9 You can depend on God to do that. He is the one who chose you to become intimately associated with his Son, Jesus Christ, who is our Lord.

16 You need to remember that God is present among you (pl) as he was present in the Temple in Jerusalem. [RHQ] God’s Spirit lives within you.

12 Although a person’s body has many parts, all the parts form just one body [DOU]. It is like that with those who belong to Christ.

14 I pray that the Lord Jesus Christ will act kindly toward all of you, in ways that you do not deserve, that God will show all of you how much he loves you, and that the Holy Spirit will cause you to have good fellowship with him and with each other.

16 Just as no one would dare to bring idols into the Temple in Jerusalem, believers should never [RHQ] join with those who worship idols. I say that because [MET] the Holy Spirit is in us, and so we are like the Temple of the all-powerful God. It is as God himself said in the Scriptures:

I will live in my people.

I will always be with/helping them.

They will say to me, "You are our God," and

I will say to them, "You are my people."

17 The fact is that God makes every one of us who trusts in Christ to be completely different than we were before. Our old way of conducting our lives is gone. We now have a completely new way of conducting our lives. 18 This complete change in our lives is all something that God does. It is God who made it possible for us to have a peaceful relationship with him. He was able to do that because of what Christ did for us. Now God has sent me, and those who work with me, to tell people that they can have a peaceful relationship with him. 19 That is, he sent us(exc) to tell them that when Christ died, God was making it possible for everyone [MTY] in the world to have a peaceful relationship with him. He no longer keeps a record of the sinful things that we believers have done. The message that God has given to us to tell people is how we can have a peaceful relationship with him.

20 Be aware that I invite each one of you to respond to me as though [MET] I was standing waiting at your door and knocking. I will come to all those who hear my voice and respond to me, and I will fellowship with them as friends do when they eat together [MET].

3 I heard a loud voice that spoke from the throne of God. It said, "Listen to this! Now God will live with people. He will live right in the midst of them [DOU]! They will be his people. God himself will be with them, and he will be their God.

45 I will live among the Israeli people, and I will be their God.

20 This is true, because wherever at least two or three of you assemble because you believe in me [MTY], I am spiritually present with you. I will hear what you ask for and I will ask God to do it for you."

20 "I am praying not only for these eleven disciples. I am praying also for those who will believe in me as a result of hearing their message. 21 My Father, I want all of them to be united, just like I am united with you because of my relationship with you, and as you are united with me because of your relationship with me. I also want them to be united with us. I want that to happen so that those who do not know you [MTY] may know that you sent me. 22 I have honored my disciples just like you honored me, in order that they may be united, as we are united. 23 I want them to be united just like they are united with me and as you are united with me. May they be completely united, in order that those who do not belong to you [MTY] may know that you sent me and that you have loved them just like you have loved me.

24 Those who do what God commands are ones who have a close relationship with God, and God has a close relationship with them. I will tell you how we can be sure that God has a close relationship with us: It is because we have his Spirit, whom he gave to us, that we can be sure that God has a close relationship with us.

20 We also know that ◄God’s Son/the one who is also God► has come to us, and we know that he has enabled us to know God, the one who is really/truly God. So now we have a close relationship with God because we belong to Jesus Christ, the one who is the ◄Son of/man who is also► God. Jesus Christ is truly God, and he is the one who enables us to have eternal life.

13 I will tell you how we can be sure that we have a close relationship with God and that God is within us: He has put his Spirit within us.

7 Dear friends, we must love each other, because God enables us to love each other, and because those who love their fellow believers have become God’s children and ◄know/have a close relationship with► him.

3 We proclaim to you the message about Jesus, the one whom we saw and heard, in order that you may have a close relationship with us. The ones whom we have a close relationship with are God our Father and his Son Jesus Christ.

28 Now, while some people are trying to persuade you to accept their false teaching, I urge you, who are all very dear to me, to continue to have a close relationship with Christ. We need to do that in order that we may be confident that he will accept us when he comes back again. If we do that, we will not be ashamed when we stand before him when he comes.

1 Because we trusted in Christ, the record of our sins has been erased {God has erased the record of our sins}. So we now have a peaceful relationship with God because of our trust in what our Lord Jesus Christ has done for us. 2 Because of what Christ has done, God has also enabled us to begin experiencing his continually acting toward us in ways that we do not deserve. Also, we rejoice because we are confidently expecting that God will gladly show us how great he is.

22 Just like the priests were sprinkled {as Moses sprinkled the priests} with blood [MET] to symbolize that they were no longer guilty for having sinned, we also no longer are guilty for having done evil. Just like the priests ceremonially washed their bodies with pure water to prepare themselves to serve God, we are allowing God to continually make us pure. So, we (inc) must approach God sincerely by confidently trusting in him.

7 So submit yourselves to God. ◄Resist the devil/Refuse to do what the devil wants►, and as a result he will run away from you. 8 Come near spiritually to God, and as a result he will come near to you. You who are sinners, stop doing what is wrong, and do only what is good [SYN, MET]. You who cannot decide whether you will ◄commit yourselves to God/obey God completely►, stop thinking wrong thoughts, and think only pure thoughts [MTY].