Therefore a man must leave his father and mother and attach himself to his wife, and they must become one.

But each one of you must love his wife just as he loves himself, and the wife, too, must respect her husband.

"You must honor your father and mother"??hat is the first commandment accompanied with a promise??3 "so that you may prosper and have a long life on earth."

You fathers, too, must not irritate your children, but you must bring them up with Christian training and instruction.

You who are masters, too, must treat your slaves in the same way, and cease to threaten them, for you know that their Master and yours is in heaven, and that he will show no partiality.

Henceforth you must grow strong through union with the Lord and through his mighty strength.

You must put on God's armor, so as to be able to stand up against the devil's stratagems.

So you must take God's armor, so that when the evil day comes you will be able to make a stand, and when it is all over to hold your ground.

and so most of the Christian brothers have been exceedingly encouraged by my example to declare God's message without any fear of the consequences.

just as you must be glad and congratulate me.

But I feel that I must send back to you Epaphroditus, my brother, fellow-laborer, and fellow-soldier, whom you sent to look after my needs.

Only we must live up to what we have already attained.

So just as you once accepted the Christ, Jesus, as your Lord, you must live in vital union with him.

You must be rooted and built up in him and made strong in faith, just as you were taught to be, overflowing with it in your gratitude.

Such people lose their connection with the head, from which the whole body through its ligaments and sinews must be governed and united if it is to grow in the divine way.

"You must not handle," "You must not taste," "You must not touch"??22 referring to things that are all meant to be used up and destroyed? This is to follow mere human rules and regulations.

But now you too must put them all aside??nger, rage, spite, rough, abusive talk??hese must be banished from your lips.

You must not lie to one another. For you have stripped off your old self with its ways

As persons chosen by God, then, consecrated and dearly loved, you must clothe yourselves with tenderness of heart, kindness, humility, gentleness, forbearance.

You must bear with one another and forgive one another, if anyone has reason to be offended with anyone else. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you must forgive.

Let the ruling principle in your hearts be Christ's peace, for in becoming members of one body you have been called under its sway. And you must be thankful.

You married women must subordinate yourselves to your husbands, for that is your duty as Christians.

You who are husbands must love your wives and not be harsh to them.

You who are slaves must always obey your earthly masters, not with mere external service, as though you had only men to please, but with sincerity of heart, because you fear the Lord.

You who are masters must treat your slaves justly and fairly, and remember that you have a Master too, in heaven.

Use wisdom in dealing with outsiders, making the most of your opportunities.

and encourage you not to be led astray, any of you, in all these troubles. You know yourselves that this is what we must expect,

Now, brothers, we ask and entreat you, in the name of the Lord Jesus, to live as you learned from us that you must live, to please God??s indeed you are doing, only do it more and more.

No one is to wrong or defraud his brother in this matter, for the Lord avenges all such things, as we told you before, in the most solemn terms.

We do not want you to be under any misapprehension, brothers, about those who are falling asleep. You must not grieve for them, as others do who have no hope.

So we must not sleep like other men, but we must be vigilant and composed.

but we who belong to the day must be composed, wearing faith and love for a coat of mail, and helmeted with the hope of salvation.

You must not let anyone deceive you at all. For that is not until the rebellion takes place and the embodiment of disobedience makes his appearance??e who is doomed to destruction,

For you know yourselves what you must do to follow my example, for I was not idle when I was with you;

But you, brothers, must not get tired of doing right.

The aim of your instruction must be love that springs from a pure heart and from a good conscience and from a sincere faith.

Women must listen quietly in church and be perfectly submissive.

I do not allow women to teach or to domineer over men; they must keep quiet.

A superintendent must be a man above reproach, only once married, temperate, sensible, a man of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach;

He must not be a new convert, or he may grow conceited and incur criticism from slanderous people.

He must also be a man of good standing with outsiders, or he may get into disgrace and be entrapped by the slanderers.

Assistants, in turn, must be serious, straightforward men, not addicted to wine or dishonest gain,

Their wives too must be serious, not gossips; they must be temperate, and perfectly trustworthy.

The assistants must be only once married, and manage their children and their households well.

This is what you must urge and teach.

No one under sixty years of age should be put on the list of widows. A widow must have been married but once,

For the Scripture says, "You must not muzzle an ox when it is treading out the grain," and the workman deserves his wages.

Those who are found guilty you must reprove publicly, as a warning to others.

All who are under the yoke of slavery must treat their masters with the greatest respect, so that the name of God and our teaching may not be abused.

