may be made into bread.” ⁴And Jesus answered him, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.’ ” ⁵And the devil led him onto a high mountain, and he showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, ⁶and he said to him: “To you, I will give all this power, and its glory. For they have been handed over to me, and I give them to whomever I wish.

¹¹For I know the thoughts that I think over you, says the Lord: thoughts of peace and not of affliction, so that I may give you patience and an end. ¹²And you shall call upon me, and you shall go forth. And you shall pray to me, and I will heed you. ¹³You shall seek me. And you will find me, when you have sought me with your whole heart. ¹⁴And I will be found by you, says the Lord. And I will lead you back from your captivity. And I will gather you from all the nations and all the places, to which I have expelled you, says the Lord. And I will return you from the place to which I sent you into captivity.