Martyrs Menodora, Metrodora, Nymphodora; Poulcheria the Empress

But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, confined for the faith which should afterwards be revealed. ²⁴So that the law has become our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. ²⁵But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. ²⁶For you are all children of God, through faith in Christ Jesus. ²⁷For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. ²⁸There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. ²⁹If you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring and heirs according to promise.

¹But I say that so long as the heir is a child, he is no different from a bondservant, though he is lord of all, ²but is under guardians and stewards until the day appointed by the father. ³So we also, when we were children, were held in bondage under the elemental principles of the world. ⁴But when the fullness of the time came, God sent out his Son, born to a woman, born under the law, ⁵that he might redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as children.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only born Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. ¹⁷For God didn’t send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through him. ¹⁸He who believes in him is not judged. He who doesn’t believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only born Son of God. ¹⁹This is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light, for their works were evil. ²⁰For everyone who does evil hates the light and doesn’t come to the light, lest his works would be exposed. ²¹But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his works may be revealed, that they have been done in God.”