In which you were living in the past, after the ways of this present world, doing the pleasure of the lord of the power of the air, the spirit who is now working in those who go against the purpose of God;

For by his act we were given existence in Christ Jesus to do those good works which God before made ready for us so that we might do them.

For this reason keep it in mind that in the past you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are looked on as being outside the circumcision by those who have circumcision, in the flesh, made by hands;

And he came preaching peace to you who were far off, and to those who were near;

So then you are no longer as those who have no part or place in the kingdom of God, but you are numbered among the saints, and of the family of God,

Let no evil talk come out of your mouth, but only what is good for giving necessary teaching, and for grace to those who give ear.

Do not be turned from the right way by foolish words; for because of these things the punishment of God comes on those who do not put themselves under him.

Servants, do what is ordered by those who are your natural masters, having respect and fear for them, with all your heart, as to Christ;

Grace be with all those who have true love for our Lord Jesus Christ.

But those are preaching Christ in a spirit of competition, not from their hearts, but with the purpose of giving me pain in my prison.

Having no fear of those who are against you; which is a clear sign of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God;

So that at the name of Jesus every knee may be bent, of those in heaven and those on earth and those in the underworld,

Be on the watch against dogs, against the workers of evil, against those of the circumcision:

But those things which were profit to me, I gave up for Christ.

Brothers, it is clear to me that I have not come to that knowledge; but one thing I do, letting go those things which are past, and stretching out to the things which are before,

Brothers, take me as your example, and take note of those who are walking after the example we have given.

For there are those, of whom I have given you word before, and do so now with sorrow, who are haters of the cross of Christ;

And I make request to you, true helper in my work, to see to the needs of those women who took part with me in the good news, with Clement and the rest of my brother-workers whose names are in the book of life.

All the saints send their love to you, specially those who are of Caesar's house.

For it is my desire to give you news of the great fight I am making for you and for those at Laodicea, and for all who have not seen my face in the flesh;

Because of which the wrath of God comes on those who go against his orders;

Be wise in your behaviour to those who are outside, making good use of the time.

For I give witness of him that he has undergone much trouble for you and for those in Laodicea and in Hierapolis.

So that you became an example to all those who have faith in Christ in Macedonia and Achaia.

That you may be respected by those who are outside, and may have need of nothing.

But it is our desire, brothers, that you may be certain about those who are sleeping; so that you may have no need for sorrow, as others have who are without hope.

For if we have faith that Jesus underwent death and came back again, even so those who are sleeping will come again with him by God's power.

For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are still living at the coming of the Lord, will not go before those who are sleeping.

For those who are sleeping do so in the night; and those who are the worse for drink are so in the night;

But we make this request to you, my brothers: give attention to those who are working among you, who are over you in the Lord to keep order among you;

And our desire is that you will keep control over those whose lives are not well ordered, giving comfort to the feeble-hearted, supporting those with little strength, and putting up with much from all.

For it is an act of righteousness on God's part to give trouble as their reward to those who are troubling you,

To give punishment to those who have no knowledge of God, and to those who do not give ear to the good news of our Lord Jesus:

At his coming, when he will have glory in his saints, and will be a cause of wonder in all those who had faith (because our witness among you had effect) in that day.

And with every deceit of wrongdoing among those whose fate is destruction; because they were quite without that love of the true faith by which they might have salvation.

Now we give you orders, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to keep away from all those whose behaviour is not well ordered and in harmony with the teaching which they had from us.

With the knowledge that the law is made, not for the upright man, but for those who have no respect for law and order, for evil men and sinners, for the unholy and those who have no religion, for those who put their fathers or mothers to death, for takers of life,

For those who go after loose women, for those with unnatural desires, for those who take men prisoners, who make false statements and false oaths, and those who do any other things against the right teaching,

But for this reason I was given mercy, so that in me, the chief of sinners, Jesus Christ might make clear all his mercy, as an example to those who in the future would have faith in him to eternal life.

For kings and all those in authority; so that we may have a calm and quiet life in all fear of God and serious behaviour.

And he is to have a good name among those outside the church, so that nothing may be said against him and he may not be taken by the designs of the Evil One.

For those who have done good work as Deacons get for themselves a good position and become free from fear in the faith which is in Christ Jesus.

Who keep men from being married and from taking food which God made to be taken with praise by those who have faith and true knowledge.

And this is the purpose of all our work and our fighting, because our hope is in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, and specially of those who have faith.

Give attention to yourself and your teaching. Go on in these things; for in doing so you will get salvation for yourself and for those who give hearing to you.

If anyone has no care for his family and those in his house, he is false to the faith, and is worse than one who has no faith.

And if witness is given of her good works; if she has had the care of children, if she has been kind to travellers, washing the feet of the saints, helping those who are in trouble, giving herself to good works.

If any woman of the faith has relations who are widows, let her give them help, so that the care of them does not come on the church, and so it may give help to those who are truly widowed.

Let rulers whose rule is good be honoured twice over, specially those whose work is preaching and teaching.

In the same way, there are good works which are clearly seen; and those which are not so, may not be kept secret.

And let those whose masters are of the faith have respect for them because they are brothers, working for them the more readily, because those who take part in the good work are of the faith and are dear. Give orders and teaching about these things.

But those who have a desire for wealth are falling into danger, and are taken as in a net by a number of foolish and damaging desires, through which men are overtaken by death and destruction.

