For you, brethren, followed the example of the Churches of God in Christ Jesus which are in Judaea; seeing that you endured the same ill-treatment at the hands of your countrymen, as they did at the hands of the Jews.

For what is our hope or joy, or the crown of which we boast? Is it not you yourselves in the presence of our Lord Jesus at His Coming?

For what thanksgiving on your behalf can we possibly offer to God in return for all the joy which fills our souls before our God for you,

Moreover, brethren, as you learnt from our lips the lives which you ought to live, and do live, so as to please God, we beg and exhort you in the name of the Lord Jesus to live them more and more truly.

For you know the commands which we laid upon you by the authority of the Lord Jesus.

Paul, Silas, and Timothy: To the Church of the Thessalonians which is in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

It so increases that we ourselves make honourable mention of you among the Churches of God because of your patience and faith amid all your persecutions and amid the afflictions which you are enduring.

For these are a plain token of God's righteous judgement, which has in view your being deemed worthy of admission to God's Kingdom, for the sake of which, indeed, you are sufferers.

when He comes on that day to be glorified in His people and to be wondered at among all who have believed, including you--because you believed the testimony which we brought for your acceptance.

So then, brethren, stand your ground, and hold fast to the teachings which you have received from us, whether by word of mouth or by letter.

But, by the authority of the Lord, we command you, brethren, to stand aloof from every brother whose life is disorderly and not in accordance with the teaching which all received from us.

I Paul add the greeting with my own hand, which is the credential in every letter of mine.

and the attention they bestow on mere fables and endless pedigrees, such as lead to controversy rather than to a true stewardship for God, which only exists where there is faith. And I make the same request now.

But the end sought to be secured by exhortation is the love which springs from a pure heart, a clear conscience and a sincere faith.

They are ambitious to be teachers of the Law, although they do not understand either their own words or what the things are about which they make such confident assertions.

and is not in accordance with the Good News of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted.

and the grace of our Lord came to me in overflowing fulness, conferring faith on me and the love which is in Christ Jesus.

This is the charge which I entrust to you, my son Timothy, in accordance with the inspired instructions concerning you which were given me long ago, that being equipped with them as your armour you may be continually fighting the good fight,

holding fast to faith and a clear conscience, which some have cast aside and have made shipwreck of their faith.

and of which I have been appointed a herald and an Apostle (I am speaking the truth: it is not a fiction)

So then I would have the men everywhere pray, lifting to God holy hands which are unstained with anger or strife;

For those who have filled the deacon's office wisely and well, are already gaining for themselves an honourable standing, and are acquiring great freedom of speech in proclaiming the faith which rests on Christ Jesus.

forbidding people to marry, and insisting on abstinence from foods which God has created to be partaken of, with thankfulness, by those who believe and have a clear knowledge of the truth.

If you warn the brethren of these dangers you will be a good and faithful servant of Christ Jesus, inwardly feeding on the lessons of the faith and of the sound teaching of which you have been, and are, so close a follower.

Train yourself in godliness. Exercise for the body is not useless, but godliness is useful in every respect, possessing, as it does, the promise of Life now and of the Life which is soon coming.

Do not be careless about the gifts with which you are endowed, which were conferred on you through a divine revelation when the hands of the elders were placed upon you.

he is puffed up with pride and has no true knowledge, but is crazy over discussions and controversies about words which give rise to envy, quarrelling, revilings, ill-natured suspicions,

But people who are determined to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many unwise and pernicious ways which sink mankind in destruction and ruin.

Exert all your strength in the honourable struggle for the faith; lay hold of the Life of the Ages, to which you were called, when you made your noble profession of faith before many witnesses.

storing up for themselves that which shall be a solid foundation for the future, that they may lay hold of the Life which is life indeed.

of which some have spoken boastfully in connexion with the true faith, and have erred. Grace be with you all.

Paul, an Apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God, for proclaiming the promise of the Life which is in Christ Jesus:

For I recall the sincere faith which is in your heart--a faith which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and then in your mother Eunice, and, I am fully convinced, now dwells in you also.

