It is of this I was made a minister, according to the stewardship entrusted to me by God for you, fully to declare God's message;

blotted out the handwriting of ordinances that stood against us and was hostile to us, and took it out of our way, nailing it to his cross.

For my preaching was not grounded on a delusion, or on impure motives, on in deceit.

Now was I seeking glory from men, either yourselves or others, although I might have exercised authority as Christ's apostle.

So in my fond affection it was my joy to give you, not only the gospel of God, but my very life also, because you had become dear to me.

You are witnesses??nd so is God??ow pure and just and blameless was my behavior among you believers.

You know how I was wont to treat each of you as a father treats his children,

For even when I was with you I used to tell you beforehand that I was to suffer affliction; and so it proved, as you know.

Do you not recall that I often told you this, when I was with you?

Not that I have no right to such support; it was simply to give you an example for you to imitate.

For indeed when I was with you, I used to charge you, "If any man will not work, he shall not eat."

As I begged you when I was setting out for Macedonia, stay where you are at Ephesus, and instruct certain individuals there not to be teaching heterodoxy,

It was for this testimony that I myself was appointed a herald and apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying), to be a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.

It was Adam who was first formed, then Eve.

And it was not Adam who was deceived; but it was the woman who was thoroughly deceived, and who became involved in transgression.

Never neglect the gift within you, which was given in fulfilment of prophecy at the time of the laying on of hands by the elders.

Of the gospel I was appointed a herald, apostle, and teacher; and that is the reason I am now undergoing these sufferings.

The Lord show mercy to the house hold of Onesiphorus; for many a time he refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain.

But they will not get on; for their folly will be made as openly manifest to all as was that of Jannes and Jambres.

Nevertheless the Lord Jesus stood by me, and strengthened my heart, that through me full proclamation of the gospel might be made, and the Gentiles might hear it; and I was rescued from the lion's jaws.

But without your consent I was unwilling to do anything, so that your kindness to me might be of your own free will, and not of compulsion.

Which having begun to be spoken by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him;

What we do see is Jesus, who was made for a time a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor, because of the suffering of death, in order that through God's grace he might taste death for every man.

And so it was necessary that he should in all points be made like his brothers, so that he might become a compassionate and faithful high priest, in all that relates to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.

How faithful he was to the God who appointed him! For while Moses also was faithful in all God's house,

And Moses indeed was faithful in all his house as a servant, bearing testimony to a witness about to be spoken;

For this reason I was sore displeased with that generation, And said, "They are always wandering in their hearts; They have never learned my ways";

For who were they that heard and yet provoked him? Was it not all who came out of Egypt under the leadership of Moses?

And with whom was he grieved for forty years? Was it not with those who had sinned, and whose dead bodies fell in the wilderness?

So you see that it was through unbelief that they were not able to enter in.

For the Good News is come to us just as it did to them. But the message they heard was of no benefit to them, because they did not share the faith of those who gave heed to it.

Again no one takes this honorable office for himself, but he is called by God, just as Aaron was.

So even the Christ was not raised to the high glory of the priesthood by himself, but on the contrary by Him who said to him. Thou art my Son; this day have I become thy Father;

In the days of his flesh, with better cries and weeping Jesus offered up prayers and supplications to Him who was able to save him out of death; and he was heard because of his devout submission.

Though he was a son, yet learned he obedience through the things which he suffered;

For land that has drunk the showers that now and again fall upon it, and produced vegetation useful for those for whom it was tilled, receives a blessing from God;

It was this Melchizedek, King of Salem and Priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him;

and it was to him that Abraham apportioned a tithe of all the spoil. He was first, as his name signifies, King of righteousness, and then King of Salem, that is, King of Peace;

But observe how great this man was, to whom even Abraham, the Patriarch, gave a tenth part of the spoils.

for Levi was yet in the loins of his father, when Melchizedek met Abraham.

Now if there were perfection through the Levitical priesthood, (and it was under it that the people received the Law) why was it still necessary for another kind of priest to arise, after the order of Melchizedek, instead of being reckoned according to the order of Aaron?

For it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah, a tribe of which Moses said nothing concerning the priesthood.

mightier because it was not promised apart from an oath.

one who has no need, like the high priests, to offer up daily sacrifices, first for his own sins, then for those of the people. For his sacrifice was made once for all, when he offered up himself.

For the Law appoints human beings to be high priests, men with all their weakness; but the word of the oath, which was later than the Law, appoints a Son, perfected forevermore.

Now were he on earth, he would not even be a priest, since there are here those who present the gifts according to the Law??5 those priests who serve a mere outline and shadow of the heavenly reality, just as Moses was divinely instructed when he was about to build the Tabernacle. "See", he says, "that you make everything on the pattern showed you on the mountain."

For a tent was built, the outer one called the Holy Place, in which were the lamp and the table and the loaves of the Presence;

and behind the second veil was the tent called the Holy of Holies.

In it was the golden altar of incense, and also the Ark of the Covenant covered all over with gold, in which was a golden pot holding the manna, and Aaron's rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant;

Accordingly we find that not without blood was the first testament enacted.

