Although by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the basic principles of God’s revelation again. You need milk, not solid food.

And we will do this if God permits.

Even though we are speaking this way, dear friends, in your case we are confident of the better things connected with salvation.

We have this hope as an anchor for our lives, safe and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain.

For this Melchizedek—

King of Salem, priest of the Most High God,
who met Abraham and blessed him
as he returned from defeating the kings,

Now consider how great this man was—even Abraham the patriarch gave a tenth of the plunder to him!

But one without this lineage collected tenths from Abraham and blessed the one who had the promises.

And this becomes clearer if another priest like Melchizedek appears,

None of this happened without an oath. For others became priests without an oath,

For this is the kind of high priest we need: holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens.

He doesn’t need to offer sacrifices every day, as high priests do—first for their own sins, then for those of the people. He did this once for all when He offered Himself.

Now the main point of what is being said is this: We have this kind of high priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens,

For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices; therefore it was necessary for this priest also to have something to offer.

But this is the covenant
that I will make with the house of Israel
after those days, says the Lord:
I will put My laws into their minds
and write them on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be My people.

With these things set up this way, the priests enter the first room repeatedly, performing their ministry.

This is a symbol for the present time, during which gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the worshiper’s conscience.

But the Messiah has appeared, high priest of the good things that have come. In the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands (that is, not of this creation),

saying, This is the blood of the covenant that God has commanded for you.

He did not do this to offer Himself many times, as the high priest enters the sanctuary yearly with the blood of another.

And just as it is appointed for people to die once—and after this, judgment—

By this will of God, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all.

But this man, after offering one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God.

The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. For after He says:

This is the covenant I will make with them
after those days, says the Lord:
I will put My laws on their hearts
and write them on their minds,

By faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was approved as a righteous man, because God approved his gifts, and even though he is dead, he still speaks through his faith.

By faith Noah, after he was warned about what was not yet seen and motivated by godly fear, built an ark to deliver his family. By faith he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.

By faith they crossed the Red Sea as though they were on dry land. When the Egyptians attempted to do this, they were drowned.

This expression, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of what can be shaken—that is, created things—so that what is not shaken might remain.

Don’t neglect to show hospitality, for by doing this some have welcomed angels as guests without knowing it.

Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account, so that they can do this with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you.

Brothers, I urge you to receive this message of exhortation, for I have written to you briefly.

My dearly loved brothers, understand this: Everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger,

But the one who looks intently into the perfect law of freedom and perseveres in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but one who does good works—this person will be blessed in what he does.

Pure and undefiled religion before our God and Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

Listen, my dear brothers: Didn’t God choose the poor in this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that He has promised to those who love Him?

Praising and cursing come out of the same mouth. My brothers, these things should not be this way.

Instead, you should say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”

You rejoice in this, though now for a short time you have had to struggle in various trials

Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that would come to you searched and carefully investigated.

And if you address as Father the One who judges impartially based on each one’s work, you are to conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your temporary residence.

but the word of the Lord endures forever.

And this is the word that was preached as the gospel to you.

So honor will come to you who believe, but for the unbelieving,

The stone that the builders rejected—
this One has become the cornerstone,

and

A stone to stumble over,
and a rock to trip over.

They stumble because they disobey the message; they were destined for this.

For you were called to this,
because Christ also suffered for you,
leaving you an example,
so that you should follow in His steps.

For in the past, the holy women who put their hope in God also beautified themselves in this way, submitting to their own husbands,

not paying back evil for evil or insult for insult but, on the contrary, giving a blessing, since you were called for this, so that you can inherit a blessing.

However, do this with gentleness and respect, keeping your conscience clear, so that when you are accused, those who denounce your Christian life will be put to shame.

Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the pledge of a good conscience toward God) through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

So they are surprised that you don’t plunge with them into the same flood of wild living—and they slander you.

For this reason the gospel was also preached to those who are now dead, so that, although they might be judged by men in the fleshly realm, they might live by God in the spiritual realm.

