Not that I have already reached the goal or am already fully mature, but I make every effort to take hold of it because I also have been taken hold of by Christ Jesus.

I don't imagine, my brethren, that I am arriv'd at the goal; but this I do, unmindful of what is pass'd, I stretch towards that which is in view,

I press on toward the goal unto the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Toward this goal I also labor, struggling according to his power that powerfully works in me.

My goal is that their hearts, having been knit together in love, may be encouraged, and that they may have all the riches that assurance brings in their understanding of the knowledge of the mystery of God, namely, Christ,

Let no one then call you to account about food or drink, or a feastday, or a new moon, or sabbaths;

So put to death and deprive of power the evil longings of your earthly body [with its sensual, self-centered instincts] immorality, impurity, sinful passion, evil desire, and greed, which is [a kind of] idolatry [because it replaces your devotion to God].

let an air of modesty appear in all your discourse; and let it be seasoned with discretion, in making a proper reply, when you are call'd into question.

without ceasing, and call to remembrance your work in the faith, and labour in love and perseverance in the hope of our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God our father:

As to the rest, then, brethren, we request you, and call upon you in the Lord Jesus, as ye did receive from us how it behoveth you to walk and to please God, that ye may abound the more,

for God did not call us on uncleanness, but in sanctification;

for ye do it also to all the brethren who are in all Macedonia; and we call upon you, brethren, to abound still more,

Also, make it your goal to live quietly, to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we instructed you,

With a shout of command, with the archangel's call, and with the sound of God's trumpet, the Lord himself will come down from heaven, and the dead who belong to the Messiah will rise first.

Faithful and absolutely trustworthy is He who is calling you [to Himself for your salvation], and He will do it [He will fulfill His call by making you holy, guarding you, watching over you, and protecting you as His own].

I call on you solemnly in the Lord to have this letter read to all the brothers and sisters.

It is with this view also that we continually pray to our God for you, asking that He will count you worthy of His call, and by His mighty power fully gratify your every desire for what is truly good and make your work of faith complete;

Then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will kill with the breath of his mouth, and destroy by the manifestation of his coming;

to which He did call you through our good news, to the acquiring of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ;

But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a faith without hypocrisy,

We know that the law is not meant for a righteous person, but for the lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinful, for the unholy and irreverent, for those who kill their fathers and mothers, for murderers,

Those are the points on which you should dwell, that there may be no call for your censure.

I solemnly call upon you, in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus and of the elect angels, to carry out these instructions of mine without prejudice, and to do nothing from partiality.

Some people's sins are notorious and call for judgment, but in some cases sin only comes out afterwards.

Run the great race of the Faith, and win the Immortal Life. It was for this that you received the Call, and, in the presence of many witnesses, made the great profession of Faith.

Timothy, guard what has been intrusted to you. Keep away from the worldly, empty phrases and contradictions of what they falsely call knowledge,

when I call to mind your affliction, it makes me ardently desire the exceeding pleasure I shall have in seeing you:

When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice; and I am persuaded that in thee also.

who did save us, and did call with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, that was given to us in Christ Jesus, before the times of the ages,

Call to mind these things, charging [men] before the Lord not to debate about words, to no profit, to the subversion of the hearers.

Now in a large house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of clay. Some are for honor, and some for dishonor.

Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.

I call to witness before God there fore, and the Lord Jesus Christ, being about to judge the living and the dead according to his appearance and his kingdom;

But as for you, be clear-headed in every situation [stay calm and cool and steady], endure every hardship [without flinching], do the work of an evangelist, fulfill [the duties of] your ministry.

for Demas, in his love for this world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica; Crescens is off to Gaul, Titus to Dalmatia,

Luke is the only friend I now have with me. Call for Mark on your way and bring him with you, for he is a great help to me in my ministry.

and to Apphia our sister [Note: This was probably Philemon's wife], and to Archippus our fellow-soldier [Note: This was probably Philemon's preacher son. See Col. 4:17] and to the church [that meets] in your house.

[but] during these final days He has spoken to us through His Son [Note: This period refers to the Christian age (See Acts 2:14-36)], whom He appointed to be heir of all things [and] through whom He created the universe. [See John 1:3; Col. 1:16].

And again, when God sent the Firstborn One [i.e., Jesus. See Rom. 8:29; Col. 1:15, 18; Rev. 1:5] into the world, He said [Deut. 32:43 LXX], "And all of God's angels should worship Him."

For if the message spoken through angels proved to be binding [Note: This is a reference to the law of Moses. See Acts 7:53; Gal. 3:19], and every violation [of it] and disobedience [to it] received a just penalty,

For it was appropriate for Him, who is the Final Goal and the First Cause of the universe, in bringing many children to glory, to make the Leader in their salvation perfect through the process of sufferings.

For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren,

Whence, holy brothers, partakers of the heavenly call, consider the apostle and chief priest of our profession, Jesus,

And that is why he is the intermediary of a new Covenant; in order that, as a death has taken place to effect a deliverance from the offenses committed under the first Covenant, those who have received the Call may obtain the eternal inheritance promised to them.

But call to remembrance the former days, in which, after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions;

It was faith that enabled Abraham to obey the Call that he received, and to set out for the place which he was afterwards to obtain as his own; and he set out not knowing where he was going.

