All who are under the yoke of slavery must treat their masters with the greatest respect, so that the name of God and our teaching may not be abused.

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.

Anyone who teaches different views and does not agree with the wholesome instruction which comes from our Lord Jesus Christ, and with religious teaching

and mutual irritation between people of depraved minds, who are lost to the truth and think of religion only as a means of gain.

But men who want to get rich fall into temptations and snares and many foolish, harmful cravings, that plunge people into destruction and ruin.

Before God who maintains all life, and before Christ Jesus who in testifying before Pontius Pilate made his great profession, I charge you

who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.

Charge the rich of this world not to be arrogant, nor to set their hopes on such an uncertain thing as riches, but on God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.

I thank God, whom I, like my forefathers, worship with a clear conscience, when I remember you, as I constantly do, in my prayers.

So you must not be ashamed to testify to our Lord, nor be ashamed of me who am in prison for his sake, but join with me in suffering for the good news, through the power of God.

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 things you learned from me before many witnesses you must commit to trustworthy men who will be capable of teaching others.

Anyone who is in the army keeps from being involved in business affairs, so as to please the officer who enlisted him.

No one who competes in the games is awarded a crown unless he obeys the rules.

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

For that reason I am ready to submit to anything for the sake of those whom God has chosen, so that they too may gain the salvation that comes through Christ Jesus and brings eternal glory.

Remind men of these things. Charge them before God to avoid idle arguments which do no one any good and only bring destruction on those who listen to them.

Do your best to win God's approval as a workman who has nothing to be ashamed of, but rightly shapes the message of truth.

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

Yet God's solid foundation stands unshaken, bearing this inscription, "The Lord knows those who belong to him," and "Everyone who uses the name of the Lord must give up evil."

Fly from the cravings of youth, and go in pursuit of uprightness, faith, love, and peace, in company with those who call upon the Lord with pure hearts.

and they may yet return to their senses and escape from the toils of the devil, who has caught them to make them do his will.

They are the kind of men who make their way into people's houses and make captives of poor, weak women, loaded down with their sins and under the control of all sorts of impulses,

But everyone who wants to live a godly life as a follower of Christ Jesus will be persecuted,

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

I charge you in the sight of God and Christ Jesus who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom,

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.

Paul, a slave of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to arouse faith in those whom God has chosen, and the comprehension of religious truth,

in the hope of eternal life, which God who never lies promised ages ago,

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.

standing by the message that can be relied on, just as he was taught it, so that he may be qualified both to encourage others with wholesome teaching and to show the error of those who oppose him.

For there are many undisciplined people, who deceive themselves with their empty talk, especially those of the party of circumcision.

It was a Cretan, a prophet of their own, who said, "Cretans are always liars, savage brutes, lazy gluttons,"

and not study Jewish fictions or commands given by men who reject the truth.

This is a trustworthy teaching, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who believe in God may make it their business to do good. All this is right and beneficial to mankind.

All who are with me wish to be remembered to you. Remember me to all believers who love me. God bless you all.

but in these latter days he has spoken to us in a Son, whom he had destined to possess everything, and through whom he had made the world.

In speaking of the angels he says, "He who changes his angels into winds, And his attendants into blazing fire!"

Are not the angels all spirits in service, whom he sends on his errands for the good of those who are destined to possess salvation?

how can we escape if we pay no attention to such a salvation as this? It was first proclaimed by the Lord himself, and it was guaranteed to us by those who heard him,

but we do see Jesus, who was "made for a little while inferior to angels, crowned with glory and honor" because he suffered death, so that by the favor of God he might taste the bitterness of death on behalf of every human being.

For it was appropriate that he who is the great First Cause of the universe should, in guiding his many children to his glorious salvation, make their leader in it fully qualified through what he suffered.

For both he who purifies them and they who are purified spring from one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers,

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

For because he has himself been tempted in what he has suffered he is able to help others who are in trial.

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

has been to the God who appointed him, just as Moses was, in all the house of God.

For who was it that heard him speak and yet provoked him? Was it not all those who had escaped from Egypt under Moses' leadership?

And who was it with whom God was angry forty whole years? Was it not with those who had sinned, who dropped dead in the desert?

And who was it to whom God made oath that they should not be admitted to his Rest, if it was not to those who had disobeyed him?

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,

Since then it is still true that somebody will be admitted to it, and those who had a gospel preached to them before were not admitted because of their disobedience,

For all who are admitted to God's Rest rest after their work, just as God did after his.

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.