I have written you this brief letter through Silvanus (I know him to be a faithful brother) to encourage you and to testify that this is the true grace of God. Take your stand in it!

For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with goodness, goodness with knowledge,

For in this way, entry into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be richly supplied to you.

I consider it right, as long as I am in this bodily tent, to wake you up with a reminder,

For when He received honor and glory from God the Father, a voice came to Him from the Majestic Glory:

This is My beloved Son.
I take delight in Him!

And we heard this voice when it came from heaven while we were with Him on the holy mountain.

First of all, you should know this: No prophecy of Scripture comes from one’s own interpretation,

Dear friends, this is now the second letter I have written to you; in both letters, I want to develop a genuine understanding with a reminder,

First, be aware of this: Scoffers will come in the last days to scoff, living according to their own desires,

They willfully ignore this: Long ago the heavens and the earth were brought about from water and through water by the word of God.

Dear friends, don’t let this one thing escape you: With the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day.

Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, it is clear what sort of people you should be in holy conduct and godliness

Now this is the message we have heard from Him and declare to you: God is light, and there is absolutely no darkness in Him.

This is how we are sure that we have come to know Him: by keeping His commands.

But whoever keeps His word, truly in him the love of God is perfected. This is how we know we are in Him:

Children, it is the last hour. And as you have heard, “Antichrist is coming,” even now many antichrists have come. We know from this that it is the last hour.

And this is the promise that He Himself made to us: eternal life.

If you know that He is righteous, you know this as well: Everyone who does what is right has been born of Him.

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And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself just as He is pure.

The one who commits sin is of the Devil, for the Devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God was revealed for this purpose: to destroy the Devil’s works.

This is how God’s children—and the Devil’s children—are made evident.

Whoever does not do what is right is not of God, especially the one who does not love his brother.

For this is the message you have heard from the beginning: We should love one another,

This is how we have come to know love: He laid down His life for us. We should also lay down our lives for our brothers.

If anyone has this world’s goods and sees his brother in need but closes his eyes to his need—how can God’s love reside in him?

Now this is His command: that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another as He commanded us.

This is how you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit who confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God.

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

We are from God. Anyone who knows God listens to us; anyone who is not from God does not listen to us. From this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of deception.

God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent His One and Only Son into the world so that we might live through Him.

Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another.

This is how we know that we remain in Him and He in us: He has given assurance to us from His Spirit.

In this, love is perfected with us so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment, for we are as He is in this world.

And we have this command from Him: The one who loves God must also love his brother.

This is how we know that we love God’s children when we love God and obey His commands.

For this is what love for God is: to keep His commands. Now His commands are not a burden,

because whatever has been born of God conquers the world. This is the victory that has conquered the world: our faith.

And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.

Now this is the confidence we have before Him: Whenever we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.

And this is love: that we walk according to His commands. This is the command as you have heard it from the beginning: you must walk in love.

Many deceivers have gone out into the world; they do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist.

Anyone who does not remain in Christ’s teaching but goes beyond it, does not have God. The one who remains in that teaching, this one has both the Father and the Son.

If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your home, and don’t say, “Welcome,” to him;

I have no greater joy than this: to hear that my children are walking in the truth.

Dear friend, you are showing faithfulness by whatever you do for the brothers, especially when they are strangers.

This is why, if I come, I will remind him of the works he is doing, slandering us with malicious words. And he is not satisfied with that! He not only refuses to welcome the brothers himself, but he even stops those who want to do so and expels them from the church.

For some men, who were designated for this judgment long ago, have come in by stealth; they are ungodly, turning the grace of our God into promiscuity and denying Jesus Christ, our only Master and Lord.

The one who reads this is blessed, and those who hear the words of this prophecy and keep what is written in it are blessed, because the time is near!

Look! He is coming with the clouds,
and every eye will see Him,
including those who pierced Him.
And all the families of the earth
will mourn over Him.
This is certain. Amen.

Therefore write what you have seen, what is, and what will take place after this.