But the solid foundation laid by God remains, and this is its inscription: the Lord knows who are his, and 'let everyone who names the name of the Lord give up evil.'

If one will only keep clear of the latter, he will be put to noble use, he will be consecrated and useful to the Owner of the House, he will be set apart for good work of all kinds.

he must be gentle in his admonitions to the opposition ??God may perhaps let them change their mind and admit the Truth;

they may come to their senses again and escape the snare of the devil, as they are brought back to life by God to do his will.

they will be treacherous, reckless and conceited, preferring pleasure to God ??5 for though they keep up a form of religion, they will have nothing to do with it as a force. Avoid all such.

Some of them worm their way into families and get hold of the women-folk who feel crushed by the burden of their sins ??wayward creatures of impulse,

However, they will get no further, for their aberration will be detected by everyone, as was the case with these magicians.

All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for amendment, and for moral discipline,

to make the man of God proficient and equip him for good work of every kind.

In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus who will judge the living and the dead, in the light of his appearance and his reign,

I have fought in the good fight; I have run my course; I have kept the faith.

Now the crown of a good life awaits me, with which the Lord, that just Judge, will reward me on the great Day ??and not only me but all who have loved and longed for his appearance.

The first time I had to defend myself, I had no supporters; everyone deserted me. God grant it may not be brought up against them!

Paul a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ for the faith of God's elect and for their knowledge of the Truth that goes with a religious life,

serving in hope of the life eternal which God, who never lies, promised ages ago ??3 he gave effect to his word in due time by a proclamation with which I have been entrusted by command of God our Saviour: ??4 to Titus my lawful son in a faith we hold in common; grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Saviour.

[For a bishop must be above reproach ??he is a steward of God's house ??he must not be presumptuous or hot-tempered or a drunkard or violent or addicted to pilfering;

They profess to know God, but they deny him by their deeds; they are detestable, disobedient, and useless for good work of any kind.

they must give good counsel, so that the young women may be trained to love their husbands and children,

set them an example of good conduct; be sincere and serious in your teaching,

not to embezzle, but to prove themselves truly faithful at all points, so as to be an ornament to the doctrine of God our Saviour in all respects.

For the grace of God has appeared to save all men,

awaiting the blessed hope of the appearance of the Glory of the great God and of our Saviour Christ Jesus,

who gave himself up for us to redeem us from all iniquity and secure himself a clean people with a zest for good works.

Remind them to be submissive to their rulers and authorities; they must obey, they must be ready for any good work,

But "the goodness and affection of God our Saviour appeared;

It is a sure saying. I want you to insist on this, that those who have faith in God must profess honest occupations. Such counsels are right and good for men.

grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I always thank my God when I mention you in my prayers;

I pray that by their participation in your loyal faith they may have a vivid sense of how much good we Christians can attain.

Perhaps this was why you and he were parted for a while, that you might get him back for good,

And get quarters ready for me, for I am hoping that by your prayers I shall be restored to you.

Many were the forms and fashions in which God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets,

He, reflecting God's bright glory and stamped with God's own character, sustains the universe with his word of power; when he had secured our purification from sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high;

For to what angel did God ever say, 'Thou art my son, to-day have I become thy father'? Or again, 'I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me'?

And further, when introducing the Firstborn into the world, he says, 'Let all God's angels worship him.'

he says of the Son, 'God is thy throne for ever and ever, thy royal sceptre is the sceptre of equity:

thou hast loved justice and hated lawlessness, therefore God, thy God, has consecrated thee with the oil of rejoicing beyond thy comrades' ??10 and, 'Thou didst found the earth at the beginning, O Lord, and the heavens are the work at thy hands;

For if the divine word spoken by angels held good, if transgression and disobedience met with due punishment in every case,

while God corroborated their testimony with signs and wonders and a variety of miraculous powers, distributing the holy Spirit as it pleased him.

what we do see is Jesus who was put lower than the angels for a little while to suffer death, and who has been crowned with glory and honour that by God's grace he might taste death for everyone.

and again, 'I will put my trust in him,' and again, 'Here am I and the children God has given me.'

he is faithful to Him who appointed him. For while Moses also was faithful in every department of God's house,

(Every house is founded by someone, but God is the founder of all.)

Besides, while Moses was faithful in every department of God's house as an attendant ??by way of witness to the coming revelation ??6 Christ is faithful as a Son over God's house. Now we are this house of God, if we will only keep confident and proud of our hope.

Brothers, take care in case there is a wicked, unbelieving heart in any of you, moving you to apostatize from the living God.

For we have had the good news as well as they; only, the message they heard was of no use to them, because it did not meet with faith in the hearers.

For he says this somewhere about the seventh day: And God rested from all his works on the seventh day.

Since then it is reserved for some to enter it, and since those who formerly got the good news failed to enter owing to their disobedience,

Thus if Joshua had given them Rest, God would not speak later about another day.

There is a sabbath-Rest, then, reserved still for the People of God

(for once a man enters his rest, he rests from work just as God did).

For the Logos of God is a living thing, active and more cutting than any sword with double edge, penetrating to the very division of soul and spirit, joints and marrow ??scrutinizing the very thoughts and conceptions of the heart.

