Keep before you, as an example of sound teaching, all that you learnt from me as you listened with that faith and love which come from union with Christ Jesus.

Guard by the help of the Holy Spirit, who is within us, the glorious trust that has been committed to you.

You know, of course, that all our friends in Roman Asia turned their backs on me, and among them Phygellus and Hermogenes.

The Lord grant that he may find mercy at the hands of the Lord on 'That Day.' The many services that he rendered at Ephesus you have the best means of knowing.

and that is why I submit to anything for the sake of God's People, that they also may obtain the Salvation which comes from union with Christ Jesus, and imperishable glory.

They have gone completely astray as regards the Truth; they say that a resurrection has already taken place, and so upset some people's faith.

Shun foolish and ignorant discussions, for you know that they only breed quarrels;

He should instruct his opponents in a gentle spirit; for, possibly, God may give them a repentance that will lead to a fuller knowledge of Truth,

Be sure of this, that in the last days difficult times will come.

treacherous, reckless, and puffed up with pride; they will love pleasure more than they love God;

They will not, however, make further progress; for their wicked folly will be plain to every one, just as that of Jannes and Jambres was.

and that, from your childhood, you have known the Sacred Writings, which can give you the wisdom that, through belief in Christ Jesus, leads to Salvation.

Everything that is written under divine inspiration is helpful for teaching, for refuting error, for giving guidance, and for training others in righteousness;

so that the Servant of God may be perfect himself, and perfectly equipped for every good action.

And now the crown of righteousness awaits me, which the Lord, the just Judge, will give me on 'That Day'--and not only to me, but to all who have loved his Appearing.

But the Lord came to my help and strengthened me, in order that, through me, the proclamation should be made so widely that all the Gentiles should hear it; and I was rescued 'out of the Lion's mouth.'

From Paul, a servant of God, and an Apostle of Jesus Christ, charged to strengthen the faith of God's Chosen People, and their knowledge of that Truth which makes for godliness, .

My reason for leaving you in Crete was that you might put in order what had been left unsettled, and appoint Officers of the Church in the various towns, as I myself directed you.

who holds doctrine that can be relied on as being in accordance with the accepted Teaching; so that he may be able to encourage others by sound teaching, as well as to refute our opponents.

Therefore rebuke them sharply, so that they may be sound in the Faith,

Teach that the older men should be temperate, serious, and discreet; strong in faith, love, and endurance.

So, too, that the older women should be reverent in their demeanor, and that they should avoid scandal, and beware of becoming slaves to drink;

that they should teach what is right, so as to train the younger women to love their husbands and children,

and to be discreet, pure-minded, domesticated, good women, ready to submit to their husbands, in order that God's Message may not be maligned.

let the instruction that you give be sound and above reproach, so that the enemy may be ashamed when he fails to find anything bad to say about us.

Teach them not to contradict or to pilfer, but to show such praiseworthy fidelity in everything, as to recommend the teaching about God our Savior by all that they do.

Remind your hearers to respect and obey the Powers that be, to be ready for every kind of good work, to speak ill of no one, to avoid quarreling,

not as the result of any righteous actions that we had done, but in fulfillment of his merciful purposes. He saved us by that Washing which was a New Birth to us, and by the renewing power of the Holy Spirit,

that, having been pronounced righteous through his loving-kindness, we might enter on our inheritance with the hope of Immortal Life.

How true that saying is! And it is on these subjects that I desire you to lay especial stress, so that those who have learned to trust in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing good. Such subjects are excellent in themselves, and of real use to mankind.

You may be sure that such a man has forsaken the Truth and is in the wrong; he stands self-condemned.

Do your best to help Zenas, the Teacher of the Law, and Apollos, on their way, and see that they want for nothing.

Let all our People learn to devote themselves to doing good, so as to meet the most pressing needs, and that their lives may not be unfruitful.

To our dear friend and fellow-worker Philemon, to our sister Apphia, to our fellow-soldier Archippus; and to the Church that meets at Philemon's house;

And I pray that your participation in the Faith may result in action, as you come to a fuller realization of everything that is good and Christlike in us.