While, then, it was necessary that the copies of the heavenly things should be cleansed by such sacrifices, the heavenly things themselves required nobler sacrifices than these.

For it was not into a Sanctuary made by hands, a mere type of the reality, that Christ entered, but he entered into heaven itself, now to appear in the very presence of God on our behalf.

Nor did he enter to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest entered into the sanctuary, year after year, with blood that was not his own;

Any one who set at naught the law of Moses was put to death without pity, on the testimony of two or three witnesses.

How much surer, think you, will be the punishment of one who has trodden under foot the Son of God, and has profaned that covenant blood with which he was sanctified, and has done despite to the spirit of grace?

By faith we understand that the world was fashioned by the Word of God, so that what we see was not made out of what is visible.

By faith Abel offered to God a sacrifice more acceptable than that of Cain, through which he had witness borne to him that he was righteous, God giving the testimony by accepting his gifts; and through it he, although he is dead, still speaks.

By faith Enoch was translated so that he should not see death; and he was not found, because God had translated him. Before his translation he had witness borne to him that he pleased God.

By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out unto a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.

It was by faith that he sojourned in the promised land as an alien, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, his fellow heirs of the same promise.

By faith even Sarah herself received power to conceive seed, although she was past the age for child-bearing, because she counted Him faithful who had promised;

By faith Abraham, when he was put to the test, was on the point of offering up Isaac; yes, he who had received the promise was about to offer up his only son,

By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of Joseph's sons, and worshiped, leaning on the top of his staff.

By faith Joseph, when his end was nigh, made mention of the exodus of the children of Israel, and gave instructions in regard to his bones.

By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months by his parents, because they saw that he was a beautiful child, and they were not afraid of the king's decree.

By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter,

They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, they were tempted, they were slain with the sword, they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, persecuted, tormented??38 of whom the world was not worthy??andering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground.

since it was for us that God had in store some better thing, so that apart from us they should not be perfected.

looking unto Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured a cross, despising shame, and has now taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.

For you know that even when he afterward desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected; he found no room for repentance, though he sought it earnestly, with tears.

For they could not endure that which was enjoined, Even if a wild beast touches the mountain it shall be stoned to death;

and so terrible was the scene that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and tremble.

Was not Abraham our ancestor justified by deeds, in that he offered up Isaac, his son, upon the altar?

You see how faith was cooperating with deeds, and faith was made perfect by deeds.

And the Scripture was fulfilled which said, And Abraham believed God, and this was imputed to him as righteousness, and he was called God's friend.

In like manner was not Rahab, the harlot, justified by her deeds, in the fact that she received the messengers and sent them forth by another way?

Elijah was a man of like passions with us, and he prayed again, and the sky gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.

They were searching to know to what time, or to what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them kept pointing, when he ever testified beforehand concerning the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow.

It was revealed to them that it was not for themselves, but for you, that they were ministering the truths which have now been announced to you, by those who preached the gospel to you, through the help of the Holy Spirit sent forth from heaven??ruths into which angels long to look.

He was indeed foreknown before the foundation of the world, but was manifested at the end of the times for your sake.

He committed no sin, Neither was guile found in his mouth.

He was reviled, and reviled not back. When he suffered he never threatened but always committed his cause to the One who judges rightly.

because Christ also once for all suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but make alive in spirit.

(It was in spirit that he went and preached the Word to the spirits who were in prison,

who in old times had been disobedient, when God's longsuffering was waiting in the days of Noah, while an ark was building, in which a few persons??ight in number??ere saved by water.)

The gospel was preached for this cause to those who were dead also, that they might be judged according to men in flesh, but live according to God in spirit.

Now to you who are presbyters I make this appeal; for I am myself a presbyter, and was a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory about to be revealed.

For he did receive honor and glory from God the Father, when there was borne such a voice to him from the Majestic Glory, This is my Son, my Beloved, in whom I delight;

For no prophecy was ever brought by the will of man; but moved by the Holy Spirit, men spoke for God.

and he delivered righteous Lot who was worn out by the lascivious life of the wicked

He was, however, rebuked for his own transgression; a dumb ass spoke with a man's voice, and stopped the madness of the prophet.

and say, "Where is the promise of His coming? For since the day that our fathers fell asleep everything continues as it was from the beginning of the creation."

and that by the same means the world which then existed was destroyed by a deluge of water.

And the Life was made visible, and we have seen it and are bearing witness, and are bringing you word of that Eternal Life which was face to face with the Father and was made visible to us.

My children, this is the last hour, and as you have heard that an antichrist was coming, and now many antichrists are already risen, whence we may know that it is the last hour.

And you know that he was manifested to take away sins; and in him is no sin.

He who is committing sin is of the devil, because from the beginning of the devil is sinning. It was for this cause that the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.

We are not to be like Cain, who belonged to the Evil One, and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? It was because his own deeds were evil, and his brother's, righteous.

In this was the love of God clearly shown toward us, by his sending his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.

For I was glad when brothers came and bore testimony to your truth, as indeed you are passing your life in truth.