nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia. Then I returned to Damascus.

But when I saw that they didn't walk uprightly according to the truth of the Good News, I said to Peter before them all, "If you, being a Jew, live as the Gentiles do, and not as the Jews do, why do you compel the Gentiles to live as the Jews do?

I just want to learn this from you. Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by hearing of faith?

Did you suffer so many things in vain, if it is indeed in vain?

I beg you, brothers, become as I am, for I also have become as you are. You did me no wrong,

That which was a temptation to you in my flesh, you didn't despise nor reject; but you received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus.

But you did not learn Christ that way;

who, existing in the form of God, didn't consider equality with God a thing to be grasped,

holding up the word of life; that I may have something to boast in the day of Christ, that I didn't run in vain nor labor in vain.

But I rejoice in the Lord greatly, that now at length you have revived your thought for me; in which you did indeed take thought, but you lacked opportunity.

However you did well that you shared in my affliction.

For you, brothers, became imitators of the assemblies of God which are in Judea in Christ Jesus; for you also suffered the same things from your own countrymen, even as they did from the Jews;

who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and drove us out, and didn't please God, and are contrary to all men;

For God didn't appoint us to wrath, but to the obtaining of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,

and with all deception of wickedness for those who are being lost, because they didn't receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved.

that they all might be judged who didn't believe the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

For you know how you ought to imitate us. For we didn't behave ourselves rebelliously among you,

neither did we eat bread from anyone's hand without paying for it, but in labor and travail worked night and day, that we might not burden any of you;

although I was before a blasphemer, a persecutor, and insolent. However, I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.

I thank God, whom I serve as my forefathers did, with a pure conscience. How unceasing is my memory of you in my petitions, night and day

For God didn't give us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-control.

But you did follow my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, steadfastness,

Alexander, the coppersmith, did much evil to me. The Lord will repay him according to his works,

not by works of righteousness, which we did ourselves, but according to his mercy, he saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit,

For to which of the angels did he say at any time, "You are my Son. Today have I become your father?" and again, "I will be to him a Father, and he will be to me a Son?"

For he didn't subject the world to come, of which we speak, to angels.

Therefore I was displeased with that generation, and said, 'They always err in their heart, but they didn't know my ways;'

For who, when they heard, rebelled? No, didn't all those who came out of Egypt by Moses?

To whom did he swear that they wouldn't enter into his rest, but to those who were disobedient?

For indeed we have had good news preached to us, even as they also did, but the word they heard didn't profit them, because it wasn't mixed with faith by those who heard.

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

So also Christ didn't glorify himself to be made a high priest, but it was he who said to him, "You are my Son. Today I have become your father."

who doesn't need, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices daily, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. For he did this once for all, when he offered up himself.

not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers, in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; for they didn't continue in my covenant, and I disregarded them," says the Lord.

Therefore when he comes into the world, he says, "Sacrifice and offering you didn't desire, but you prepared a body for me;

Previously saying, "Sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin you didn't desire, neither had pleasure in them" (those which are offered according to the law),

concluding that God is able to raise up even from the dead. Figuratively speaking, he also did receive him back from the dead.

By faith, Rahab the prostitute, didn't perish with those who were disobedient, having received the spies in peace.

These all, having had testimony given to them through their faith, didn't receive the promise,

See that you don't refuse him who speaks. For if they didn't escape when they refused him who warned on the Earth, how much more will we not escape who turn away from him who warns from heaven,

Listen, my beloved brothers. Didn't God choose those who are poor in this world to be rich in faith, and heirs of the Kingdom which he promised to those who love him?

and one of you tells them, "Go in peace, be warmed and filled;" and yet you didn't give them the things the body needs, what good is it?

Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain, and it didn't rain on the earth for three years and six months.

who did not sin, "neither was deceit found in his mouth."

Who, when he was cursed, didn't curse back. When he suffered, didn't threaten, but committed himself to him who judges righteously;

For we did not follow cunningly devised fables, when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.

For if God didn't spare angels when they sinned, but cast them down to Tartarus, and committed them to pits of darkness, to be reserved for judgment;

and didn't spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah with seven others, a preacher of righteousness, when he brought a flood on the world of the ungodly;

They went out from us, but they didn't belong to us; for if they had belonged to us, they would have continued with us. But they left, that they might be revealed that none of them belong to us.

Behold, how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! For this cause the world doesn't know us, because it didn't know him.

unlike Cain, who was of the evil one, and killed his brother. Why did he kill him? Because his works were evil, and his brother's righteous.

Now I desire to remind you, though you already know this, that the Lord, having saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who didn't believe.

Angels who didn't keep their first domain, but deserted their own dwelling place, he has kept in everlasting bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day.

"I know your works and where you dwell, where Satan's throne is. You hold firmly to my name, and didn't deny my faith in the days of Antipas my witness, my faithful one, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells.

Nevertheless you have a few names in Sardis that did not defile their garments. They will walk with me in white, for they are worthy.

"I know your works (behold, I have set before you an open door, which no one can shut), that you have a little power, and kept my word, and didn't deny my name.

One of the elders answered, saying to me, "These who are arrayed in white robes, who are they, and from where did they come?"

The rest of mankind, who were not killed with these plagues, didn't repent of the works of their hands, that they wouldn't worship demons, and the idols of gold, and of silver, and of brass, and of stone, and of wood; which can neither see, nor hear, nor walk.

They didn't repent of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their sexual immorality, nor of their thefts.

The nations were angry, and your wrath came, as did the time for the dead to be judged, and to give your bondservants the prophets, their reward, as well as to the saints, and those who fear your name, to the small and the great; and to destroy those who destroy the earth."

They didn't prevail, neither was a place found for him any more in heaven.

They overcame him because of the Lamb's blood, and because of the word of their testimony. They didn't love their life, even to death.

People were scorched with great heat, and people blasphemed the name of God who has the power over these plagues. They didn't repent and give him glory.

and they blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores. They didn't repent of their works.

Return to her just as she returned, and repay her double as she did, and according to her works. In the cup which she mixed, mix to her double.

I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them. I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus, and for the word of God, and such as didn't worship the beast nor his image, and didn't receive the mark on their forehead and on their hand. They lived, and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.

The rest of the dead didn't live until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.