And so, though my union with Christ enables me, with all confidence, to dictate the course that you should adopt,

For my own sake I should like to keep him with me, so that, while I am in prison for the Good News, he might attend to my wants on your behalf.

It may be that he was separated from you for an hour, for this very reason, that you might have him back for ever,

Even as I write, I have such confidence in your compliance with my wishes, that I am sure that you will do even more than I am asking.

Please also get a lodging ready for me, for I hope that I shall be given back to you all in answer to your prayers.

having shown himself as much greater than the angels as the Name that he has inherited surpasses theirs.

Thou lovest righteousness and hatest iniquity; Therefore God, thy God, has anointed thee with the festal oil more abundantly than thy peers.'

For, if the Message which was delivered by angels had its authority confirmed, so that every offence against it, or neglect of it, met with a fitting requital,

God has not given to angels the control of that Future World of which we are speaking!

No; a writer has declared somewhere-- 'What is Man that thou shouldst remember him? Or a Son of Man that thou shouldst regard him?

Thou hast made him, for a while, lower than angels; With glory and honour thou hast crowned him; Thou hast set him over all that thy hands have made;

Thou hast placed all things beneath his feet.' This 'placing of everything' under man means that there was nothing which was not placed under him. As yet, however, we do not see everything placed under man.

What our eyes do see is Jesus, who was made for a while lower than angels, now, because of his sufferings and death, crowned with glory and honour; so that his tasting the bitterness of death should, in God's loving-kindness, be on behalf of all mankind.

It was, indeed, fitting that God, for whom and through whom all things exist, should, when leading many sons to glory, make the author of their Salvation perfect through suffering.

Therefore, since human nature is the common heritage of 'the Children,' Jesus also shared it, in order that by death he might render powerless him whose power lies in death--that is, the Devil--

It was not, surely, to the help of the angels that Jesus came, but 'to the help of the descendants of Abraham.'

And consequently it was necessary that he should in all points be made like 'his Brothers,' in order that he might prove a merciful as well as a faithful High Priest in man's relations with God, for the purpose of expiating the sins of his People.

The fact that he himself suffered under temptation enables him to help those who are tempted.

He has been deemed worthy of far higher honour than Moses, just as the founder of the House is held in greater regard than the House itself.

While the faithful service of Moses in the whole House of God was that of a servant, whose duty was to bear testimony to a Message still to come,

the faithfulness of Christ was that of a Son set over the House of God. And we are his House--if only we retain, unshaken to the end, the courage and confidence inspired by our hope.

Therefore I was sorely vexed with that generation, And I said-- "Their hearts are always straying; They have never learned my ways";

Be careful, Brothers, that there is never found in any one of you a wicked and faithless heart, shown by his separating himself from the Living God.

For we now all share in the Christ, if indeed we retain, unshaken to the end, the confidence that we had at the first.

And with whom was it that God was sorely vexed for forty years? Was not it with those who had sinned, and who fell dead in the desert?

And who were they to whom God swore that they should not enter upon his rest, if not those who had proved faithless?

We see, then, that they failed to enter upon it because of their want of faith.

We must, therefore, be very careful, though there is a promise still standing that we shall enter upon God's Rest, that none of you even appear to have missed it.

Upon that Rest we who have believed are now entering. As God has said-- 'In my wrath I swore--"They shall never enter upon my Rest;"' Although God's work was finished at the creation of the world;

On the other hand, we read in that passage-- ' They shall never enter upon my Rest.'

Since, then, there is still a promise that some shall enter upon this Rest, and since those who were first told the Good News did not enter upon it, because of their disbelief,

Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter upon that Rest, so that none of us fall through such disbelief as that of which we have had an example.

God's Message is a living and active power, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing its way till it penetrates soul and spirit--not the joints only but the very marrow--and detecting the inmost thoughts and purposes of the mind.

There is no created thing that can hide itself from the sight of God. Everything is exposed and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we have to give account.

