That is the way I run, with a clear goal in mind. That is the way I fight, not like someone shadow boxing.

But if anyone wants to argue about this, we do not have any custom like this, nor do any of God's churches.

When I was a child, I spoke like a child, thought like a child, and reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up my childish ways.

In the same way, lifeless instruments like the flute or harp produce sounds. But if there's no difference in the notes, how can a person tell what tune is being played?

Brothers, stop being childish in your thinking. Be like infants with respect to evil, but think like adults.

Those who are made of the dust are like the man from the dust; those who are heavenly are like the man who is from heaven.

to submit yourselves to people like these and to anyone else who shares their labor and hard work.

They refreshed my spirit and yours, too. Therefore, appreciate men like that.

As certainly as God is faithful, we haven't talked to you with mixed messages like that.

At least we are not commercializing God's word like so many others. Instead, we speak with sincerity in the Messiah's name, like people who are sent from God and are accountable to God.

not like Moses, who kept covering his face with a veil to keep the people of Israel from gazing at the end of what was fading away.

As all of us reflect the glory of the Lord with unveiled faces, we are becoming more like him with ever-increasing glory by the Lord's Spirit.

Of course, we are living in the world, but we do not wage war in a world-like way.

Someone like this should take note of the following: What we say by letter when we are absent is what we will do when present!

I will say it again: No one should think that I am a fool. But if you do, then treat me like a fool so that I can also boast a little.

When I talk as a confident boaster, I am not talking with the Lord's authority but like a fool.

I am ashamed to admit it, but we have been too weak for that. Whatever anyone else dares to claim I am talking like a fool I can claim it, too.

Are they the Messiah's servants? I am insane to talk like this, but I am a far better one! I have been involved in far greater efforts, far more imprisonments, countless beatings, and have faced death more than once.

But when I saw that they were not acting consistently with the truth of the gospel, I told Cephas in front of everyone, "Though you are a Jew, you have been living like a gentile and not like a Jew. So how can you insist that the gentiles must live like Jews?"

I beg you, brothers, to become like me, since I became like you. You did not do anything wrong to me.

So you, brothers, are children of the promise, like Isaac.

envy, murder, drunkenness, wild partying, and things like that. I am telling you now, as I have told you in the past, that people who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Indeed, all of us once behaved like them in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of our flesh and senses. By nature we were destined for wrath, just like everyone else.

Then we will no longer be little children, tossed like waves and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people's trickery, or by clever strategies that would lead us astray.

Therefore, I tell you and insist on in the Lord not to live any longer like the gentiles live, thinking worthless thoughts.

Do not do this only while you're being watched in order to please them, but be like slaves of the Messiah, who are determined to obey God's will.

so that you may be blameless and innocent, God's children without any faults among a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine like stars in the world

Yet even if I am being poured out like an offering as part of the sacrifice and service I offer for your faith, I rejoice, and I share my joy with all of you.

I do not have anyone else like him who takes a genuine interest in your welfare.

But you know his proven worth how like a son with his father he served with me in the gospel.

I want to know the Messiah what his resurrection power is like and what it means to share in his sufferings by becoming like him in his death,

He will change our unassuming bodies and make them like his glorious body through the power that enables him to bring everything under his authority.

You used to behave like them as you lived among them.

even though as apostles of the Messiah we might have made such demands. Instead, we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother tenderly caring for her own children.

not with passion and lust like the gentiles who do not know God.

But we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, about those who have died, so that you may not grieve like other people who have no hope.

for you yourselves know very well that the Day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.

However, brothers, you are not in the darkness, in order that the Day of the Lord might surprise you like a thief.

Therefore, let's not fall asleep like others do, but let's stay awake and be sober.

Yet, don't treat him like an enemy, but warn him like a brother.

with faith and a good conscience. By ignoring their consciences, some people have destroyed their faith like a wrecked ship.

Never speak harshly to an older man, but appeal to him as if he were your father. Treat younger men like brothers,

older women like mothers, and younger women like sisters, with absolute purity.

Join me in suffering like a good soldier of the Messiah Jesus.

Because of it I am experiencing trouble, even to the point of being chained like a criminal. However, God's word is not chained.

and what they say will spread everywhere like gangrene. Hymenaeus and Philetus are like that.

For you know that a person like this is corrupt and keeps on sinning, being self-condemned.

As I send him back, it's like I'm coming along with him.

They will come to an end, but you will remain forever. They will all wear out like clothes.

You will roll them up like a robe, and they will be changed like clothes. But you remain the same, and your life will never end."

thereby becoming like his brothers in every way, so that he could be a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God and could atone for the people's sins.

Even though we speak like this, dear friends, we are convinced of better things in your case, things that point to salvation.

