And we have the testimony of the holy Spirit to this, for after saying,

Since then, brothers, we have free access to the sanctuary through the blood of Jesus,

and since in him we have a great priest set over the house of God,

For if we choose to go on sinning after we have so fully learned the truth, there is no sacrifice left to be offered for our sins,

But we will not draw back and perish, but we will have faith and save our souls.

but without faith it is impossible to please him; for whoever would approach God must have faith in his existence and in his willingness to reward those who try to find him.

Faith enabled Abraham to obey when God summoned him to leave his home for a region which he was to have for his own, and to leave home without knowing where he was going.

Faith made even Sarah herself able to have a child, although she was past the time of life for it, because she thought, that he who had made the promise would keep it.

And if it had been the country from which they had come to which their thoughts turned back, they would have found an opportunity to return to it.

You have not yet resisted unto death in your struggle with sin,

and you have forgotten the challenge addressed to you as God's sons, "My son, do not think lightly of the Lord's discipline, Or give up when he corrects you.

But if you have none of that discipline which all sons undergo, you are illegitimate children, and not true sons.

When our earthly fathers disciplined us we treated them with respect; should we not far more submit to the Father of our spirits, and so have life?

For it is no tangible blazing fire that you have come up to, no blackness and darkness and storm,

But you have come up to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to countless angels,

Do not forget to be hospitable to strangers, for by being so some, without knowing it, have had angels as their guests.

You must not be avaricious; you must be content with what you have, for God himself has said, "I will never let go of you or desert you!"

You must not be carried away with strange varieties of teaching. The true way to steadfastness of heart is through God's mercy, not through scruples about food, which have never done their adherents any good.

Our altar is one at which those who serve the tent of worship have no right to eat.

for we have no permanent city here on earth, but we are in search of the city that is to come.

Pray for me, for I am sure I have a clear conscience, and I mean in every way to live an upright life.

I beg you brothers, to listen patiently to this appeal, for I have written you but briefly.

and steadfastness must have full play, so that you may be fully and perfectly developed without any defects.

have you not wavered and shown that your judgments are guided by base motives?

and one of you says to them, "Goodbye, keep warm and have plenty to eat," without giving them the necessaries of life, what good does it do?

But someone may say, "You have faith, and I good deeds." Show me your faith without any good deeds, and I will show you my faith by my good deeds.

You crave things, and cannot have them, and so you commit murder. You covet things, and cannot get them, and so you quarrel and fight. You do not have things because you do not ask for them.

your gold and silver are rusted, and their rust will testify against you and eat into your very flesh, for you have stored up fire for the last days.

Why, the wages you have withheld from the laborers who have reaped your harvests cry aloud, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of Hosts.

You have lived luxuriously and voluptuously here on earth; you have fattened your hearts for the day of slaughter.

You have condemned and murdered the upright. Will he make no resistance?

You must have patience too; you must keep up your courage, for the coming of the Lord is close at hand.

As an example, brothers, of ill-treatment patiently endured, take the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord.

Why, we call those who showed such endurance happy! You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen what the Lord brought out of it, for the Lord is very kind and merciful.

If any one is sick, he should call in the elders of the church and have them pray over him, and pour oil on him in the name of the Lord,

You must love him, though you have not seen him, but since you believe in him though you do not now see him, rejoice with triumphant, unutterable joy

It was disclosed to them that they were serving not themselves but you in dealing with these things, which have now been told you by those who through the holy Spirit sent from heaven brought you the good news; things into which angels long to look!

for you know that you have not been ransomed with anything perishable like silver or gold, from the futile way of living in which you were brought up,

Now that by obeying the truth you have purified your souls for sincere love of the brotherhood, you must love one another intensely and heartily,

for you have been born anew from a germ not perishable, but imperishable, through the message of the living, everlasting God.

since you have tasted the Lord's kindness.

For God approves a man if from a sense of duty he endures suffering unjustly inflicted??20 for what credit is there in your enduring being beaten for doing wrong? But if you endure suffering for doing what is right, you have God's approval.

That is the life to which you have been called, for Christ himself suffered for you, leaving you an example so that you might follow his footsteps.

He carried the burden of our sins in his own body on the cross, in order that we might die to sin and live for uprightness. By his wounds you have been healed.

For you were astray like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.

but reverence Christ in your hearts as Lord, and always be ready to make your defense to anyone who calls you to account for the hope that you have. But do so gently and respectfully,

You have spent time enough in the past in doing as the heathen like to do, indulging in sensuality, passion, drunkenness, carousing, dissipation, and detestable idolatry.

but they will have to answer for it to him who is ready to judge living and dead.

And God, the giver of all mercy, who through your union with Christ has called you to his eternal glory, after you have suffered a little while will himself make you perfect, steadfast, and strong.

By Silvanus, our faithful brother, as I think him, I have written you this short letter to encourage you and bear my testimony that this is what the true mercy of God means. Stand fast in it.

