For what hope or happiness shall we have or what prize to be proud of in the presence of our Lord Jesus when he comes, except you?

for when we were with you, we told you beforehand that we were going to have trouble, and it came true, as you know.

That was why, when I could not bear it any longer, I sent to find out about your faith, for I was afraid that the tempter might have tempted you and all our labor might be lost.

You do not need to have anyone write to you about brotherly love, for you have yourselves been taught by God to love one another,

so that you may have the respect of the outsiders, and not be dependent upon anybody.

We do not want you to be under any misapprehension, brothers, about those who are falling asleep. You must not grieve for them, as others do who have no hope.

For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, then by means of Jesus God will bring back with him those who have fallen asleep.

For we can assure you, on the Lord's own authority, that those of us who will still be living when the Lord comes will have no advantage over those who have fallen asleep.

But as to times and dates, brothers, you do not need to have anyone write to you,

You all belong to the light and the day. We have nothing to do with night or with darkness.

I charge you in the Lord's name to have this letter read to all the brothers.

We always have to thank God for you, brothers, as it is right that we should, because your faith is growing so wonderfully and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing.

To this end we always pray for you too, asking our God to find you worthy of the call he has given you, and by his power to fulfil every desire you may have for goodness, and every effort of your faith,

so that all who have refused to believe the truth but have preferred disobedience may be condemned.

We always have to thank God for you, brothers whom the Lord so loves, because God chose you from the beginning to be saved through consecration by the Spirit and through faith in the truth,

So stand firm, brothers, and hold fast to the instructions you have received from us, whether by letter or by word of mouth.

We have faith in you through the Lord that you are doing and will keep doing what we direct you to do.

If anyone refuses to obey what we have said in this letter, mark the man and do not have anything to do with him, to make him feel ashamed.

Some people have failed in these things and been diverted into fruitless talk.

as set forth in the glorious good news of the blessed God with which I have been intrusted.

keeping hold of faith and a good conscience. For some people have let that go and have had their faith ruined,

But they will be saved through motherhood, if they continue to have faith and to be loving and holy, and sensible as well.

If you point this out to the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, living on the principles of the faith and the excellent teaching you have had.

It is for this that we toil and struggle, for we have fixed our hopes on the living God, the Savior of all men, especially those who believe.

Do not neglect the gift you have, that was given you with predictions of your work, when the elders laid their hands upon you.

No one under sixty years of age should be put on the list of widows. A widow must have been married but once,

and have a good reputation for Christian service, such as bringing up children, being hospitable to strangers, washing the feet of God's people, helping people in distress, or devoting herself to any form of doing good.

So I would have young women marry and have children and keep house and avoid giving our opponents any excuse for abusing us.

For some widows have already turned aside to follow Satan.

Those who have Christian masters must not think lightly of them because they are brothers; they must serve them all the more faithfully, because those who benefit by it are believers and hence dear to them. These are the things you must teach and preach.

If we have food and clothing we will be satisfied.

through professing which some people have made a failure of the faith. God bless you all.

When I remember the tears you shed I long night and day to see you again, and have the perfect happiness

of which I have been appointed a herald, apostle and teacher.

This is why I am suffering as I am, but I am not ashamed of it, for I know whom I have trusted and I am sure that he is able to guard what I have intrusted to him for that Day.

The farmer who does the work ought to be the first to have some of the produce.

How true those words are! "If we have died with him, we will live with him!

who have missed the truth and say that the resurrection has taken place already, thus undermining people's faith.

But you have closely followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness,

But you must stand by what you have learned and been convinced of, and remember from whom you learned it,

and how from childhood you have known the Scriptures which can give you the wisdom that through faith in Christ Jesus leads to salvation.

I have had a part in the great contest, I have run my race, I have preserved my faith.

Now the crown of uprightness awaits me, which the Lord, the upright judge, will award me on that Day, and not only me but also all who have loved and hoped for his appearing.

and I have sent Tychicus to Ephesus.

and revealed at the proper time in his message, through the preaching with which I have been intrusted at the command of God our Savior,

I left you behind in Crete expressly to correct what defects there were, and to appoint elders in each town, as I directed you??6 men of irreproachable character, who have been married only once, whose children are Christians, free from any suspicion of profligacy or disobedience.

and that statement is true. Therefore correct them rigorously, to make them have a healthy faith,

But have nothing to do with foolish controversies, pedigrees, strife, and wrangles about the Law, for they are profitless and futile.

If a man is inclined to a sect, after warning him once or twice, have nothing more to do with him.

When I send Artemas or Tychicus to you, do your best to come to me at Nicopolis, for I have decided to settle there for the winter.

Do all you can to help Zenas the expert in the Law and Apollos on with their journey, and see that they have everything they need.

Have our people learn to make it their business to do good, so as to meet these pressing demands and not live unfruitful lives.

for what I hear of the love and faith you have in the Lord Jesus and all his people,

I have been greatly pleased and encouraged over your love, for the hearts of God's people have been cheered, my brother, by you.

I appeal to you for my child Onesimus, whose father I have become here in prison.

