Pray for me too, that God may give me an opening for the message, and let me tell the secret of Christ on account of which I am kept in prison

That was the kind of affection we had for you, which made us ready to share with you not only God's good news but our own lives too, because you were so dear to us.

We for our part constantly thank God for another reason too??ecause when you received God's message from our lips, you welcomed it not as the message of men but as the message of God, as it really is, which does its work in the hearts of you believers.

This is a proof of God's justice in judging, and it is to prove you worthy of the Kingdom of God, for the sake of which you are suffering,

nor to devote themselves to fictions and interminable pedigrees; such things lead to controversy instead of the divine system which operates through faith.

as set forth in the glorious good news of the blessed God with which I have been intrusted.

Anyone who teaches different views and does not agree with the wholesome instruction which comes from our Lord Jesus Christ, and with religious teaching

is a conceited, ignorant person, with a morbid craving for speculations and arguments which result only in envy, quarreling, abuse, base suspicions,

Enter the great contest of faith! Take hold of eternal life, to which God called you, when before many witnesses you made the great profession of faith.

which will be brought about in his own time by the blessed, only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords,

through professing which some people have made a failure of the faith. God bless you all.

Paul, by God's will an apostle of Christ Jesus in fulfilment of the promise of that life which is found in union with Christ Jesus,

He saved us and called us to a consecrated life, not for anything we had done, but of his own accord and out of the mercy which he bestowed upon us ages ago through Christ Jesus,

which has now been revealed through the appearance of our Savior Christ Jesus. He has taken away the power of death and brought life and immortality to light through the good news,

of which I have been appointed a herald, apostle and teacher.

for the sake of which I even suffer imprisonment as a criminal. But God's message is not imprisoned!

Remind men of these things. Charge them before God to avoid idle arguments which do no one any good and only bring destruction on those who listen to them.

and how from childhood you have known the Scriptures which can give you the wisdom that through faith in Christ Jesus leads to salvation.

Now the crown of uprightness awaits me, which the Lord, the upright judge, will award me on that Day, and not only me but also all who have loved and hoped for his appearing.

in the hope of eternal life, which God who never lies promised ages ago,

and revealed at the proper time in his message, through the preaching with which I have been intrusted at the command of God our Savior,

which he has poured out upon us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior,

For we who have believed are admitted to that Rest, of which he said, "As I made oath in my anger, They shall never be admitted to my Rest!" And yet God's work was finished at the creation of the world,

so that by these two unalterable things, which make it impossible for God to break his promise, we who have taken refuge with him may be greatly encouraged to seize upon the hope that is offered to us.

to whom Abraham apportioned one tenth of all the spoil, who is first, as his name shows, king of righteousness and then king of Salem, which means king of peace??3 with no father or mother or ancestry, and with no beginning to his days nor end to his life, but like no one but the Son of God, continues as priest forever.

For he of whom all this was said was related to a tribe no member of which ever officiated at the altar.

For it is perfectly clear that our Lord sprang from the tribe of Judah, with reference to which Moses said nothing at all about priests.

(for there was nothing final about the Law), and a better hope begins to dawn, through which we may approach God.

the agreement which he guarantees is better than the old one,

For the Law appoints to the high priesthood men full of imperfection; but this utterance about the making of the oath, which came long after the Law, appoints a son, fully qualified to be high priest forever.

to officiate as priest in the sanctuary and in that true tent of worship which not man but the Lord himself set up.

But, as it is, the priestly service to which Christ has been appointed is as much better than the old as the agreement established by him and the promises on which it is based are superior to the former ones.

For a tent was erected, with the lamp and the table and the presentation bread in the outer part, which was called the sanctuary.

and above the chest were the winged creatures of the Divine Presence overshadowing the lid on which the blood was sprinkled??f which I cannot now speak in detail.

But when Christ came, as the high priest of the better system under which we live, he went once for all, through that greater, more perfect tent of worship not made by human hands nor a part of our material creation, into the sanctuary,

saying, "This blood ratifies the agreement which God has commanded me to make with you."

At first he says, "You never wished or cared for sacrifices or offerings, or burnt-offerings or sacrifices for sin"??ll of which the Law prescribes??9 and then he adds, "See, I have come to do your will!" He is taking away the old to put the new in its place.

by the new, living way which he has opened for us, through the curtain, that is, his physical nature,

but only the dreadful prospect of judgment and that blazing indignation which is to devour God's enemies.

How much worse a punishment do you think will anyone deserve who tramples the Son of God underfoot, and treats as worthless the blood of the agreement by which he has been purified, and outrages God's spirit of mercy?

Faith led Noah, when he was warned by God of things no one then saw, in obedience to the warning to build an ark in which to save his family, and by such faith he condemned the world, and came to possess that uprightness which faith produces.

Faith enabled Abraham to obey when God summoned him to leave his home for a region which he was to have for his own, and to leave home without knowing where he was going.

And if it had been the country from which they had come to which their thoughts turned back, they would have found an opportunity to return to it.

Therefore, let us too, with such a crowd of witnesses about us, throw off every impediment and the entanglement of sin, and run with determination the race for which we are entered,

But if you have none of that discipline which all sons undergo, you are illegitimate children, and not true sons.

Try to be at peace with everyone, and strive for that consecration without which no one can see the Lord.

