Then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the creation of the world. But now, at the end of the ages, he has appeared once for all to remove sin by his sacrifice.

Otherwise, would they not have stopped offering them, because the worshipers, cleansed once for all, would no longer be aware of any sins?

Then I said, "See, I have come to do your will, O God' In the volume of the scroll this is written about me."

Then he says, "See, I have come to do your will." He takes away the first in order to establish the second.

By God's will we have been sanctified once and for all through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus, the Messiah.

Therefore, my brothers, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus,

and since we have a great high priest over the household of God,

let us continue to come near with sincere hearts in the full assurance that faith provides, because our hearts have been sprinkled clean from a guilty conscience, and our bodies have been washed with pure water.

For if we choose to go on sinning after we have learned the full truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,

For you sympathized with the prisoners and cheerfully submitted to the violent seizure of your property, because you know that you have a better and more permanent possession.

For you need endurance, so that after you have done God's will you can receive what he has promised.

Now, we do not belong to those who turn back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved.

If they had been thinking about what they had left behind, they would have had an opportunity to go back.

In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.

You have forgotten the encouragement that is addressed to you as sons: "My son, do not think lightly of the Lord's discipline or give up when you are corrected by him.

No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, for those who have been trained by it, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace.

You have not come to something that can be touched, to a blazing fire, to darkness, to gloom,

Instead, you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, to the heavenly Jerusalem, to tens of thousands of angels joyfully gathered together,

to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, to a judge who is the God of all, to the spirits of righteous people who have been made perfect,

Stop neglecting to show hospitality to strangers, for by showing hospitality some have had angels as their guests without being aware of it.

Keep your lives free from the love of money, and be content with what you have, for God has said, "I will never leave you or abandon you."

Remember your leaders, those who have spoken God's word to you. Think about the impact of their lives, and imitate their faith.

Stop being carried away by all kinds of unusual teachings, for it is good that the heart be strengthened by grace, not by food laws that have never helped those who follow them.

We have an altar, and those who serve in the tent have no right to eat at it.

For here we have no permanent city but are looking for the one that is coming.

Continue to follow and be submissive to your leaders, since they are watching over your souls as those who will have to give a word of explanation. By doing this, you will be letting them carry out their duties joyfully, and not with grief, for that would be harmful for you.

Pray for us, for we are sure that we have a clear conscience and desire to live honorably in every way.

I urge you, brothers, to listen patiently to my encouraging message, for I have written you a short letter.

But you must let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.

then you will have made false distinctions among yourselves and will have judged from evil motives, will you not?

But you have humiliated the man who is poor. Are not rich people the ones who oppress you and drag you into court?

Are not they the ones who blaspheme the noble Name by which you have been called?

What good does it do, my brothers, if someone claims to have faith but does not prove it with actions? This kind of faith cannot save him, can it?

Suppose a brother or sister does not have any clothes or daily food

But someone may say, "You have faith, and I have actions." Show me your faith without any actions, and I will show you my faith by my actions.

For all kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, and sea creatures can be or have been tamed by humans,

But if you have bitter jealousy and rivalry in your hearts, stop boasting and slandering the truth.

Your riches are rotten, your clothes have been eaten by moths,

your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be used as evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have stored up treasures in these last days.

Look! The wages that you kept back from the workers who harvested your fields are shouting out against you, and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of the Heavenly Armies.

You have lived in luxury and pleasure on earth. You have fattened yourselves for the day of slaughter.

You have condemned and murdered the one who is righteous, even though he did not rebel against you.

We consider those who endured to be blessed. You have heard about Job's endurance and have seen the purpose of the Lord that the Lord is compassionate and merciful.

You greatly rejoice in this, even though you have to suffer various kinds of trials for a little while,

Though you have not seen him, you love him. And even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy,

It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you in regard to the things that have now been announced to you by those who brought you the good news through the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. These are things that even the angels desire to look into.

If you call "Father" the one who judges everyone impartially according to what they have done, you must live in reverent fear as long as you are strangers in a strange land.

For you know that it was not with perishable things like silver or gold that you have been ransomed from the worthless way of life handed down to you by your ancestors,

Now that you have obeyed the truth and have purified your souls to love your brothers sincerely, you must love one another intensely and with a pure heart.

For you have been born again, not by a seed that perishes but by one that cannot perish by the living and everlasting word of God.

Surely you have tasted that the Lord is good!

Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

What good does it do if, when you sin, you patiently receive punishment for it? But if you suffer for doing good and receive it patiently, you have God's approval.

"He himself bore our sins" in his body on the tree, so that we might die to those sins and live righteously. "By his wounds you have been healed."

You were "like sheep that kept going astray," but now you have returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls.

just as Sarah obeyed Abraham and called him lord. You have become her daughters by doing good and by not letting anything terrify you.

Instead, exalt the Messiah" as Lord in your lives. Always be prepared to give a defense to everyone who asks you to explain the hope you have.

who has gone to heaven and is at the right hand of God, where angels, authorities, and powers have been made subject to him.

Indeed, this is why the gospel was proclaimed even to those who have died, so that they could be judged in their mortal flesh like all humans and live in the spiritual realm like God.

After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you by the Messiah Jesus to his eternal glory, will restore you, establish you, strengthen you, and support you.

Through Silvanus, whom I regard as a faithful brother, I have written this short letter to encourage you and to testify that this is to be the true grace of God in which you are to stand firm!

From: Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus, the Messiah. To: Those who have received faith that is as valuable as ours through the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus the Messiah.

Through these he has given us his precious and wonderful promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, seeing that you have escaped the corruption that is in the world caused by evil desires.

Therefore, I intend to keep on reminding you about these things, even though you already know them and are firmly established in the truth that you now have.

With eyes full of adultery, they cannot get enough of sin. They seduce unsteady souls and have had their hearts expertly trained in greed. They are doomed to a curse.

They have left the straight path and wandered off to follow the path of Bosor's son Balaam, who loved the reward he got for doing wrong.

By talking high-sounding nonsense and using sinful cravings of the flesh, they entice people who have just escaped from those who live in error.

It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than to know it and turn their backs on the holy commandment that was committed to them.

Dear friends, this is now the second of two letters I am writing to you, in which I have been trying to stimulate your pure minds by reminding you

Now by that same word, the present heavens and earth have been reserved for fire and are being kept for the day when ungodly people will be judged and destroyed.

So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to have the Lord find you at peace and without spot or fault.

What existed from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we observed and touched with our own hands this is the Word of life!

This life was revealed to us, and we have seen it and testify about it. We declare to you this eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us.

What we have seen and heard we declare to you so that you, too, can have fellowship with us. Now this fellowship of ours is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus, the Messiah.

This is the message that we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light, and in him there is no darkness none at all!

If we claim that we have fellowship with him but keep living in darkness, we are lying and not practicing the truth.

But if we keep living in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

If we say that we do not have any sin, we are deceiving ourselves and we're not being truthful to ourselves.

If we say that we have never sinned, we make him a liar and his word has no place in us.

My little children, I'm writing these things to you so that you might not sin. Yet if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father Jesus, the Messiah, one who is righteous.

This is how we can be sure that we have come to know him: if we continually keep his commandments.

The person who says, "I have come to know him," but does not continually keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth has no place in that person.

Dear friends, I am not writing to you a new commandment, but an old commandment that you have had from the beginning. This old commandment is the word you have heard.

I am writing to you, little children, because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name.

I am writing to you, fathers, because you have known the one who has existed from the beginning. I am writing to you, young people, because you have overcome the evil one.

I have written to you, little children, because you have known the Father. I have written to you, fathers, because you have known the one who has existed from the beginning. I have written to you, young people, because you are strong and because God's word remains in you and you have overcome the evil one.

Little children, it is the last hour. Just as you heard that an antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have appeared. This is how we know it is the last hour.

They left us, but they were not part of us, for if they had been part of us, they would have stayed with us. Their leaving made it clear that none of them was really part of us.

You have an anointing from the Holy One and know all things.

I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because lies don't come from truth.

What you have heard from the beginning must abide in you. If what you have heard from the beginning abides in you, you will also abide in the Son and in the Father.

I have written to you about those who are trying to deceive you.

Even now, little children, abide in him. Then, when he appears, we will have confidence and will not turn away from him in shame when he comes.

This is the message that you have heard from the beginning: We should love one another.

We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love one another. The person who does not love remains spiritually dead.

This is how we have come to know love: the Messiah gave his life for us. We, too, ought to give our lives for our brothers.

Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence in the presence of God.

Dear friends, stop believing every spirit. Instead, test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

But every spirit who does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist. You have heard that he is coming, and now he is already in the world.

Little children, you belong to God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.