For every high priest who is chosen from among men is appointed to represent his fellow-men in their relations with God, and to offer gifts and sin-offerings.

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!"

For Jesus in his life on earth offered prayers and entreaties, crying aloud with tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and because of his piety his prayer was heard.

and when he was fully qualified, he became a source of unending salvation for all who obey him,

For anyone who is limited to milk is unacquainted with Christian teaching, for he is only an infant.

Ground that drinks in frequent showers and produces vegetation that is of use to those for whom it is cultivated receives God's blessing.

so that you may never grow careless, but may learn to follow the example of those who through their faith and endurance are the possessors of God's promises.

Therefore, God in his desire to make it perfectly clear to those to whom he made his promise, that his purpose was unalterable, bound himself with an oath,

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.

For this man Melchizedek, king of Salem and priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham as he was on his way back from defeating the kings, and gave him his blessing,

to whom Abraham apportioned one tenth of all the spoil, who is first, as his name shows, king of righteousness and then king of Salem, which means king of peace??3 with no father or mother or ancestry, and with no beginning to his days nor end to his life, but like no one but the Son of God, continues as priest forever.

Those of the descendants of Levi who are appointed to the priesthood are directed by the Law to collect tithes from the people, that is, from their own brothers, although they are descended from Abraham like themselves.

But this man, whose ancestry is not connected with theirs, collected tithes from Abraham himself, and gave his blessing to the man who had received the promises from God.

In the one case, mortal men collect tithes; but in the other, one who, it is intimated, lives on.

For he of whom all this was said was related to a tribe no member of which ever officiated at the altar.

Therefore, he is able to save forever all who come to God through him, because he lives and intercedes for them forever.

who does not need, as the old high priests did, to offer sacrifices every day, first for his own sins and then for those of the people??or this last he has done once for all, in offering up himself.

how much more surely will the blood of the Christ, who with the eternal Spirit made himself an unblemished offering to God, purify our consciences from the old wrongdoing for the worship of the everliving God?

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 where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established,

for a will is valid only in the case of a person who is dead; it has no force as long as the testator is alive.

Nor does he go in to offer himself over and over again, like the high priest who enters the sanctuary year after year, taking with him blood that is not his own,

so the Christ too, after being offered in sacrifice once for all to carry away the sins of many, will appear again but without any burden of sin, to those who are eagerly waiting for him to come and save them.

For while the Law foreshadowed the blessings that were to come, it did not fully express them, and so the priests by offering the same sacrifices endlessly year after year cannot wholly free those who come to worship from their sins.

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?

For by that one sacrifice he has forever qualified those who are purified from sin to approach God.

Let us hold unwaveringly to the hope that we profess, for he who has given us his promise may be trusted.

Anyone who breaks the Law of Moses is put to death without any show of pity, on the evidence of only two or three witnesses.

How much worse a punishment do you think will anyone deserve who tramples the Son of God underfoot, and treats as worthless the blood of the agreement by which he has been purified, and outrages God's spirit of mercy?

For we know who it is that has said, "Vengeance belongs to me! I will pay back!" and in another place, "The Lord will be the judge of his people!"

For you showed sympathy with those who were in prison, and you put up with it cheerfully when your property was taken from you, for you knew that you had in yourselves a greater possession that was lasting.

For "In a very little while He who is to come will come and not delay,

And he whom I accept as righteous will find life through his faith. But if a man draws back, my heart can take no pleasure in him."

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 led him to make a temporary home as a stranger in the land he had been promised, and to live there in his tents, with Isaac and Jacob, who shared the promise with him.

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.

For men who recognize that show that they are in search of a country of their own.

Faith enabled Abraham, when he was put to the test, to offer Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had accepted God's promises was ready to sacrifice his only son,

of whom he had been told, "Your posterity is to arise through Isaac!"

Faith made him leave Egypt, unafraid of the king's anger, for he persevered as though he saw him who is unseen.

Faith saved Rahab the prostitute from being destroyed with those who disobeyed God, because she had given a friendly welcome to the scouts.

who by their faith conquered kingdoms, attained uprightness, received new promises, shut the mouths of lions,

They were stoned to death, they were tortured to death, they were sawed in two, they were killed with the sword. Clothed in the skins of sheep or goats, they were driven from place to place, destitute, persecuted, misused??38 men of whom the world was not worthy wandering in deserts, mountains, caves, and holes in the ground.

fixing our eyes upon Jesus, our leader and example in faith, who in place of the happiness that belonged to him, submitted to a cross, caring nothing for its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.