for from these are those who creep into houses, and take captive petty women laden with sins, being led away by various impulses,

Moses did not meet with greater opposition from Jannes and Jambres, than truth does from men so corrupted in their mind, and so adulterated in their faith.

My punishments and pain; the things which came to me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra; the cruel attacks made on me: and the Lord made me free from them all.

But bad men and imposters will go on from bad to worse, misleading others and misled themselves.

But you, on your part, must continue to abide by what you have learned and been led to rely upon, because you know from whom you learned it

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

Every holy Writing which comes from God is of profit for teaching, for training, for guiding, for education in righteousness:

and will indeed turn the ear away from the truth, and will be turned aside to myths.

But you must always be composed; do not shrink from hardship; do your work as a missionary, and your whole duty as a minister.

For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure [from this world] is at hand and I will soon go free.

From now on, the crown of righteousness is made ready for me, which the Lord, the upright judge, Will give to me at that day: and not only to me, but to all those who have had love for his revelation.

For Demas has gone away from me, for love of this present life, and has gone to Thessalonica: Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia.

The coat which I did not take from Troas and which is with Carpus, get when you come, and the books, specially the papers.

At my first meeting with my judges, no one took my part, but all went away from me. May it not be put to their account.

But the Lord stood by me and gave me strength, so that the message preached by me might have its full effect and all the heathen might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion's jaws.

The Lord will rescue me from every wicked work and save me to His heavenly kingdom. To Him be glory forever and ever. Amen.

Make every effort to come before winter. Greetings to you from Eubulus, Pudens, Linus, Claudia, and all the brothers and sisters.

The Lord Jesus Christ be with thy spirit. Grace be with you. Amen. {The end of the Second Epistle unto Timothy, Written from Rome, when Paul was presented the second time up before the Emperor Nero}

To Titus, my true son in a common faith, from Paul, a slave of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect, and to the knowledge of the truth which goes with piety;

in hope of everlasting life, which God, who cannot lie, promised from the most ancient times,

to Titus, my genuine child in our common faith: be spiritual blessing and peace from God our Father and Christ Jesus our Saviour.

I did not take you with me when I went away from Crete, so that you might do what was necessary to put things in order there, placing men in authority over the churches in every town, as I said to you;

if any one be free from all charge against him, husband of one wife, having believing children not accused of excess or unruly.

For the overseer must be free from all charge against him as God's steward; not headstrong, not passionate, not disorderly through wine, not a striker, not seeking gain by base means;

For there are also many insubordinate men, vain talkers and deceivers, especially those from circumcision,

Said one from among them, a prophet, of their own! - Cretans! always false, mischievous wild-beasts, idle gluttons:

This description is true. So rebuke them sharply so that they will be sound in the faith and free from doctrinal error,

not giving heed to Jewish myths, and commandments of men who turn away from the truth.

The word sound, not to be condemned; that he from the opposite may be changed, having nothing bad to say of you.

to stop resisting them and stealing from them, but to show such perfect fidelity as to adorn, in everything they do, the teaching of God our Saviour.

For the [remarkable, undeserved] grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men.

Training us so that, turning away from evil and the desires of this world, we may be living wisely and uprightly in the knowledge of God in this present life;

who gave Himself for us to ransom us from all iniquity and purify for Himself a people to be His very own, zealous of good works.

For in the past we were foolish, hard in heart, turned from the true way, servants of evil desires and pleasures, living in bad feeling and envy, hated and hating one another.

But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love
for mankind appeared,

he saved us, not for any upright actions we had performed, but from his own mercy, through the bath of regeneration and renewal by the holy Spirit,

But hold yourself aloof from foolish controversies, pedigrees, strife, and wrangles about the law, for these are fruitless and futile.

From a party-man, after a first and second admonition, excuse thyself;

for, as you know, a man of that description has turned aside from the right path and is a sinner self-condemned.

All that are with me salute thee. Greet them that love us in the faith. Grace be with you all, Amen. {Here ends the Epistle of Saint Paul unto Titus, Written from Nicopolis, a city of Macedonia.}

From Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, to Philemon, our dear friend and colaborer,

to my sister Apphia, to my fellow soldier Archippus, and to the church which meets at Philemon's house. From Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ, and brother Timothy.

spiritual blessing be with you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

For I have had great joy and comfort and encouragement from your love, because the hearts of the saints (God’s people) have been refreshed through you, my brother.

But I wanted to do nothing without thy mind, so that thy goodness might not be as from obligation, but from volition.

For perhaps it was for this reason that he was parted from you for a while, that you might have him back forever,

18If he has wronged you in any way or owes you anything, charge it to my account.this favor from you in the Lord. Refresh my heart in the Messiah!

Yes, brother, I would like some return myself from you in the Lord's work. Through Christ refresh my heart.

And another thing: Prepare a place for me to stay, because I hope that through [an answer to] your prayers I will be returned to you. [Note: Paul was hoping to be released from imprisonment to visit Philemon at Colosse].

Greetings to you from Epaphras, my fellow prisoner here in [the cause of] Christ Jesus,

and from Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my fellow workers.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirits, Amen. {Here ends the Epistle of Saint Paul the Apostle unto Philemon, Sent from Rome by Onesimus, a servant.}

He is the reflection of God's glory and the perfect representation of His being, and continues to uphold the universe by His mighty word. After He had procured man's purification from sins, He took His seat at the right hand of God's majesty,

having become as much superior to angels, since He has inherited a more excellent and glorious name than they [that is, Son—the name above all names].