I would have liked to keep him with me, to wait on me in your place while I am in prison for the good news,

but I do not wish to do anything without your consent, so that your kindness might be voluntary, and not have the appearance of compulsion.

For perhaps this is why you and he were parted for a while, that you might have him back forever,

For to what angel did God ever say, "You are my Son! I have today become your Father"? Or again, "I will become his Father, and he shall become my Son"?

You have loved right and hated wrong! That is why God, your God, has anointed you with exhilarating oil beyond all your comrades."

And you will fold them up like a mantle, And change them as one changes his coat. But you are always the same, and your years will have no end!"

This is why we must give the very closest attention to the message we have heard, to keep from ever losing our hold upon it.

You made him for a little while inferior to angels; Yet you have crowned him with glory and honor, And you have put him in charge of the works of your hands!

You have put everything under his feet!" In thus making everything subject to man, God left nothing that was not subjected to him. But we do not as yet see everything made subject to him,

Therefore since these children referred to have the same mortal nature, Jesus also shared it, like them, in order that by his death he might dethrone the lord of death, the devil,

Therefore, my fellow-Christians, who have likewise heard the heavenly invitation, observe how faithful Jesus, the commissioner and high priest of our religion,

That was why I was angry with that generation, And I said, 'Their minds are always wandering, And they have never found my paths.'

but encourage one another every day, as long as we can still speak of Today, so that no one of you may have his heart hardened by the pleasantness of sin.

We ought therefore to fear that when the promise of admission to his Rest is still open, some one of you may be found to have failed to reach it.

For we have had good news preached to us, just as they did, but the message they heard did them no good because they did not agree through faith with what they heard.

For we who have believed are admitted to that Rest, of which he said, "As I made oath in my anger, They shall never be admitted to my Rest!" And yet God's work was finished at the creation of the world,

For if Joshua had really brought them rest God would not afterward have spoken of another day.

No being created can escape God's sight, but everything is bare and helpless before the eyes of him with whom we have to reckon.

Since then we have in Jesus, the Son of God, a great high priest who has gone up into heaven, let us keep firm hold of our religion.

For our high priest is not one who is incapable of sympathy with our weaknesses, but he has been tempted in every way just as we have, without committing any sin.

So even Christ did not claim for himself the dignity of the high priesthood, but he was appointed to it by him who said to him, "You are my Son! I have today become your Father!"

I have much to say to you about this, but it is difficult to make it clear to you, because you have become so slow of apprehension.

For although from the length of your Christian experience you ought to be teaching others, you actually need someone to teach you over again the very elements of Christian truth, and you have come to need milk instead of solid food.

But full-grown men have a right to solid food, for their faculties are trained by practice to distinguish right and wrong.

For it is impossible to arouse people to a fresh repentance when they have once for all come into the light and had a taste of the gift from heaven, and shared in the holy Spirit

and yet have fallen back, for they crucify the Son of God on their own account, and hold him up to contempt.

For God is not so unjust as to forget the work you have done and the love you have showed for his cause, in giving help to your fellow-Christians as you still do.

For men make oath by something greater than themselves, and they accept an oath as settling finally any disagreement they may have.

so that by these two unalterable things, which make it impossible for God to break his promise, we who have taken refuge with him may be greatly encouraged to seize upon the hope that is offered to us.

Now see how great this man must have been to have the patriarch Abraham give him a tenth of the spoil.

Now if anything final had been really accomplished through the Levitical priesthood, for even the giving of the Law was based upon it, what further need would there have been of appointing a different priest of the priesthood of Melchizedek, instead of choosing one of the priesthood of Aaron?

Now the main point in what I am saying is this: We have such a high priest as this, and he has taken his seat in heaven at the right hand of God's Majesty,

But every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices, and so this high priest also must have some sacrifice to offer.

For if that first agreement had been perfect, there would have been no occasion for a second one.

'For this is the agreement that I will make with the house of Israel, In those later days,' says the Lord; 'I will put my laws into their minds, And write them on their hearts, And they will have me for their God, And I will have them for my people.

And they will not have to teach their townsmen and their brothers to know the Lord, For they will all know me, From the lowest to the highest.

since they have to do only with food and drink and various washings??aterial regulations in force only until the time for the new order.

And this is why he is the negotiator of a new agreement, in order that as someone has died to deliver them from the offenses committed under the old agreement, those who have been offered it may receive the unending inheritance they have been promised.

for then he would have had to suffer death over and over, ever since the creation of the world. But, as it is, once for all at the close of the age he has appeared, to put an end to sin by his sacrifice.

Otherwise, would they not have ceased to offer these sacrifices, because those who offered them, having once been purified, would have had no further consciousness of sin?

They really only serve to remind the people annually of the sins they have committed,

That is why the Christ, when he was coming into the world, said, "You have not wished sacrifice or offering, but you have provided a body for me.

So I said, 'See, I have come! as the Book of the Law says of me, O God, to do your will!' "

At first he says, "You never wished or cared for sacrifices or offerings, or burnt-offerings or sacrifices for sin"??ll of which the Law prescribes??9 and then he adds, "See, I have come to do your will!" He is taking away the old to put the new in its place.

And it is through his doing of God's will that we have been once for all purified from sin through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ in sacrifice.