in hope of eternal life, which God, who can't lie, promised before time began;

For the overseer must be free from all charge against him as God's steward; not headstrong, not passionate, not disorderly through wine, not a striker, not seeking gain by base means;

who holds doctrine that can be relied on as being in accordance with the accepted Teaching; so that he may be able to encourage others by sound teaching, as well as to refute our opponents.

who must have their mouths stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which ought not to be taught for the sake of base gain.

Then they can train the young women to love their husbands, to love their children,

and soundness of speech that can't be condemned; that he who opposes you may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say about us.

and not to steal, but to show that they can be fully trusted, so that in everything they will adorn the doctrine of God our Savior.

You can be sure that such a person is [spiritually] corrupt and sinful, and that he is condemned by his own actions.

As soon as I send Artemas or Tychicus to you, join me in Nicopolis as quickly as you can, for I have arranged to winter there.

Do all you can to send Zenas the expert in the Law and Apollos on their way, and see that they have everything they need.

Here is another way that our people can learn to engage in good works to meet pressing needs and so not be unfruitful.

[I pray] that the sharing of your faith [with others, or possibly with Paul] will be effective when you fully realize all the good you can do for Christ.

Yes, Brother, let me gain something from you because of your union with the Lord. Cheer my heart by your Christlike spirit.

how can we, of all people, expect to escape, if we disregard so great a Salvation? It was the Master who at the outset spoke of this Salvation, and its authority was confirmed for us by those who heard him,

but Christ [was faithful] as a son over his house, whose house we are, if we hold fast to our confidence and the hope we can be proud of.

but encourage one another every day, as long as we can still speak of Today, so that no one of you may have his heart hardened by the pleasantness of sin.

So while we can still speak of Today, if you hear him speak, do not harden your hearts, as they provoked him by doing.

For God's Message is full of life and power, and is keener than the sharpest two-edged sword. It pierces even to the severance of soul from spirit, and penetrates between the joints and the marrow, and it can discern the secret thoughts and purposes of the heart.

And there is, no created thing, can be secreted before him, but, all things, are naked and exposed to his eyes: - as to whom is, our discourse.

Therefore, [because we] have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession.

For we don't have a high priest who can't be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but one who has been in all points tempted like we are, yet without sin.

So, we should approach, with confidence, God's throne of unearned favor, so we can receive mercy and obtain that favor to help us when we need it.

For every high priest taken from among men is appointed on behalf of people in the things relating to God, in order that he can offer both gifts and sacrifices on behalf of sins,

Who can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way; for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity.

he is obliged to offer sacrifices for his own sins as well as for those of the people. besides, no man can assume

For though you should in fact be teachers by this time, you need someone to teach you the beginning elements of God's utterances. You have gone back to needing milk, not solid food.

It is my heart's desire that each of you would prove equally keen upon realizing your full hope to the very end,

So that we, who have gone in flight from danger to the hope which has been put before us, may have a strong comfort in two unchanging things, in which it is not possible for God to be false;

That hope we have as an anchor of the soul--an anchor that can neither break nor drag. It passes in behind the veil,

Where Jesus has gone before us, as a high priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.

without father, without mother, without kin, and hath neither beginning of his time, neither yet end of his life: but is likened unto the son of God, and continueth a priest forever.

Now no one can dispute that it is the superior who blesses the inferior.

We can say that through Abraham even Levi, who receives tithes, has paid tithes,

(for the Law made nothing perfect), and there is introduced a better Hope, by means of which we can draw near to God.

and above it cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat, of which things we can't speak now in detail.

which, as a symbol, remains to the present time, in which are offered both gifts and sacrifices that can not make perfect, as it respects the conscience, him that does the service;

And has gone once and for ever into the holy place, having got eternal salvation, not through the blood of goats and young oxen, but through his blood.

For if the blood of goats and of bulls, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkled on the unclean, can cleanse them from external impurities;

Therefore, Christ is the Mediator of a New Agreement, so that [all] those people who have been called [by God] can receive the promise of the never ending inheritance. [This is possible because] a death has taken place for the redemption of [people's] sins who lived under the first Agreement.

and not in order that he can offer himself many times, as the high priest enters into the sanctuary {year by year} with blood not his own,

For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.

And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins:

let us hold the hope we avow without wavering (for we can rely on him who gave us the Promise);

And we should consider how we can stir up one another to love [more] and to perform good deeds.

not neglecting--as some habitually do--to meet together, but encouraging one another, and doing this all the more since you can see the day of Christ approaching.

Remember, if we sin willfully after we have gained a full knowledge of the Truth, there can be no further sacrifice for sin;

A man who has gone against the law of Moses is put to death without pity on the word of two or three witnesses:

But remember the earlier days, when, after being [spiritually] enlightened, you [patiently] endured a great conflict of sufferings,

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

And through faith the Righteous man shall find his Life, But, if a man draws back, my heart can find no pleasure in him.'

But we are not people who shrink back and perish, but are among those who believe and gain possession of their souls.