You must not be carried away with strange varieties of teaching. The true way to steadfastness of heart is through God's mercy, not through scruples about food, which have never done their adherents any good.

Our altar is one at which those who serve the tent of worship have no right to eat.

May God, the giver of peace, who brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus who through the blood by which he ratified the everlasting agreement has become the great shepherd of the sheep,

Blessed is the man who endures trial, for when he stands the test, he will be given the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.

What causes wars and fights among you? Is it not your cravings, which are at war within your bodies?

when you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow! You are just a mist, which appears for a little while and then disappears.

and to an imperishable, unsullied, and unfading inheritance, which is kept safe for you in heaven,

they are to show that your faith when tested is found to be more precious than gold, which though it is perishable is tested with fire, and they will bring you praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

It was disclosed to them that they were serving not themselves but you in dealing with these things, which have now been told you by those who through the holy Spirit sent from heaven brought you the good news; things into which angels long to look!

for you know that you have not been ransomed with anything perishable like silver or gold, from the futile way of living in which you were brought up,

It is you, therefore, who believe who see its value, but for men who do not believe, "The stone which the builders refused has been made a cornerstone,"

That is the life to which you have been called, for Christ himself suffered for you, leaving you an example so that you might follow his footsteps.

yours must be the inner beauty of character, the imperishable attraction of a quiet and gentle spirit, which has great value in the sight of God.

who had once been disobedient, when in Noah's time God in his patience waited for the ark to be made ready, in which a few people, eight in all, were brought safely through the water.

Baptism, which corresponds to it, now saves you also (not as the mere removing of physical stain, but as the craving for a conscience right with God)??hrough the resurrection of Jesus Christ,

If one preaches, let him do it like one who utters the words of God; if one does some service, let him do it as with strength which God supplies, so that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of uprightness than after knowing it to have turned their backs upon the sacred command with which they had been intrusted.

For they wilfully ignore the fact that long ago there existed heavens and an earth which had been formed at God's command out of water and by water,

by which also that world was destroyed, through being flooded with water.

while you await and hasten the coming of the Day of God, which will cause the heavens to burn up and dissolve and the heavenly bodies to blaze and melt.

speaking of it as he does in all his letters. There are some things in them hard to understand, which ignorant, unsteadfast people twist to their own ruin, just as they do the rest of the Scriptures.

All who obey his commands keep in union with him, and he does with them; and this is how we know that he keeps in union with us??y the Spirit which he has given us.

And now I beg you, my lady??ot as though I were writing you any new command, but one which we have had from the beginning??et us love one another.

just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighboring towns which like them indulged in immorality and unnatural vice stand as a warning, in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.

A revelation made by Jesus Christ which God gave him to disclose to his slaves of what must very soon happen. He sent and communicated it by his angel to his slave John,

Let everyone who can hear listen to what the Spirit says to the churches. I will give him who is victorious some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white pebble with a new name written on it which no one knows except the man who receives it.'

I will make him who is victorious a pillar in the temple of my God; he shall never go out of it again. I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God??he new Jerusalem, which is to come down out of heaven from my God??nd my new name.

Then I saw standing in the center of the throne and of the four animals and of the elders a Lamb which seemed to have been slaughtered. He had seven horns and seven eyes; these are the seven spirits of God, which are sent on errands to all parts of the earth.

and I heard a voice which seemed to come from the midst of the four animals say, "Wheat at a dollar a quart, and barley three quarts for a dollar, but you must not injure the oil and wine!"

After that I saw a great crowd which no one could count from every nation, tribe, people, and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, wearing white robes, with palm branches in their hands,

For the power of the horses lay in their mouths and their tails; their tails were like snakes, and they had heads with which they hurt people.

Yet what was left of mankind, those who escaped being killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands and give up worshiping demons and gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wooden idols, which cannot either see or hear or move,

but at the time when the seventh angel spoke, when he should blow his trumpet, then God's mysterious purpose, the good news of which he gave to his slaves the prophets, would be accomplished.

They have conquered him because of the Lamb's blood, and the message to which they bore testimony, for they did not cling to life even in the face of death.

But the earth helped the woman, for the earth opened its mouth and swallowed the river which the dragon had poured out of his mouth.

Then I saw another great, marvelous portent in heaven. There were seven angels with seven plagues which are to be the last, for they complete the expression of God's wrath.

Here is a problem for a profound mind! The seven heads are seven hills, on which the woman is seated.

"The waters that you saw," he said to me, "on which the idolatrous woman was seated, are peoples, multitudes, nations, and languages.

His eyes blazed like fire. There were many diadems on his head, and there was a name written on him which no one knew but himself.

From his mouth came a sharp sword with which he is to strike down the heathen. He will shepherd them with a staff of iron, and will tread the winepress of the fierce anger of God Almighty.

And the animal was captured and with it the false prophet who performed wonders on its behalf by means of which he led astray those who had let the animal's mark be put on them and who worshiped its statue. Both of them were flung alive into the fiery lake of burning brimstone.

It had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and twelve angels at the gates, which had carved upon them the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel.

The angel who talked with me had a gold measuring rod, with which to measure the city and its gates and wall.

Then he showed me a river of living water, clear as crystal, which issued from the throne of God and of the Lamb,

and if anyone removes from this book any of the prophetic messages it contains, God will remove from him his share in the tree of life and the holy city which are described in this book.