That hope, firm and secure like an anchor for our souls, reaches behind the curtain

He has no father, mother, or genealogy, no birth date recorded for him, nor a date of death. Like the Son of God, he continues to be a priest forever.

This point is even more obvious in that another priest who is like Melchizedek has appeared

He has no need to offer sacrifices every day like high priests do, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he sacrificed himself.

It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors at the time when I took them by the hand and brought them out of the land of Egypt. Because they did not remain loyal to my covenant, I ignored them, declares the Lord.

When everything had been arranged like this, the priests always went into the first part of the tent to perform their duties.

By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger, living in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who also inherited the same promise,

No one should be immoral or godless like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal.

But he must ask in faith, without any doubts, for the one who has doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.

and a rich person in his having been humbled, because he will fade away like a wild flower.

For if anyone hears the word but is not obedient to it, he is like a man who looks at himself in a mirror

and studies himself carefully, and then goes off and immediately forgets what he looks like.

You must make it your habit to speak and act like people who are going to be judged by the law of liberty.

From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. It should not be like this, my brothers!

your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be used as evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have stored up treasures in these last days.

Elijah was a person just like us, and he prayed earnestly for it not to rain, and rain never came to the land for three years and six months.

For you know that it was not with perishable things like silver or gold that you have been ransomed from the worthless way of life handed down to you by your ancestors,

but with the precious blood of the Messiah, like that of a lamb without blemish or defect.

For "All human life is like grass, and all its glory is like a flower in the grass. The grass dries up and the flower drops off,

Like newborn babies, thirst for the pure milk of the word so that by it you may grow in your salvation.

Live like free people, and do not use your freedom as an excuse for doing evil. Instead, be God's servants.

You were "like sheep that kept going astray," but now you have returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls.

For you spent enough time in the past doing what the gentiles like to do, living in sensuality, sinful desires, drunkenness, wild celebrations, drinking parties, and detestable idolatry.

Indeed, this is why the gospel was proclaimed even to those who have died, so that they could be judged in their mortal flesh like all humans and live in the spiritual realm like God.

Be clear-minded and alert. Your opponent, the Devil, is prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.

These people, like irrational animals, are mere creatures of instinct that are born to be caught and killed. They insult what they don't understand, and like animals they, too, will be destroyed,

Don't forget this fact, dear friends: With the Lord a single day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a single day.

But the Day of the Lord will come like a thief. On that day the heavens will disappear with a roaring sound, the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done on it will be exposed.

Dear friends, we are now God's children, but what we will be like has not been revealed yet. We know that when the Messiah is revealed, we will be like him, because we will see him as he is.

Do not be like Cain, who was from the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because what he was doing was evil and his brother's actions were righteous.

This is how love has been perfected among us: we will have confidence on the day of judgment because, during our time in this world, we are just like him.

Likewise, Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities near them, which like them committed sexual sins and pursued homosexual activities, serve as an example of the punishment of eternal fire.

Whatever these people do not understand, they slander. Like irrational animals, they are destroyed by the very things they know by instinct.

11How terrible it will be for them! For they lived like Cain did , rushed headlong into Balaam's error to make a profit, and destroyed themselves, as happened in Korah's rebellion.

I came to be in the Spirit on the Day of the Lord, when I heard a loud voice behind me like a trumpet,

Among the lamp stands there was someone like the Son of Man. He was wearing a long robe with a gold sash around his chest.

His head and his hair were white like wool, in fact, as white as snow. His eyes were like flames of fire,

his feet were like glowing bronze refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of raging waters.

In his right hand he held seven stars, and out of his mouth came a sharp, two-edged sword. His face was like the sun when it shines with full force.

When I saw him, I fell down at his feet like a dead man. But he placed his right hand on me and said, "Stop being afraid! I am the first and the last,

"To the messenger of the church in Thyatira, write: "The Son of God, whose eyes are like flaming fire and whose feet are like glowing bronze, says this:

Look! I am going to strike her with illness. Those who commit adultery with her will also suffer greatly, unless they repent from acting like her.

"He will rule them with an iron scepter; shattering them like clay pots.'

So remember what you received and heard. Obey it, and repent. If you are not alert, I will come like a thief, and you won't know the time when I will come to you.

After these things, I saw a door standing open in heaven. The first voice that I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, "Come up here, and I will show you what must happen after this."

The person sitting there looked like jasper and carnelian, and there was a rainbow around the throne that looked like an emerald.

In front of the throne was something like a sea of glass as clear as crystal. In the center of the throne and on each side of the throne were four living creatures full of eyes in front and in back.

The first living creature was like a lion, the second living creature was like an ox, the third living creature had a face like a human, and the fourth living creature was like a flying eagle.