By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh.

so that even a single person whose vigour was gone, gave rise to a posterity as numerous as the stars of the sky, or the sands on the sea-shore, which cannot be numbred.

And if they had been thinking of that country from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return.

By faith the walls of Jericho fell down, after the people had gone around them for seven days.

By faith Rahab, the loose woman, was not put to death with those who had gone against God's orders, because she had taken into her house in peace those sent to see the land.

And what more can I say? Time is too short for me to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets,

Women received back their dead by resurrection. But others were tortured, not accepting release, in order that they might gain a better resurrection.

Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us and we respected them [for it]; should we not much rather submit to the Father of our spirits [i.e., God], so we can live [spiritually]?

For they disciplined [us] for a few days according to what seemed [appropriate] to them, but he [does so] for our benefit, in order that [we] can have a share in his holiness.

make straight paths for your feet," so that crippled limbs will not remain [permanently] disabled, but rather will be healed. [Note: The idea here is "remove all barriers to spiritual growth so you can live a faithful life"].

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

Be careful that no one fails to gain God's favor, or some poisonous root may come up to trouble and contaminate you all??16 some immoral or godless person like Esau, who sold his very birthright for one single meal.

For you have not come [as did the Israelites in the wilderness] to a mountain that can be touched and to a blazing fire, and to gloom and darkness and a raging windstorm,

and to the church of the firstborn ones [i.e., those who have received an inheritance from their Father], whose names are recorded in heaven. [See Luke 10:20]. [You have come] to God, who is the Judge of all people, and to the spirits of righteous people who have become [morally] perfect [i.e., that great company of God's people who have gone on to their heavenly reward],

Take care not to refuse to listen to him who is speaking. For if they could not escape because they would not listen to him who warned them here on earth, how much less can we, who reject him who is from heaven!

Now this [expression], “Yet once more,” indicates the removal and final transformation of all those things which can be shaken—that is, of that which has been created—so that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.

Therefore, receiving a Kingdom that can't be shaken, let us have grace, through which we serve God acceptably, with reverence and awe,

So we take comfort and are encouraged and confidently say,

“The Lord is my Helper [in time of need], I will not be afraid.
What will man do to me?”

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] groaning, for this [would be] unprofitable for you.

And I urge you people earnestly to do this [i.e., pray for me], so that I can be sent back to you sooner [i.e., by God's providence].

For when the sun comes up with its burning heat, the grass gets dry and the grace of its form is gone with the falling flower; so the man of wealth comes to nothing in his ways.

Blessed is he who patiently endures trials; for when he has stood the test, he will gain the victor's crown--even the crown of Life--which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.

Let no man say when he is tempted, "I am tempted by God," for God can't be tempted by evil, and he himself tempts no one.

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom can be no variation, neither shadow that is cast by turning.

Therefore, rid yourselves of everything impure and every expression of wickedness, and with a gentle spirit welcome the word planted in you that can save your souls.

for he has considered himself and is gone away, and straightway he has forgotten what he was like.

Now if you people show special attention to the one wearing the fine clothing and say [to him], "You can sit here in this good seat," and to the poor person, "You stand over there," or "Sit on the floor by my feet,"

For anyone who keeps all the law, but makes a slip in one point, is judged to have gone against it all.

What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?

Can that faith save him? If a brother or a sister be naked,

But someone may say, “You [claim to] have faith and I have [good] works; show me your [alleged] faith without the works [if you can], and I will show you my faith by my works [that is, by what I do].”

We all make many a slip, but whoever avoids slips of speech is a perfect man; he can bridle the whole of the body as well as the tongue.

Now if we put bits into the horses’ mouths to make them obey us, we guide their whole body as well.

So too with ships, great as they are, and often driven along by strong gales, yet they can be steered with a very small rudder in whichever direction the caprice of the man at the helm chooses.

In the same sense, the tongue is a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things.

See [by comparison] how great a forest is set on fire by a small spark!

the tongue is a brand that sets the world in a combustion: it is but one of the numerous organs of the body, yet it can blast whole assemblies: tipp'd with infernal sulphur it sets the whole train of life in a blaze.

For every species of beasts and birds, of reptiles and sea creatures, is tamed and has been tamed by the human race.

But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.

A spring cannot pour both fresh and brackish water from the same opening, can it?

Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs? so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh.

but if envy and contention imbitter your minds, don't think your false pretences can stand against the truth:

You lust, and don't have. You kill, covet, and can't obtain. You fight and make war. You don't have, because you don't ask.

you ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly, so you can spend it on your passions.

There is only one Lawgiver and Judge the one who can save and destroy. So who are you to judge your neighbor?

Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain:

When you are not certain what will take place tomorrow. What is your life? It is a mist, which is seen for a little time and then is gone.

We say that those men who have gone through pain are happy: you have the story of Job and the troubles through which he went and have seen that the Lord was full of pity and mercy in the end.

Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.

My brothers, if one of you has gone out of the way of the true faith and another has made him see his error,