Nor does any one take that high office upon himself, till he has been called to do so by God, as Aaron was.

For whereas, considering the time that has elapsed, you ought to be teaching others, you still need some one to teach you the very alphabet of the Divine Revelation, and need again to be fed with 'milk' instead of with 'solid food.'

Ground that drinks in the showers that from time to time fall upon it, and produces vegetation useful to those for whom it is tilled, receives a blessing from God;

But about you, dear friends, even though we speak in this way, we are confident of better things--of things that point to your Salvation.

For God is not unjust; he will not forget the work that you did, and the love that you showed for his Name, in sending help to your fellow Christians--as you are still doing.

But our great desire is that every one of you should be equally earnest to attain to a full conviction that our hope will be fulfilled, and that you should keep that hope to the end.

Men, of course, swear by what is greater than themselves, and with them an oath is accepted as putting a matter beyond all dispute.

This hope is a very anchor for our souls, secure and strong, and it 'reaches into the Sanctuary that lies behind the Curtain,'

and it was to him that Abraham allotted a tithe of all the spoil. The meaning of his name is 'King of Righteousness, ' and besides that, he was also King of Salem, which means 'King of Peace.'

Those descendants of Levi, who are from time to time appointed to the priesthood, are directed to collect tithes from the people in accordance with the Law--that is from their own Brothers, although they also are descended from Abraham.

Now no one can dispute that it is the superior who blesses the inferior.

In the one case the tithes are received by mortal men; in the other case by one about whom there is the statement that his life still continues.

If, then, Perfection had been attainable through the Levitical priesthood--and it was under this priesthood that the people received the Law--why was it still necessary that a priest of a different order should appear, a priest of the order of Melchizedek and not of the order of Aaron?

For it is plain that our Lord ad sprung from the tribe of Judah, though of that tribe Moses said nothing about their being priests.

All this becomes even yet plainer when we remember that a new priest has appeared, resembling Melchizedek,

and that he was appointed, not under a Law regulating only earthly matters, but by virtue of a life beyond the reach of death;

for that is the meaning of the declaration-- 'Thou art for all time a priest of the order of Melchizedek.'

but Jesus remains for all time, and therefore the priesthood that he holds is never liable to pass to another.

And that is why he is able to save perfectly those who come to God through him, living for ever, as he does, to intercede of their behalf.

This was the High Priest that we needed--holy, innocent, spotless, withdrawn from sinners, exalted above the highest Heaven,

The Law appoints as High Priests men who are liable to infirmity, but the words of God's oath, which was later than the Law, name the Son as, for all time, the perfect Priest.

To sum up what I have been saying:--Such is the High Priest that we have, one who 'has taken his seat at the right hand' of the throne of God's Majesty in Heaven,

where he ministers in the Sanctuary, in that true Tabernacle set up by the Lord and not by man.

Every High Priest is appointed for the purpose of offering gifts and sacrifices to God; it follows, therefore, that this High Priest must have some offering to make.

(These priests, it is true, are engaged in a service which is only a copy and shadow of the heavenly realities, as is shown by the directions given to Moses when he was about to construct the Tabernacle. 'Look to it,' are the words, 'that thou make every part in accordance with the pattern shown thee on the mountain.')

If that first Covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion for a second.

"This is the Covenant that I will make with the People of Israel After those days," says the Lord. "I will impress my laws on their minds, and will inscribe them on their hearts; And I will be their God, and they shall be my People.

It is true that even the first Covenant had its regulations for divine worship, and its Sanctuary--though only a material one.

In it is the gold incense-altar, and the Ark containing the Covenant, completely covered with gold. In the Ark is a gold casket containing the manna, Aaron's rod that budded, and the tablets on which the Covenant was written;

but into the inner only the High Priest goes, and that but once a year, and never without taking the blood of a victim, which he offers on his own behalf, and on behalf of the errors of the People.

By this the Holy Spirit is teaching that the way into the Sanctuary was hidden, as long as the outer part of the Tabernacle still remained.