Simon Peter, a slave and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who through the uprightness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have been given a faith as privileged as ours;

For if you have these qualities in their fulness, they will make you neither idle nor unproductive when it comes to the understanding of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore, brothers, make all the greater efforts to make God's call and choice of you certain. For if you have these qualities, you will never stumble,

Therefore I will always remind you of this, although you know it and are firmly grounded in the truth that you have.

So we have the message of the prophets more fully guaranteed. Please pay attention to that message as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.

They have eyes for nobody but adulterous women??yes insatiable in sin. They lure unsteadfast souls. Their hearts are trained in greed. They are accursed!

They have left the straight path and gone astray. They have followed the path of Balaam, the son of Beor, who set his heart on dishonest gain,

For if after men have escaped the corrupting influences of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they again become entangled in them and are overcome by them, their final condition is worse than their former one.

For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of uprightness than after knowing it to have turned their backs upon the sacred command with which they had been intrusted.

This is the second letter, dear friends, that I have now written to you, in the effort to arouse your unsullied minds

It is what existed from the beginning, that we announce; what we have heard, what we have seen with our own eyes, what we have beheld, and touched with our hands; it is the very message of life??2 for life has been revealed, and we have seen it and testify to it and announce to you that eternal life that was with the Father and has been revealed to us??3 it is what we have seen and heard that we announce to you also, so that you may share our fellowship, for our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ,

If we say, "We have fellowship with him," and yet live in darkness, we are lying and not living the truth.

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

If we say, "We have not sinned," we are making him a liar, and his message is not in our hearts.

My dear children, I am writing you this so that you may not sin; yet if anyone does sin, we have in Jesus Christ one who is upright and will intercede for us with the Father.

Dear friends, it is no new command that I am writing you, but an old one that you have had from the beginning. That old command is the same as the message you have heard.

I am writing to you, dear children, because your sins have been forgiven for his sake.

I am writing to you, fathers, because you know him who has existed from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have been victorious over the evil one. I write to you, children, because you know the Father.

I write to you, fathers, because you know him who has existed from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and God's message is always in your hearts, and you have been victorious over the evil one.

Children, it is the last hour. You have heard that Antichrist is coming, and many Antichrists have indeed appeared. So we may be sure that it is the last hour.

They have gone out from our number, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had, they would have stayed with us. It was to make it clear that none of them really belonged to us that they withdrew.

But you have been anointed by the Holy One. You all know the truth;

No one who disowns the Son can have the Father. Whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father too.

Keep what you have heard from the beginning in your hearts; then you will always be in union with the Son and the Father.

You still retain in your hearts the anointing with the Spirit that you received from him, and you do not need to have anyone teach you. But just as that anointing of his teaches you about everything, and as it is true and no falsehood, keep in union with him just as it has taught you to do.

Now, dear children, keep in union with him, so that if he appears, we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame when he comes.

For the message you have heard from the beginning is this: We must love one another.

We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love is still in death.

Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer can have eternal life remain in his heart.

But if someone who is rich sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how can he have any love for God in his heart?

Dear friends, do not believe every inspired utterance, but test the utterances to see whether they come from God, for many false prophets have come out into the world.

and any inspired utterance that does not acknowledge Jesus does not come from God; it is the inspiration of the Antichrist. You have heard that it was coming, and here it is already in the world.

You are children of God, dear children, and you have been victorious over these men, for he who is in our hearts is greater than he who is in the world.

God's love for us has been revealed in this way??hat God has sent his only Son into the world, to let us have life through him.

We have seen and can testify that the Father has sent the Son to be Savior of the world.

Love attains perfection in us, when we have perfect confidence about the Day of Judgment, because here in this world we are living as he lives.

I have written this so that you who believe in the Son of God may know that you have eternal life.

And we have confidence in him, that if we ask him for anything that is in accordance with his will, he will listen to us.

And if we know that he listens to whatever we ask him for, we know that the requests we have made of him are granted.

It makes me exceedingly happy to find that some of your children are guided by truth, just as we have been commanded to be by the Father.

And now I beg you, my lady??ot as though I were writing you any new command, but one which we have had from the beginning??et us love one another.

Love means this, that we be guided by his commands. The command, as you have heard from the beginning, is to be guided by love.

For many impostors have gone out into the world??en who do not acknowledge the coming of Jesus Christ in human form. That is the mark of the impostor and the Antichrist.

Look out for yourselves, take care not to lose what we have worked for, but make sure that you are paid for it in full.

Though I have a great deal to write to you, I would rather not write it with paper and ink, but I hope to come to see you, and talk with you face to face, so that your happiness may be complete.

For it makes me exceedingly happy to have some brothers come and testify to the truth of your life, for you are guided by truth.

they have testified before the church to your love. Please see them off on their journey in a way appropriate to God's service.

For they have started out for the sake of the cause, and they are accepting nothing from the heathen.

I have written briefly to the church, but Diotrephes who likes to be their leader will not accept what I say.

I have a great deal to write to you, but I do not want to write it with pen and ink;