Brothers, whom God loves, we know that he has chosen you,

For it was from you that the Lord's Message resounded throughout Macedonia and Greece; and, more than that, your faith in God has become known far and wide; so that there is no need for us to say another word.

For they would prevent us from speaking to the Gentiles with a view to their Salvation, and thus are always 'filling up the measure of their iniquity.' But the Wrath of God has come upon them to the full!

And it is because they have not aimed at these things that the attention of certain people has been diverted to unprofitable subjects.

I am thankful to Christ Jesus, our Lord, who has been my strength, for showing that he thought me worthy of trust by appointing me to his ministry,

but, if a widow has children or grand-children, let them learn to show proper regard for the members of their own family first, and to make some return to their parents; for that is pleasing in God's sight.

Any one who fails to provide for his own relations, and especially for those under his own roof, has disowned the Faith, and is worse than an unbeliever.

Any Christian woman, who has relations who are widows, ought to relieve them and not allow them to become a burden to the Church, so that the Church may relieve those widows who are really widowed.

who alone is possessed of immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has ever seen or ever can see--to whom be ascribed honour and power for ever. Amen.

Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you. Avoid the profane prattle and contradictions of what some miscall 'theology,'

and has now been made apparent through the Appearing of our Saviour, Christ Jesus; who has made an end of Death, and has brought Life and Immortality to light by that Good News,

Guard by the help of the Holy Spirit, who is within us, the glorious trust that has been committed to you.

No athlete is ever awarded the wreath of victory unless he has kept the rules.

They have gone completely astray as regards the Truth; they say that a resurrection has already taken place, and so upset some people's faith.

If, then, a man has escaped from the pollution of such errors as I have mentioned, he will be like a thing kept for better use, set apart, serviceable to its owner, ready for any good purpose.

for Demas, in his love for the world, has deserted me. He has gone to Thessalonica, Crescens to Galatia, and Titus to Dalmatia.

and has revealed at his own time in his Message, with the proclamation of which I was entrusted by the command of God our Savior.

For the loving-kindness of God has been revealed, bringing Salvation for all;

You may be sure that such a man has forsaken the Truth and is in the wrong; he stands self-condemned.

Once he was of little service to you, but now he has become of great service, not only to you, but to me as well;

If he has caused you any loss, or owes you anything, charge it to me.

has in these latter days spoken to us by the Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe.

having shown himself as much greater than the angels as the Name that he has inherited surpasses theirs.

Thou lovest righteousness and hatest iniquity; Therefore God, thy God, has anointed thee with the festal oil more abundantly than thy peers.'

To which of the angels has God ever said-- 'Sit thou at my right hand until I put thy enemies as a stool for thy feet'?

God has not given to angels the control of that Future World of which we are speaking!

No; a writer has declared somewhere-- 'What is Man that thou shouldst remember him? Or a Son of Man that thou shouldst regard him?

Thou hast made him, for a while, lower than angels; With glory and honour thou hast crowned him; Thou hast set him over all that thy hands have made;

Thou hast placed all things beneath his feet.' This 'placing of everything' under man means that there was nothing which was not placed under him. As yet, however, we do not see everything placed under man.

He has been deemed worthy of far higher honour than Moses, just as the founder of the House is held in greater regard than the House itself.

For every House has its founder, and the founder of the universe is God.

Upon that Rest we who have believed are now entering. As God has said-- 'In my wrath I swore--"They shall never enter upon my Rest;"' Although God's work was finished at the creation of the world;

We have, then, in Jesus, the Son of God, a great High Priest who has passed into the highest Heaven; let us, therefore, hold fast to the Faith which we have professed.

Our High Priest is not one unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has in every way been tempted, exactly as we have been, but without sinning.

Nor does any one take that high office upon himself, till he has been called to do so by God, as Aaron was.

For whereas, considering the time that has elapsed, you ought to be teaching others, you still need some one to teach you the very alphabet of the Divine Revelation, and need again to be fed with 'milk' instead of with 'solid food.'

