choosing rather to suffer affliction along with the people of God than to have the temporary pleasure of sin;

Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, wrestling against sin.

And ye have quite forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when reproved by him;

But if ye are without chastening, of which all have been made partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.

Moreover we have had the fathers of our flesh as chasteners, and we reverenced them; shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits, and live?

For ye have not come to the mount that might be touched and was all on fire, and to obscurity, and darkness, and tempest,

but ye have come to mount Zion; and to the city of the living God, heavenly Jerusalem; and to myriads of angels,

Wherefore let us, receiving a kingdom not to be shaken, have grace, by which let us serve God acceptably with reverence and fear.

Be not forgetful of hospitality; for by it some have unawares entertained angels.

Remember your leaders who have spoken to you the word of God; and considering the issue of their conversation, imitate their faith.

Be not carried away with various and strange doctrines; for it is good that the heart be confirmed with grace, not meats; those who have walked in which have not been profited by them.

We have an altar of which they have no right to eat who serve the tabernacle;

for we have not here an abiding city, but we seek the coming one.

Pray for us: for we persuade ourselves that we have a good conscience, in all things desirous to walk rightly.

But I beseech you, brethren, bear the word of exhortation, for it is but in few words that I have written to you.

But let endurance have its perfect work, that ye may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

My brethren, do not have the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, Lord of glory, with respect of persons:

have ye not made a difference among yourselves, and become judges having evil thoughts?

But ye have despised the poor man. Do not the rich oppress you, and do not they drag you before the tribunals?

But if ye have respect of persons, ye commit sin, being convicted by the law as transgressors.

What is the profit, my brethren, if any one say he have faith, but have not works? can faith save him?

So also faith, if it have not works, is dead by itself.

But some one will say, Thou hast faith and I have works. Shew me thy faith without works, and I from my works will shew thee my faith.

but if ye have bitter emulation and strife in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth.

Ye lust and have not: ye kill and are full of envy, and cannot obtain; ye fight and war; ye have not because ye ask not.

Your gold and silver is eaten away, and their canker shall be for a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as fire. Ye have heaped up treasure in the last days.

Behold, the wages of your labourers, who have harvested your fields, wrongfully kept back by you, cry, and the cries of those that have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth.

Ye have lived luxuriously on the earth and indulged yourselves; ye have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter;

ye have condemned, ye have killed the just; he does not resist you.

Have patience, therefore, brethren, till the coming of the Lord. Behold, the labourer awaits the precious fruit of the earth, having patience for it until it receive the early and the latter rain.

Ye also have patience: stablish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is drawn nigh.

Take as an example, brethren, of suffering and having patience, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord.

Behold, we call them blessed who have endured. Ye have heard of the endurance of Job, and seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is full of tender compassion and pitiful.

Concerning which salvation prophets, who have prophesied of the grace towards you, sought out and searched out;

To whom it was revealed, that not to themselves but to you they ministered those things, which have now been announced to you by those who have declared to you the glad tidings by the Holy Spirit, sent from heaven, which angels desire to look into.

knowing that ye have been redeemed, not by corruptible things, as silver or gold, from your vain conversation handed down from your fathers,

if indeed ye have tasted that the Lord is good.

and a stone of stumbling and rock of offence; who stumble at the word, being disobedient to which also they have been appointed.

who once were not a people, but now God's people; who were not enjoying mercy, but now have found mercy.

For to this have ye been called; for Christ also has suffered for you, leaving you a model that ye should follow in his steps:

who himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, in order that, being dead to sins, we may live to righteousness: by whose stripes ye have been healed.

For ye were going astray as sheep, but have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls.

For thus also the holy women who have hoped in God heretofore adorned themselves, being subject to their own husbands;

as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord; whose children ye have become, doing good, and not fearing with any kind of consternation.

not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing; but on the contrary, blessing others, because ye have been called to this, that ye should inherit blessing.

And who shall injure you if ye have become imitators of that which is good?

For the time past is sufficient for us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, walking in lasciviousness, lusts, wine-drinking, revels, drinkings, and unhallowed idolatries.

but as ye have share in the sufferings of Christ, rejoice, that in the revelation of his glory also ye may rejoice with exultation.

