¶ Behold, I set before you this day the blessing and the curse:
The blessing if ye hear the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you this day,
and the curse if ye will not hear the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which ye have not known.
And Samuel said, Does the Lord have as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in hearing the voice of the Lord? Behold, to hear is better than sacrifice and to hearken than the fat of rams.
O that thou would look unto my commandments! Then thy peace would be as a river and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea:
But this thing I commanded them, saying, Hear my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the way that I have commanded you that it may be well unto you.
¶ If ye love me, keep my commandments;
He that has my commandments and keeps them, he it is that loves me; and he that loves me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him and will manifest myself to him.
Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We must persuade God rather than men.
¶ And in this we do know that we have known him if we keep his commandments.
He that says, I have known him, and does not keep his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
But whosoever keeps his word, in him verily is the charity of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.
He that says he abides in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.