Therefore, we should be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken [i.e., the church. See Col. 1:13; Rev. 1:6, 9]. So, with reverence and awe, we should serve God in a way that pleases Him,

and more abundantly do I call upon you to do this, that more quickly I may be restored to you.

I call on you, brothers and sisters, listen [patiently] to this message of exhortation and encouragement, for I have written to you briefly.

For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law.

Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.

See, the wages of which you have defrauded the workmen who mowed your fields call out, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of Hosts.

Behold, we call them blessed that endured: ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord, how that the Lord is full of pity, and merciful.

Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord:

obtaining the goal of your faith, the salvation of [your] souls.

Brace up your minds, then, keep cool, and put your hope for good and all in the grace that is coming to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

but according as He who did call you is holy, ye also, become holy in all behaviour,

And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear:

and ye are a choice race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people acquired, that the excellences ye may shew forth of Him who out of darkness did call you to His wondrous light;

Beloved, I call upon you, as strangers and sojourners, to keep from the fleshly desires, that war against the soul,

but they will be call'd to account by him, who is ready to judge both the living and the dead.

Now the end of all is near. Steady then, keep cool and pray!

Be sensible and alert; your enemy the devil is prowling around like a roaring [i.e., hungry] lion looking for someone to [kill and] eat.

And the God of all grace, who did call you to His age-during glory in Christ Jesus, having suffered a little, Himself make you perfect, establish, strengthen, settle you;

As all things to us His divine power (the things pertaining unto life and piety) hath given, through the acknowledgement of him who did call us through glory and worthiness,

Therefore, Brothers, do your best to put God's Call and Selection of you beyond all doubt; for, if you do this, you will never fall.

Yea, I will give diligence that at every time ye may be able after my decease to call these things to remembrance.

These men are like springs without water, or mists driven before a gale; and for them the blackest darkness has been reserved.

to call to remembrance the words which were told before of the holy prophets, and also the commandment of us; the apostles of the Lord and Saviour.

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.

For this reason, if I come, I will call attention to what he is doing, unjustly accusing us with wicked words and unjustified charges. And not satisfied with this, he refuses to receive the [missionary] brothers himself, and also forbids those who want to [welcome them] and puts them out of the church.

To those who, having received the Call, have been loved by God the Father and protected by Jesus Christ, From Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ, and the brother of James.

Now, I would call to your remembrance what you once were inform'd of, that when the Lord had delivered the people from the land of Egypt, he afterward destroyed those that were disobedient.

Now, may there be honor and majesty and power to God, who is able to guard you people from stumbling [and falling away from Him, See Gal. 5:4], and [who is able] to place you before His glorious presence without any [moral] blemish, but with great joy.

His feet were like burnished bronze, when it has been made to glow in a furnace, and His voice was like the sound of many waters.

I know thy works, and thy toil and patience, and that thou canst not bear evil men, and didst try them that call themselves apostles, and they are not, and didst find them false;

'I know your affliction and poverty (but you are rich), and the slander of those {who call themselves Jews} and are not, but [are] a synagogue of Satan.

“And to the angel (divine messenger) of the church in Thyatira write:

“These are the words of the Son of God, who has eyes [that flash] like a flame of fire [in righteous judgment], and whose feet are like burnished [white-hot] bronze:

And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works.

But to you I say, to the rest who are in Thyatira, as many as don't have this teaching, who don't know what some call 'the deep things of Satan,' to you I say, I am not putting any other burden on you.

and "he will shepherd them with an iron rod; he will break [them] in pieces like jars made of clay,"

So remember and take to heart the lessons you have received and heard. Keep and obey them, and repent [change your sinful way of thinking, and demonstrate your repentance with new behavior that proves a conscious decision to turn away from sin]. So then, if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come to you.

Behold, I am causing [those] of the synagogue of Satan, the ones who call themselves Jews and are not, but are lying--behold, I will make them {come} and kneel down before your feet and acknowledge that I have loved you.

Then I saw as the Lamb (Christ) broke one of the seven seals [of the scroll initiating the judgments], and I heard one of the four living creatures call out as with a voice of thunder, “Come.”

When He (the Lamb) broke the second seal, I heard the second living creature call out, “Come.”

And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword.

When He (the Lamb) broke open the third seal, I heard the third living creature call out, “Come.” I looked, and behold, a black horse [of famine]; and the rider had in his hand a pair of scales (a balance).

When He (the Lamb) broke open the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature call out, “Come.”

And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.

The stars in the sky also fell to the earth, as when a fig-tree, upon being shaken by a gale of wind, casts its unripe figs to the ground.

And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man.

And the four angels were loosed, that had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, that they should kill the third part of men.

For the power of the horses [to kill] is in their mouths and in their tails, for their tails are like snakes that have heads with which to harm people.

but when it is time for the trumpet call of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, then the mystery of God [that is, His hidden purpose and plan] is finished, as He announced the gospel to His servants the prophets.

And if any one would hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth and devoureth their enemies, and if any would kill them, he must thus be killed.

And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.

the inhabitants of the land will rejoice, and triumph over them, they will send presents to one another; because the two prophets had gall'd the inhabitants of the land.

the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, call'd the devil or satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast down to the earth, and his angels were precipitated with him.

If any man is for captivity, into captivity he goeth: if any man shall kill with the sword, with the sword must he be killed. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.

Here is wisdom. Let the person who has enough insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the [imperfect] number of a man; and his number is six hundred and sixty-six.