Isaiah 56:6-8
56:6 As for foreigners who become followers of the Lord and serve him,
who love the name of the Lord and want to be his servants –
all who observe the Sabbath and do not defile it,
and who are faithful to my covenant –
56:7 I will bring them to my holy mountain;
I will make them happy in the temple where people pray to me.
Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar,
for my temple will be known as a temple where all nations may pray.”
56:8 The sovereign Lord says this,
the one who gathers the dispersed of Israel:
“I will still gather them up.”
Isaiah 57:19
57:19 I am the one who gives them reason to celebrate.
Complete prosperity is available both to those who are far away and those who are nearby,”
says the Lord, “and I will heal them.
Isaiah 60:10
60:10 Foreigners will rebuild your walls;
their kings will serve you.
Even though I struck you down in my anger,
I will restore my favor and have compassion on you.
Acts 2:39
2:39 For the promise
is for you and your children, and for all who are far away, as many as the Lord our God will call to himself.”
Acts 2:1
The Holy Spirit and the Day of Pentecost
2:1 Now when the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.
Colossians 3:10-15
3:10 and have been clothed with the new man
that is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of the one who created it.
3:11 Here there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave
or free, but Christ is all and in all.
Exhortation to Unity and Love
3:12 Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with a heart of mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience,
3:13 bearing with one another and forgiving one another, if someone happens to have a complaint against anyone else. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also forgive others.
3:14 And to all these virtues add love, which is the perfect bond.
3:15 Let the peace of Christ be in control in your heart (for you were in fact called as one body to this peace), and be thankful.
Ephesians 2:13-22
2:13 But now in Christ Jesus you who used to be far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
2:14 For he is our peace, the one who made both groups into one
and who destroyed the middle wall of partition, the hostility,
2:15 when he nullified
in his flesh the law of commandments in decrees. He did this to create in himself one new man
out of two,
thus making peace,
2:16 and to reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by which the hostility has been killed.
2:17 And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near,
2:18 so that
through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.
2:19 So then you are no longer foreigners and noncitizens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of God’s household,
2:20 because you have been built
on the foundation of the apostles and prophets,
with Christ Jesus himself as
the cornerstone.
2:21 In him
the whole building,
being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord,
2:22 in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
Ephesians 2:1
New Life Individually
2:1 And although you were dead in your transgressions and sins,
Ephesians 2:4-5
2:4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us,
2:5 even though we were dead in transgressions, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you are saved! –