But to the Son: Thy throne, God, is from age to age: a scepter of rectitude is the scepter of thy kingdom.

"And thou from the beginning, O Lord, hast founded the earth, and the heavens are the works of thine hands.

This is why we must pay much closer attention to the message once heard, to keep from drifting to one side.

At the same time, God also testified by signs and wonders, various miracles, and distributions of gifts from the Holy Spirit according to His will.

For God did not place the coming inhabited world [Note: "The coming inhabited world" here probably refers to the present Christian age. It was viewed as "coming" from the perspective of Old Testament times], under the control of angels [and] that is the world we are talking about.

but we see Jesus, for a short [time] made lower than the angels, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, so that apart from God he might taste death on behalf of everyone.

For both He who is purifying them and those who are being purified all spring from one Father; so He is not ashamed to call them brothers,

and free from their slavery men who had always lived in fear of death.

Therefore, Christian Brothers, you who, all alike, have received the Call from Heaven, fix your attention on Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our Religion.

Watch, brothers, lest there will be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in withdrawing from the living God.

But be exhorting one another, on each successive day, - while the To-day is being named! lest any from among you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

For we have become sharers with Christ, if we hold firmly onto the confidence [we had in Him] from the beginning until the end [of our lives].

For who, [when they] heard [it], were disobedient? Surely [it was] not all who went out from Egypt through Moses?

So we see that it was their unbelief that kept them from being admitted to it.

Let us therefore fear, lest at any time, although there is left behind a promise of entering into his rest, - any one from amongst you should be deemed, to have come short;

For indeed we have had the good news [of salvation] preached to us, just as the Israelites also [when the good news of the promised land came to them]; but the message they heard did not benefit them, because it was not united with faith [in God] by those who heard.

For those who believe enter into that rest, just as he said, So I swore in my wrath, They will not enter into my rest, although the works occurred from the foundation of the world.

For he spoke somewhere about the seventh this way, And God rested during the seventh day from all his works,

Therefore, since the promise remains for some to enter His rest, and those who formerly had the good news preached to them failed to [grasp it and did not] enter because of [their unbelief evidenced by] disobedience,

For a man who has entered into his rest, he has also rested from his works, as God did from his own.

For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any double-edged sword, piercing even to the point of dividing soul from spirit, and joints from marrow; it is able to judge the desires and thoughts of the heart.

And there is no creature concealed from his presence, but all things are naked and vulnerable to his eyes, before whom is the word to us.

For we have not a high-priest unable to have fellow-feeling with our weaknesses, but one tested in all respects, by way of likeness, apart from sin.

For every high priest taken from men is appointed for men in things toward God, so that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins.

He is able to have feeling for those who have no knowledge and for those who are wandering from the true way, because he himself is feeble;

Who, in the days of his flesh, having offered up both prayers and supplications with strong shouting and tears to him who was able to save him from death, and who was heard because of his reverence,

although being a Son, he learned obedience from the things that he suffered.

since He had received from God the title of a High Priest with the rank of Melchizedek.

About whom, much subject matter from us is also difficult to explain, since ye have become sluggish in hearing.

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 solid food is for the mature, for those who have their sense trained by practice to distinguish good from evil.

Therefore having left the word of the primacy of Christ, let us be brought forward to perfection, not again laying a foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,

of teaching about washings (ritual purifications), the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. [These are all important matters in which you should have been proficient long ago.]

And we will do so [i.e., go on to more advanced teaching] if God allows us to. For it is impossible to get people who have [completely] fallen away [from God] to repent again, because they [continue to] crucify for themselves God's Son all over again, and hold Him up to contempt.

For it is impossible for those who have once for all been enlightened and have experienced the gift from heaven, who have been made sharers of the Holy Spirit

and then have fallen away—it is impossible to bring them back again to repentance, since they again nail the Son of God on the cross [for as far as they are concerned, they are treating the death of Christ as if they were not saved by it], and are holding Him up again to public disgrace.

For the soil that has drunk the rain often coming upon it, and bringing forth vegetation useful for those by whom also it is cultivated, partakes of a blessing from God.

But, my dearly loved ones, even though we talk this way, we are persuaded that you will do better than that [i.e., you will not fall away from God], and will end up being saved.

For God is true, and will not put away from him the memory of your work and of your love for his name, in the help which you gave and still give to the saints.

So that we, who have gone in flight from danger to the hope which has been put before us, may have a strong comfort in two unchanging things, in which it is not possible for God to be false;

For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of God Most High, having met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, also blessed him.

To whom also Abraham divided a tenth from all; (first truly interpreted King of justice, and then also King of Salem, which is, King of peace;

But see how great this man [was], to whom Abraham the patriarch gave a tenth from the spoils!

Now indeed those of the sons of Levi who receive the priesthood have commandment to collect tithes from the people according to the law, that is, of their brothers, although having come out of the loins of Abraham.

But the man who did not descend from them has received tithes from Abraham, and has blessed the man having the promises.

But there is no doubt that the less gets his blessing from the greater.