This is necessary because you know the times it's already time for you to wake up from sleep, because our salvation is nearer now than when we became believers.

For I tell you that the Messiah became a servant of the circumcised on behalf of God's truth in order to confirm the promises given to our ancestors,

You may have 10,000 mentors who work for the Messiah, but not many fathers. For in the Messiah Jesus I became your father through the gospel.

To the Jews I became like a Jew in order to win Jews. To those under the Law I became like a man under the Law, in order to win those under the Law (although I myself am not under the Law).

To those who do not have the Law, I became like a man who does not have the Law in order to win those who do not have the Law. However, I am not free from God's Law, but I'm subject to the Messiah's law.

To the weak I became weak in order to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some of them.

When I was a child, I spoke like a child, thought like a child, and reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up my childish ways.

This, indeed, is what is written: "The first man, Adam, became a living being." The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus, the Messiah. Although he was rich, for your sakes he became poor, so that you, through his poverty, might become rich.

I beg you, brothers, to become like me, since I became like you. You did not do anything wrong to me.

I became its servant as God commissioned me to work for you, so that I may complete my ministry of the word of God.

You became imitators of us and of the Lord. In spite of a great deal of suffering, you welcomed the word with the joy that the Holy Spirit produces.

As a result, you became a model for all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia.

For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God in Judea that are in union with the Messiah Jesus. You suffered the same persecutions from the people of your own country as they did from those Jews

and it was not Adam who was deceived. It was the woman who was deceived and became disobedient,

and became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is better than theirs.

and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him,

Now none of this happened without an oath. Others became priests without any oath,

but Jesus became a priest with an oath when God told him, "The Lord has taken an oath and will not change his mind. You are a priest forever."

put out raging fires, escaped death by the sword, found strength in weakness, became powerful in battle, and routed foreign armies.

"To the messenger of the church in Smyrna, write: "The first and the last, who was dead and became alive, says this:

The dragon became angry with the woman and went away to do battle against the rest of her children, the ones who keep God's commandments and hold on to the testimony about Jesus.

The second angel poured his bowl into the sea. It became like the blood of a dead body, and every living thing in the sea died.

The kings of the earth committed sexual immorality with her, and those living on earth became drunk with the wine of her immorality."

Then they threw dust on their heads and shouted while crying and mourning: "How terrible, how terrible it is for the great city, where all who had ships at sea became rich from her wealth, because it has been destroyed in a single hour!