As we have a great high priest, then, who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession;

Also, it is an office which no one elects to take for himself; he is called to it by God, just as Aaron was.

being designated by God high priest with the rank of Melchizedek.

Whereas solid food is for the mature, for those who have their faculties trained by exercise to distinguish good and evil.)

Let us pass on then to what is mature, leaving elementary Christian doctrine behind, instead of laying the foundation over again with repentance from dead works, with faith in God,

With God's permission, we will take this step.

who tasted the goodness of God's word and the powers of the world to come, and then fell away ??6 it is impossible to make them repent afresh, since they crucify the Son of God in their own persons and hold him up to obloquy.

For land which absorbs the rain that often falls on it, and bears plants that are useful to those for whom it is tilled, receives a blessing from God;

God is not unfair; he will not forget what you have done, or the love you have shown for his sake in ministering, as you still do, to the saints.

For in making a promise to Abraham God swore by himself (since he could swear by none greater),

God, in his desire to afford the heirs of the Promise a special proof of the solid character of his purpose, interposed with an oath;

so that by these two solid facts (the Promise and the Oath), where it is impossible for God to be false, we refugees might have strong encouragement to seize the hope set before us,

For Melchizedek, the king of Salem, a priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham on his return from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him ??2 who had a tenth part of everything assigned him by Abraham ??this Melchizedek is primarily a king of righteousness (that is the meaning of his name); then, besides that, king of Salem (which means, king of peace).

He has neither father nor mother nor genealogy, neither a beginning to his days nor an end of his life, but, resembling the Son of God, continues to be priest permanently.

(for the Law made nothing perfect), and there is introduced a better Hope, by means of which we can draw near to God.

Hence for all time he is able to save those who approach God through him, as he is always living to intercede on their behalf.

(men who serve a mere outline and shadow of the heavenly ??as Moses was instructed, when he was about to execute the building of the tabernacle: see, God said, that you make everything on the pattern shown you upon the mountain).

Whereas God does find fault with the people of that covenant, when he says: The day is coming, saith the Lord, when I will conclude a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. It will not be on the lines of the covenant I made with their fathers,

This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel when that day comes, saith the Lord; I will set my laws within their mind, inscribing them upon their hearts; I will be a God to them, and they shall be a People to me;

how much more shall the blood of Christ, who in the spirit of the eternal offered himself as an unblemished sacrifice to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve a living God?

Hence even the first covenant of God's will was not inaugurated apart from blood;

and saying, This is the blood of that covenant which is God's command for you.

For Christ has not entered a holy place which human hands have made (a mere type of the reality!); he has entered heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.

So I said, 'Here I come ??in the roll of the book this is written of me ??I come to do thy will, O God.'

Again, while every priest stands daily at his service, offering the same sacrifices repeatedly, sacrifices which never can take sins away ??12 He offered a single sacrifice for sins and then seated himself for all time at the right hand of God,

and since we have a great Priest over the house of God,

and let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good deeds ??25 not ceasing to meet together, as is the habit of some, but admonishing one another, all the more so, as you see the Day coming near.

nothing but an awful outlook of doom, of that burning Wrath which will consume the foes of God.

How much heavier, do you suppose, will be the punishment assigned to him who has spurned the Son of God, who has profaned the covenant-blood with which he was sanctified, who has insulted the Spirit of grace?

It is an awful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Steady patience is what you need, so that after doing the will of God you may get what you have been promised.

It is by faith we understand that the world was fashioned by the word of God, and thus the visible was made out of the invisible.

It was by faith that Abel offered God a richer sacrifice than Cain did, and thus won from God the record of being 'just,' on the score of what he gave; he died, but by his faith he is speaking to us still.

It was by faith that Enoch was taken to heaven, so that he never died (he was not overtaken by death, for God had taken him away). For before he was taken to heaven, his record was that he had satisfied God;

and apart from faith it is impossible to satisfy him, for the man who draws near to God must believe that he exists and that he does reward those who seek him.

It was by faith that Noah, after being told by God what was still unseen, reverently constructed an ark to save his household; thus he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that follows faith.

he was waiting for the City with its fixed foundations, whose builder and maker is God.

It was by faith that even Sara got strength to conceive, bearing a son when she was past the age for it ??because she considered she could rely on Him who gave the promise.

but they really aspire to the better land in heaven. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God; he has prepared a City for them.)

and had been told that it is through Isaac that your offspring shall be reckoned ??19 for he considered that God was able even to raise men from the dead. Hence he did get him back, by what was a parable of the resurrection.

ill-treatment with God's people he preferred to the passing pleasures of sin,

others, again, had to experience scoffs and scourging, aye chains and imprisonment ??37 they were stoned, sawn in two, and cut to pieces; they had to roam about in sheepskins and goatskins, forlorn, oppressed, ill-treated

God had something better in store for us; he would not have them perfected apart from us.

our eyes fixed upon Jesus as the pioneer and the perfection of faith ??upon Jesus who, in order to reach his own appointed joy, steadily endured the cross, thinking nothing of its shame, and is now seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons; for where is the son who is not disciplined by his father?

Discipline is the portion of all; if you get no discipline, then you are not sons but bastards.

For while their discipline was only for a time, and inflicted at their pleasure, he disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his own holiness.

And make straight paths for your feet to walk in. You must not let the lame get dislocated, but rather make them whole.