For every one who still has to take 'milk' knows nothing of the Teaching of Righteousness; he is a mere infant.

where Jesus, our Forerunner, has entered on our behalf, after being made for all time a High Priest of the order of Melchizedek.

Moreover, in a sense, even Levi, who is the receiver of the tithes, has, through Abraham, paid tithes;

And he of whom all this is said belonged to quite a different tribe, no member of which has ever served at the altar.

All this becomes even yet plainer when we remember that a new priest has appeared, resembling Melchizedek,

but his appointment was ratified by an oath, when God said to him-- 'The Lord has sworn, and will not change, "Thou art a priest for all time."'

one who has no need to offer sacrifices daily as those High Priests have, first for their own sins, and then for those of the People. For this he did once and for all, when he offered himself as the sacrifice.

To sum up what I have been saying:--Such is the High Priest that we have, one who 'has taken his seat at the right hand' of the throne of God's Majesty in Heaven,

But Jesus, as we see, has obtained a ministry as far excelling theirs, as the Covenant of which he is the intermediary, based, as it is, on better promises, excels the former Covenant.

And that is why he is the intermediary of a new Covenant; in order that, as a death has taken place to effect a deliverance from the offenses committed under the first Covenant, those who have received the Call may obtain the eternal inheritance promised to them.

saying, as he did so-- "This is the blood that renders valid the Covenant which God has commanded to be made with you."

for then Christ would have had to undergo death many times since the creation of the world. But now, once and for all, at the close of the age, he has appeared, in order to abolish sin by the sacrifice of himself.

and has since then been waiting 'for his enemies to be put as a stool for his feet.'

By a single offering he has made perfect for all time those who are being purified.

Let us maintain the confession of our hope unshaken, for he who has given us his promise will not fail us.

Do not, therefore, abandon the confidence that you have gained, for it has a great reward awaiting it.

our eyes fixed upon Jesus, the Leader and perfect Example of our faith, who, for the joy that lay before him, endured the cross, heedless of its shame, and now 'has taken his seat at the right hand' of the throne of God.

Do not let your conduct be ruled by the love of money. Be content with what you have, for God himself has said-- 'I will never forsake you, nor will I ever abandon you.'

You will be glad to hear that our Brother, Timothy, has been set free. If he comes here soon, we will visit you together.

Blessed is the man who remains firm under temptation, for, when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of Life, which the Lord has promised to those who love him.

Therefore, have done with all filthiness and whatever wickedness still remains, and in a humble spirit receive that Message which has been planted in your hearts and is able to save your souls.

Listen, my dear Brothers. Has not God chosen those who are poor in the things of this world to be rich through their faith, and to possess the Kingdom which he has promised to those who love him?

Is not it they who malign that honorable Name which has been bestowed upon you?

For a man who has laid the Law, as a whole, to heart, but has failed in one particular, is liable for breaking all its provisions.

For there will be justice without mercy for him who has not acted mercifully. Mercy triumphs over Justice.

My Brothers, what is the good of a man's saying that he has faith, if he does not prove it by actions? Can such faith save him?

Do you suppose there is no meaning in the passage of Scripture which asks--'Is envy to result from the longings of the Spirit which God has implanted within you?'

There is only one Lawgiver and Judge--he who has the power both to save and to destroy. But who are you that pass judgment on your neighbor?

Be patient, then, Brothers, till the Coming of the Lord. Even the farmer has to wait for the precious fruit of the earth, watching over it patiently, till it has had the spring and summer rains.

The prayer offered in faith will save the man who is sick, and the Lord will raise him from his bed; and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.

Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has, in his great mercy, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

given us the new Life of undying hope, that promises an inheritance, imperishable, stainless, unfading, which has been reserved for you in Heaven--

At the thought of this you are full of exultation, though (if it has been necessary) you have suffered for the moment somewhat from various trials;

that the genuineness of your faith--a thing far more precious than gold, which is perishable, yet has to be tested by fire--may win praise and glory and honour at the Appearing of Jesus Christ.