Give orders to those who have money and goods in this life, not to be lifted up in their minds, or to put their hope in the uncertain chances of wealth, but in God who gives us in full measure all things for our use;

Keep the form of those true words which you had from me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.

You have had news that all those in Asia went away from me; among whom are Phygelus and Hermogenes:

And the things which I have said to you before a number of witnesses, give to those of the faith, so that they may be teachers of others.

But take no part in wrong and foolish talk, for those who do so will go farther into evil,

But God's strong base is unchanging, having this sign, The Lord has knowledge of those who are his: and, Let everyone by whom the name of the Lord is named be turned away from evil.

But keep yourself from those desires of the flesh which are strong when the body is young, and go after righteousness, faith, love, peace, with those whose prayers go up to the Lord from a clean heart.

Gently guiding those who go against the teaching; if by chance God may give them a change of heart and true knowledge,

From now on, the crown of righteousness is made ready for me, which the Lord, the upright judge, Will give to me at that day: and not only to me, but to all those who have had love for his revelation.

Give my love to Prisca and Aquila and those of the house of Onesiphorus.

For there are men who are not ruled by law; foolish talkers, false teachers, specially those of the circumcision,

To the clean in heart all things are clean: but to those who are unclean and without faith nothing is clean; they become unclean in mind and in thought.

This is a true saying; and it is my desire that you may give certain witness about these things, so that those who have had faith in God may give attention to good works. These things are good and of profit to men;

A man whose opinions are not those of the church, after a first and second protest, is to be kept out of your society;

You have been a lover of righteousness and a hater of evil; and so God, your God, has put the oil of joy on your head more than on the heads of those who are with you.

But of which of the angels has he said at any time, Take your seat at my right hand till I put all those who are against you under your feet?

Are they not all helping spirits, who are sent out as servants to those whose heritage will be salvation?

What will come on us, if we do not give our minds to such a great salvation? a salvation of which our fathers first had knowledge through the words of the Lord, and which was made certain to us by those to whom his words came;

For he who makes holy and those who are made holy are all of one family; and for this reason it is no shame for him to give them the name of brothers,

And let those who all their lives were in chains because of their fear of death, go free.

And Moses certainly kept faith as a servant, in all his house, and as a witness of those things which were to be said later;

Who made him angry when his voice came to them? was it not all those who came out of Egypt with Moses?

And with whom was he angry for forty years? was it not with those who did evil, who came to their deaths in the waste land?

And to whom did he make an oath that they might not come into his rest? was it not to those who went against his orders?

For those of us who have belief come into his rest; even as he has said, As I said in my oath when I was angry, They may not come into my rest: though the works were done from the time of the making of the world.

Because of this, let us have a strong desire to come into that rest, and let no one go after the example of those who went against God's orders.

Every high priest who is taken from among men is given his position to take care of the interests of men in those things which have to do with God, so that he may make offerings for sins.

He is able to have feeling for those who have no knowledge and for those who are wandering from the true way, because he himself is feeble;

And when he had been made complete, he became the giver of eternal salvation to all those who are under his orders;

But solid food is for men of full growth, even for those whose senses are trained by use to see what is good and what is evil.

As for those who at one time saw the light, tasting the good things from heaven, and having their part in the Holy Spirit,

For a land, drinking in the frequent rain and producing good plants for those for whom it is worked, has a blessing from God:

So that you may not be slow in heart, but may take as your example those to whom God has given their heritage, because of their faith and their long waiting.

So that when it was God's desire to make it specially clear to those who by his word were to have the heritage, that his purpose was fixed, he made it more certain with an oath;

And it is true that by the law, those of the sons of Levi who have the position of priests may take a tenth part of the people's goods; that is to say, they take it from their brothers though these are the sons of Abraham.

(For those were made priests without an oath, but this one was made a priest with an oath by him who says of him, The Lord gave his oath, which he will not take back, that you are a priest for ever);

And it is true that there have been a great number of those priests, because death does not let them go on for ever;

Who has no need to make offerings for sins every day, like those high priests, first for himself, and then for the people; because he did this once and for ever when he made an offering of himself.

For this is the agreement which I will make with the people of Israel after those days: I will put my laws into their minds, writing them in their hearts: and I will be their God, and they will be my people:

And for this cause it is through him that a new agreement has come into being, so that after the errors under the first agreement had been taken away by his death, the word of God might have effect for those who were marked out for an eternal heritage.

So Christ, having at his first coming taken on himself the sins of men, will be seen a second time, without sin, by those who are waiting for him, for their salvation.

For the law, being only a poor copy of the future good things, and not the true image of those things, is never able to make the people who come to the altar every year with the same offerings completely clean.

For if this had been possible, would there not have been an end of those offerings, because the worshippers would have been made completely clean and would have been no longer conscious of sins?

But year by year there is a memory of sins in those offerings.

Because by one offering he has made complete for ever those who are made holy.

This is the agreement which I will make with them after those days, says the Lord; I will put my laws in their hearts, writing them in their minds; he said,

In part, in being attacked by angry words and cruel acts, before the eyes of everyone, and in part, in being united with those who were attacked in this way.

For you had pity on those who were in prison, and had joy in the loss of your property, in the knowledge that you still had a better property and one which you would keep for ever.