I therefore, a prisoner in the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation in which you are called,2 With all humility and mildness, with patience, supporting one another in charity.3 Careful to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.4 One body and one Spirit; as you are called in one hope of your calling.5 One Lord, one faith, one baptism.6 One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in us all.7 But to every one of us is given grace, according to the measure of the giving of Christ.11 And he gave some apostles, and some prophets, and other some evangelists, and other some pastors and doctors,12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:13 Until we all meet into the unity of faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the age of the fulness of Christ;
Such examples, therefore, brethren, it is right that we should follow; since it is written, "Cleave to the holy, for those that cleave to them shall [themselves] be made holy." And again, in another place, [the Scripture] saith, "With a harmless man thou shalt prove thyself harmless, and with an elect man thou shalt be elect, and with a perverse man thou shalt show thyself perverse." Let us cleave, therefore, to the innocent and righteous, since these are the elect of God. Why are there strifes, and tumults, and divisions, and schisms, and wars among you? Have we not [all] one God and one Christ? Is there not one Spirit of grace poured out upon us? And have we not one calling in Christ? [Ephesians 4:4-6] Why do we divide and tear to pieces the members of Christ, and raise up strife against our own body, and have reached such a height of madness as to forget that "we are members one of another?" [Romans 12:5] Remember the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, how He said, "Woe to that man [by whom offences come]! It were better for him that he had never been born, than that he should cast a stumbling-block before one of my elect. Yea, it were better for him that a millstone should be hung about [his neck], and he should be sunk in the depths of the sea, than that he should cast a stumbling-block before one of my little ones." Your schism has subverted [the faith of] many, has discouraged many, has given rise to doubt in many, and has caused grief to us all. And still your sedition continueth.
The heavens shew forth the glory of God, and the firmament declareth the work of his hands.3 Day to day uttereth speech, and night to night sheweth knowledge.4 There are no speeches nor languages, where their voices are not heard.5 Their sound hath gone forth into all the earth: and their words unto the ends of the world.
He it is who "comes forth as a bridegroom from his bridal chamber." For he [returns] even to the height; "since no one has ascended into heaven except him who has descended from heaven, the Son of man who is in heaven." He repeats this very same fact when he says, "Father, glorify me with the glory that I had with you before the world existed." If this Word descended from heaven as a bridegroom to take on our flesh, so that in taking flesh he might ascend again as Son of man to that place where, as Son of God, the Word had descended, then assuredly, because of a mutual bond, the flesh bears the Word of God, and the Son of God assumes the weakness of the flesh. He ascends with his spouse, the flesh, to the same place from which he had descended without the flesh and receives now that glory that he is shown to have had before the creation of the world. This proves, without the least doubt, that he is God. Nevertheless, since the world itself is said to have been created after him, it is evident that it was created through him. This fact itself gives proof of the glory and the authority of the divinity that is in him, through whom the world was made.
And when Jesus passed on from hence, he saw a man sitting in the custom house, named Matthew; and he saith to him: Follow me. And he rose up and followed him.10 And it came to pass as he was sitting at meat in the house, behold many publicans and sinners came, and sat down with Jesus and his disciples.11 And the Pharisees seeing it, said to his disciples: Why doth your master eat with publicans and sinners?12 But Jesus hearing it, said: They that are in health need not a physician, but they that are ill.†13 Go then and learn what this meaneth, I will have mercy and not sacrifice. For I am not come to call the just, but sinners.†
Christ came for all; how is it then that He says He came not for the righteous? Were there those for whom it needed not that He should come? But no man is righteous by the law. He shews how empty their boast of justification, sacrifices being inadequate to salvation, mercy was necessary for all who were set under the Law.
About CSB. A personal translation of the New Testament, rendered directly from the public-domain Greek in a literary style — not a scholarly critical edition, and not for liturgical or doctrinal authority. It is one reader's work, offered for enjoyment; where it matters, weigh it against an established translation. (Placeholder text — final wording to come.)