But the God of all grace who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ Jesus, when ye have suffered for a little while, himself shall make perfect, stablish, strengthen, ground:

By Silvanus, the faithful brother, as I suppose, I have written to you briefly; exhorting and testifying that this is the true grace of God in which ye stand.

Simon Peter, bondman and apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have received like precious faith with us through the righteousness of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ:

But for this very reason also, using therewith all diligence, in your faith have also virtue, in virtue knowledge,

but I will use diligence, that after my departure ye should have also, at any time, in your power to call to mind these things.

For we have not made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, following cleverly imagined fables, but having been eyewitnesses of his majesty.

For he received from God the Father honour and glory, such a voice being uttered to him by the excellent glory: This is my beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight;

And we have the prophetic word made surer, to which ye do well taking heed (as to a lamp shining in an obscure place) until the day dawn and the morning star arise in your hearts;

having left the straight way they have gone astray, having followed in the path of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the reward of unrighteousness;

For while speaking great highflown words of vanity, they allure with the lusts of the flesh, by dissoluteness, those who have just fled those who walk in error,

For it were better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them.

That which was from the beginning, that which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes; that which we contemplated, and our hands handled, concerning the word of life;

(and the life has been manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and report to you the eternal life, which was with the Father, and has been manifested to us:)

that which we have seen and heard we report to you, that ye also may have fellowship with us; and our fellowship is indeed with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.

And this is the message which we have heard from him, and declare to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not practise the truth.

But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin.

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

My children, these things I write to you in order that ye may not sin; and if any one sin, we have a patron with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous;

Beloved, I write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment, which ye have had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which ye heard.

I write to you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because ye have overcome the wicked one. I write to you, little children, because ye have known the Father.

I have written to you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one.

Little children, it is the last hour, and, according as ye have heard that antichrist comes, even now there have come many antichrists, whence we know that it is the last hour.

They went out from among us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have surely remained with us, but that they might be made manifest that none are of us.

And ye have the unction from the holy one, and ye know all things.

I have not written to you because ye do not know the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the truth.

As for you let that which ye have heard from the beginning abide in you: if what ye have heard from the beginning abides in you, ye also shall abide in the Son and in the Father.

These things have I written to you concerning those who lead you astray:

and yourselves, the unction which ye have received from him abides in you, and ye have not need that any one should teach you; but as the same unction teaches you as to all things, and is true and is not a lie, and even as it has taught you, ye shall abide in him.

And now, children, abide in him, that if he be manifested we may have boldness, and not be put to shame from before him at his coming.

For this is the message which ye have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another:

We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death.

Hereby we have known love, because he has laid down his life for us; and we ought for the brethren to lay down our lives.

But whoso may have the world's substance, and see his brother having need, and shut up his bowels from him, how abides the love of God in him?

Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, we have boldness towards God,

and every spirit which does not confess Jesus Christ come in flesh is not of God: and this is that power of the antichrist, of which ye have heard that it comes, and now it is already in the world.

Ye are of God, children, and have overcome them, because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.

And we have seen, and testify, that the Father has sent the Son as Saviour of the world.

And we have known and have believed the love which God has to us. God is love, and he that abides in love abides in God, and God in him.

Herein has love been perfected with us that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, that even as he is, we also are in this world.

And this commandment have we from him, That he that loves God love also his brother.

These things have I written to you that ye may know that ye have eternal life who believe on the name of the Son of God.

And this is the boldness which we have towards him, that if we ask him anything according to his will he hears us.

And if we know that he hears us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions which we have asked of him.

The elder to the elect lady and her children, whom I love in truth, and not I only but also all who have known the truth,

I rejoiced greatly that I have found of thy children walking in truth, as we have received commandment from the Father.

And now I beseech thee, lady, not as writing to thee a new commandment, but that which we have had from the beginning, that we should love one another.

And this is love, that we should walk according to his commandments. This is the commandment, according as ye have heard from the beginning, that ye might walk in it.

For many deceivers have gone out into the world, they who do not confess Jesus Christ coming in flesh this is the deceiver and the antichrist.

See to yourselves, that we may not lose what we have wrought, but may receive full wages.

I have no greater joy than these things that I hear of my children walking in the truth.