And since you call upon him as 'Father,' who judges every one impartially by what he has done, let reverence be the spirit of your lives during the time of your stay upon earth.

Destined for this before the beginning of the world, he has been revealed in these last days for your sakes,

since your new Life has come, not from perishable, but imperishable, seed, through the Message of the Everliving God.

But the teaching of the Lord remains for ever.' And that is the Teaching of the Good News which has been told to you.

It is to you, then, who believe in him that he is precious, but to those who do not believe he is 'a stone which, though rejected by the builders, has now itself become the corner-stone,'

who has gone into Heaven, and is at God's right hand, where Angels and Archangels and the Powers of Heaven now yield submission to him.

Since, then, Christ suffered in body, arm yourselves with the same resolve as he; for he who has suffered in body has ceased to sin,

Surely in the past you have spent time enough living as the Gentiles delight to live. For your path has lain among scenes of debauchery, licentiousness, drunkenness, revelry, hard-drinking, and profane idolatry.

Whatever the gift that each has received, use it in the service of others, as good stewards of the varied bounty of God.

For the time has come for judgment to begin with the House of God; and, if it begins with us, what will be the end of those who reject God's Good News?

To those to whom, through the justice of our God and Savior Jesus Christ, there has been granted faith equally privileged with our own, from Simon Peter, a servant and an Apostle of Jesus Christ.

For his divine power has given us everything that is needful for a life of piety, as we advance in the knowledge of him who called us by a glorious manifestation of his goodness.

Surely the man who has not these virtues is shortsighted even to blindness, and has chosen to forget that he has been purified from his sins of the past!

In their covetousness they will try to make you a source of profit by their fabrications; but for a long time past their Sentence has not been standing idle, nor their Ruin slumbering.

These men are like springs without water, or mists driven before a gale; and for them the blackest darkness has been reserved.

If, after having escaped the polluting influences of the world, through knowing our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, men are again entangled in them, and give way to them, their last state has become worse than their first.

In their case is seen the truth of the proverb-- 'A dog returns to what he has vomited' and 'A sow after washing to her wallowing-place in the mud.'

It is of what has been in existence from the Beginning, of what we have heard, of what we have seen with our eyes, of what we watched reverently and touched with our hands--it is about the Word who is the Life that we are now writing.

These, then, are the Tidings that we have heard from him and now tell you-- 'God is Light, and Darkness has no place at all in him.'

If we say that there is no sin in us, we are deceiving ourselves, and the Truth has no place in us.

If we say that we have not sinned, we are making God a liar, and his Message has no place in us.

The man who says 'I know Jesus,' but does not lay his commands to heart, is a liar, and the Truth has no place in him;

but, whenever a man lays his Message to heart, in that man the love of God has indeed reached its perfection. By this we know that we are in union with God--

I am writing, Fathers, to you, because you have learned to know him who has been from the Beginning. I am writing, Young Men, to you, because you have conquered the Evil One. I write, Children, to you, because you have learned to know the Father.

I write, Fathers, to you, because you have learned to know him who has been from the Beginning. I write, Young Men, to you, because you are strong, and God's Message is always in your hearts, and you have conquered the Evil One.

No one who rejects the Son has found the Father; he who acknowledges the Son has found the Father also.

But you--you still retain in your hears that consecration which you received from the Christ, and are not in need of any one to teach you; but, since his consecration of you teaches you about everything, and since it is a real consecration, and no lie, then, as it has taught you, maintain your union with him.

Knowing him to be righteous, you realize that every one who lives righteously has received the new Life from him.

Think what love the Father has shown us in allowing us to be called 'Children of God'; as indeed we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it has not learned to know him.

Dear friends, we are God's Children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is that, when it is revealed, we shall be like Christ; because we shall see him as he is.