For this reason let me remind you to rekindle God's gift which is yours through the laying on of my hands.

For the Spirit which God has given us is not a spirit of cowardice, but one of power and of love and of sound judgement.

For He saved us and called us with a holy call, not in accordance with our desserts, but in accordance with His own purpose and the free grace which He bestowed on us in Christ Jesus before the commencement of the Ages,

but which has now been plainly revealed through the Appearing of our Saviour, Christ Jesus. He has put an end to death and has brought Life and Immortality to light through the Good News,

of which I have been appointed a preacher, Apostle and teacher, to the Gentiles.

Provide yourself with an outline of the sound teaching which you have heard from my lips, and be true to the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.

That precious treasure which is in your charge, guard through the Holy Spirit who has His home in our hearts.

And you yourself well know all the services which he rendered me in Ephesus.

Never forget that Jesus Christ has risen from among the dead and is a descendant of David, as is declared in the Good News which I preach.

For this reason I endure all things for the sake of God's own people; so that they also may obtain salvation--even the salvation which is in Christ Jesus--and with it eternal glory.

Bring all this to men's remembrances, solemnly charging them in the presence of God not to waste time in wrangling about mere words, a course which is altogether unprofitable and tends only to the ruin of the hearers.

and the persecutions and sufferings which I have endured; the things which happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra. You know the persecutions I endured, and how the Lord delivered me out of them all.

But you must cling to the things which you have learnt and have been taught to believe, knowing who your teachers were,

and that from infancy you have known the sacred writings which are able to make you wise to obtain salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

I for my part am like a drink-offering which is already being poured out; and the time for my departure is now close at hand.

From this time onward there is reserved for me the crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me, but also to all who love the thought of His Appearing.

When you come, bring with you the cloak which I left behind at Troas at the house of Carpus, and the books, but especially the parchments.

in hope of the Life of the Ages which God, who is never false to His word, promised before the commencement of the Ages.

And at the appointed time He clearly made known His Message in the preaching with which I was entrusted by the command of God our Saviour:

I have left you behind in Crete in order that you may set right the things which still require attention, and appoint Elders in every town, as I directed you to do;

holding fast to the faithful Message which he has received, so that he may be well qualified both to encourage others with sound teaching and to reply successfully to opponents.

and healthy language which no one can censure, so that our opponents may feel ashamed at having nothing evil to say against us.

But when the goodness of God our Saviour, and His love to man, dawned upon us, not in consequence of things which we,

which He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Saviour;

because I hear of your love and of the faith which you have towards the Lord Jesus and which you manifest towards all God's people;

It was my wish to keep him at my side for him to attend to my wants, as your representative, during my imprisonment for the Good News.

For to which of the angels did God ever say, "My Son art Thou: I have this day become Thy Father;" and again, "I will be a Father to Him, and He shall be My Son"?

To which of the angels has He ever said, "Sit at My right hand till I make Thy foes a footstool for Thy feet"?

For this reason we ought to pay the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, for fear we should drift away from them.

It is not to angels that God has assigned the sovereignty of that coming world, of which we speak.

but Christ was faithful as a Son having authority over God's house, and we are that house, if we hold firm to the End the boldness and the hope which we boast of as ours.

For Jesus during his earthly life offered up prayers and entreaties, crying aloud and weeping as He pleaded with Him who was able to bring Him in safety out of death, and He was delivered from the terror from which He shrank.

Although He was God's Son, yet He learned obedience from the sufferings which He endured;

For land which has drunk in the rain that often falls upon it, and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sakes, indeed, it is tilled, has a share in God's blessing.

But we, even while we speak in this tone, have a happier conviction concerning you, my dearly-loved friends--a conviction of things which point towards salvation.

For God is not unjust so that He is unmindful of your labour and of the love which you have manifested towards Himself in having rendered services to His people and in still rendering them.

He added an oath, in order that, through two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for Him to prove false, we may possess mighty encouragement--we who, for safety, have hastened to lay hold of the hope set before us.