Those who have Christian masters must not think lightly of them because they are brothers; they must serve them all the more faithfully, because those who benefit by it are believers and hence dear to them. These are the things you must teach and preach.

But you, man of God, must fly from these things. Strive for uprightness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness.

So you must not be ashamed to testify to our Lord, nor be ashamed of me who am in prison for his sake, but join with me in suffering for the good news, through the power of God.

So you, my son, must find strength in the blessing that comes through Christ Jesus.

The things you learned from me before many witnesses you must commit to trustworthy men who will be capable of teaching others.

Yet God's solid foundation stands unshaken, bearing this inscription, "The Lord knows those who belong to him," and "Everyone who uses the name of the Lord must give up evil."

and a slave of the Lord must not quarrel, but treat everyone kindly; he must be persuasive and unresentful,

But you must stand by what you have learned and been convinced of, and remember from whom you learned it,

But you must always be composed; do not shrink from hardship; do your work as a missionary, and your whole duty as a minister.

You too must be on your guard against him, for he vehemently opposed my teaching.

For as God's overseer a superintendent must be irreproachable, not arrogant or quick-tempered or given to drink or pugnacious or addicted to dishonest gain,

They must be silenced, for such men upset whole households by teaching things they ought not to teach, for the sake of dishonest gain.

But you must teach people the things that properly belong to wholesome teaching.

This is what you must teach and urge and insist upon with full authority. No one is to look down on you.

This is why we must give the very closest attention to the message we have heard, to keep from ever losing our hold upon it.

So there must still be a promised Sabbath of Rest for God's people.

Let us therefore leave elementary Christian teaching alone and advance toward maturity. We must not be always relaying foundations, of repentance for wrong-doing, and of faith in God,

For this man Melchizedek, king of Salem and priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham as he was on his way back from defeating the kings, and gave him his blessing,

Now see how great this man must have been to have the patriarch Abraham give him a tenth of the spoil.

But every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices, and so this high priest also must have some sacrifice to offer.

For where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established,

But you must remember those early days when after you had received the light you had to go through a great struggle with persecution,

You must not lose your courage, for it will be richly rewarded,

but without faith it is impossible to please him; for whoever would approach God must have faith in his existence and in his willingness to reward those who try to find him.

You must submit to it as discipline. God is dealing with you as his sons. For where is there a son whom his father does not discipline?

for they could not bear the order, "Even a wild animal, if it touches the mountain, must be stoned to death,"

Your love for the brotherhood must continue.

You must not be avaricious; you must be content with what you have, for God himself has said, "I will never let go of you or desert you!"

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.

You must know that our brother Timothy has been released from prison. If he comes here soon, we will see you together.

You must find the greatest joy, my brothers, in being involved in various trials,

and steadfastness must have full play, so that you may be fully and perfectly developed without any defects.

But he must ask with faith, and without any doubt, for the man who doubts is like the billowing sea, driven and blown about by the wind.

Such a man must not expect to get anything from the Lord??8 an irresolute person like him, who is uncertain about everything he does.

You must understand this, my dear brothers. Everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to be angry,

If you really obey the supreme law where the Scripture says, "You must love your neighbor as you do yourself," you are doing right,

For he who said, "You must not commit adultery," said also, "You must not commit murder." Now if you abstain from adultery, but commit murder, you are still a violator of the Law.

You must talk and act like men who expect to be judged by the law that treats men as free.

The harvest uprightness yields must be sown in peace, by peacemakers.

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.

You must have patience too; you must keep up your courage, for the coming of the Lord is close at hand.

You must love him, though you have not seen him, but since you believe in him though you do not now see him, rejoice with triumphant, unutterable joy

About this salvation the prophets who prophesied of the blessing that was destined for you made the most careful investigation,

but like the holy Being who has called you, you must also prove holy in all your conduct,

for the Scripture says, "You must be holy, Because I am holy."

And if you address him as Father who judges everyone impartially by what he does, you must live reverently all the time you stay here,

Now that by obeying the truth you have purified your souls for sincere love of the brotherhood, you must love one another intensely and heartily,

You servants must be submissive to your masters and perfectly respectful to them; not only to those who are kind and considerate, but also to those who are unreasonable.

You married women, in the same way, must be submissive to your husbands, so that any who refuse to believe the message may be won over without argument through the behavior of their wives

You must not adopt the external attractions of arranging the hair and wearing jewelry and dress;

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.