Now if the crowning blessing was attainable by means of the Levitical priesthood--for as resting on this foundation the people received the Law, to which they are still subject-- what further need was there for a Priest of a different kind to be raised up belonging to the order of Melchizedek instead of being said to belong to the order of Aaron?

He, however, to whom that prophecy refers is associated with a different tribe, not one member of which has anything to do with the altar.

For it is undeniable that our Lord sprang from Judah, a tribe of which Moses said nothing in connection with priests.

for the Law brought no perfect blessing--but on the other hand we have the bringing in of a new and better hope by means of which we draw near to God.

so much the more also is the Covenant of which Jesus has become the guarantor, a better covenant.

but He, because He continues for ever, has a priesthood which does not pass to any successor.

For the Law constitutes men High Priests--men with all their infirmity--but the utterance of the oath, which came later than the Law, constitutes High Priest a Son who has been made for ever perfect.

and ministers in the Holy place and in the true tabernacle which not man, but the Lord pitched.

But, as a matter of fact, the ministry which Christ has obtained is all the nobler a ministry, in that He is at the same time the negotiator of a sublimer covenant, based upon sublimer promises.

a Covenant unlike the one which I made with their forefathers on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out from the land of Egypt; for they would not remain faithful to that.' 'So I turned from them,' says the Lord.

For a sacred tent was constructed--the outer one, in which were the lamp and the table and the presented loaves; and this is called the Holy place.

This had a censer of gold, and the ark of the Covenant lined with gold and completely covered with gold, and in it were a gold vase which held the manna, and Aaron's rod which budded and the tables of the Covenant.

But into the second, the High Priest goes only on one day of the year, and goes alone, taking with him blood, which he offers on his own behalf and on account of the sins which the people have ignorantly committed.

And the lesson which the Holy Spirit teaches is this--that the way into the true Holy place is not yet open so long as the outer tent still remains in existence.

And this is a figure--for the time now present--answering to which both gifts and sacrifices are offered, unable though they are to give complete freedom from sin to him who ministers.

But Christ appeared as a High Priest of the blessings that are soon to come by means of the greater and more perfect Tent of worship, a tent which has not been built with hands--that is to say does not belong to this material creation--

And because of this He is the negotiator of a new Covenant, in order that, since a life has been given in atonement for the offences committed under the first Covenant, those who have been called may receive the eternal inheritance which has been promised to them.

saying, "This is the blood which confirms the Covenant that God has made binding upon you."

For, since the Law exhibits only an outline of the blessings to come and not a perfect representation of the things themselves, the priests can never, by repeating the same sacrifices which they continually offer year after year, give complete freedom from sin to those who draw near.

by the new and ever-living way which He opened up for us through the rending of the veil--that is to say, of His earthly nature--

There remains nothing but a certain awful expectation of judgement, and the fury of a fire which before long will devour the enemies of the truth.

How much severer punishment, think you, will he be held to deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, has not regarded as holy that Covenant-blood with which he was set free from sin, and has insulted the Spirit from whom comes grace?

For you not only showed sympathy with those who were imprisoned, but you even submitted with joy when your property was taken from you, being well aware that you have in your own selves a more valuable possession and one which will remain.

Now faith is a well-grounded assurance of that for which we hope, and a conviction of the reality of things which we do not see.

Through faith we understand that the worlds came into being, and still exist, at the command of God, so that what is seen does not owe its existence to that which is visible.

Through faith Noah, being divinely taught about things as yet unseen, reverently gave heed and built an ark for the safety of his family, and by this act he condemned the world, and became an heir of the righteousness which depends on faith.

Through faith Abraham, upon being called to leave home and go into a land which he was soon to receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing where he was going to.

Through faith he came and made his home for a time in a land which had been promised to him, as if in a foreign country, living in tents together with Isaac and Jacob, sharers with him in the same promise;

for he continually looked forward to the city which has the foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

And thus there sprang from one man, and him practically dead, a nation like the stars of the sky in number, and like the sands on the sea shore which cannot be counted.