Refuse to put young widows on the list, for when their wanton desires alienate them from Christ, they want to marry

Besides, they become idle unconsciously by gadding about from one house to another ??and not merely idle but gossips and busybodies, repeating things they have no right to mention.

For love of money is the root of all mischief; it is by aspiring to be rich that certain individuals have gone astray from the faith and found themselves pierced with many a pang of remorse.

to keep your commission free from stain, free from reproach, till the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ ??15 which will be brought about in due time by that blessed and only Sovereign, King of kings and Lord of lords,

Paul an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God in the service of the Life he has promised in Christ Jesus ??2 to his beloved son Timotheus: grace, mercy, peace, from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

Model yourself on the sound instruction you have had from me in the faith and love of Christ Jesus.

Never forget "Jesus Christ risen from the dead, descended from David" ??that is my gospel,

my persecutions, my sufferings ??all that befell me at Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, all the persecutions I had to undergo, from which the Lord rescued me.

Bad characters and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving others and deceived themselves;

remember you have known from childhood the sacred writings that can impart saving wisdom by faith in Christ Jesus.

Whatever happens, be self-possessed, flinch from no suffering, do your work as an evangelist, and discharge all your duties as a minister.

But the Lord supported me and gave me strength to make a full statement of the gospel and let all the heathen hear it. I was rescued from the jaws of the lion.

The Lord will rescue me from every assault of evil, he will bring me safe to his own realm in heaven. To him be glory for ever and ever! Amen.

serving in hope of the life eternal which God, who never lies, promised ages ago ??3 he gave effect to his word in due time by a proclamation with which I have been entrusted by command of God our Saviour: ??4 to Titus my lawful son in a faith we hold in common; grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Saviour.

For there are plenty of insubordinate creatures who impose on people with their empty arguments, particularly those who have come over from Judaism;

who gave himself up for us to redeem us from all iniquity and secure himself a clean people with a zest for good works.

and he saved us, not for anything we had done but from his own pity for us, by the water that means regeneration and renewal under the holy Spirit

grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Come, brother, let me have some return from you in the Lord! Refresh my heart in Christ.

He, reflecting God's bright glory and stamped with God's own character, sustains the universe with his word of power; when he had secured our purification from sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high;

and release from thraldom those who lay under a life-long fear of death.

Brothers, take care in case there is a wicked, unbelieving heart in any of you, moving you to apostatize from the living God.

For he says this somewhere about the seventh day: And God rested from all his works on the seventh day.

(for once a man enters his rest, he rests from work just as God did).

And no created thing is hidden from him; all things lie open and exposed before the eyes of him with whom we have to reckon.

Every high priest who is selected from men and appointed to act on behalf of men in things divine, offering gifts and sacrifices for sins,

In the days of his flesh, with bitter cries and tears, he offered prayers and supplications to Him who was able to save him from death; and he was heard, because of his godly fear.

Let us pass on then to what is mature, leaving elementary Christian doctrine behind, instead of laying the foundation over again with repentance from dead works, with faith in God,

For land which absorbs the rain that often falls on it, and bears plants that are useful to those for whom it is tilled, receives a blessing from God;

For Melchizedek, the king of Salem, a priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham on his return from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him ??2 who had a tenth part of everything assigned him by Abraham ??this Melchizedek is primarily a king of righteousness (that is the meaning of his name); then, besides that, king of Salem (which means, king of peace).

Those sons of Levi who receive the priestly office are indeed ordered by law to tithe the people (that is, their brothers), although the latter are descended from Abraham;

for it is evident that our Lord sprang from Judah, and Moses never mentioned priesthood in connexion with that tribe.

A better Hope, because it was not promised apart from an oath.

Previous priests became priests apart from any oath, but he has an oath from Him who said to him, The Lord has sworn, and he will not change his mind, thou art a priest for ever.

Also, while they became priests in large numbers, since death prevents them from continuing to serve,

Such was the high priest for us, saintly, innocent, unstained, lifted high above the heavens, far from all contact with the sinful,

how much more shall the blood of Christ, who in the spirit of the eternal offered himself as an unblemished sacrifice to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve a living God?

He mediates a new covenant for this reason, that those who have been called may obtain the eternal inheritance they have been promised, now that a death has occurred which redeems them from the transgressions involved in the first covenant.

Hence even the first covenant of God's will was not inaugurated apart from blood;

let us draw near with a true heart, in absolute assurance of faith, our hearts sprinkled clean from a bad conscience, and our bodies washed in pure water;

It was by faith that Abel offered God a richer sacrifice than Cain did, and thus won from God the record of being 'just,' on the score of what he gave; he died, but by his faith he is speaking to us still.

and apart from faith it is impossible to satisfy him, for the man who draws near to God must believe that he exists and that he does reward those who seek him.

and had been told that it is through Isaac that your offspring shall be reckoned ??19 for he considered that God was able even to raise men from the dead. Hence he did get him back, by what was a parable of the resurrection.

It was by faith that he left Egypt, not from any fear of the king's wrath; like one who saw the King Invisible, he never flinched.

quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness won to strength, proved valiant in warfare, and routed hosts of foreigners.

Some were given back to their womankind, raised from the very dead; others were broken on the wheel, refusing to accept release, that they might obtain a better resurrection;

God had something better in store for us; he would not have them perfected apart from us.

Compare him who steadily endured all that hostility from sinful men, so as to keep your own hearts from fainting and failing.

See that you do not refuse to listen to His voice. For if they failed to escape, who refused to listen to their instructor upon earth, much less shall we escape, if we discard Him who speaks from heaven.

Keep your life free from the love of money; be content with what you have, for He has said, Never will I fail you, never will I forsake you.

May the God of peace who brought up from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great Shepherd of the sheep, with the blood of the eternal covenant,

that man need not imagine he will get anything from God,

Let no one who is tried by temptation say, 'My temptation comes from God'; God is incapable of being tempted by evil and he tempts no one.

all we are given is good, and all our endowments are faultless, descending from above, from the Father of the heavenly lights, who knows no change of rising and setting, who casts no shadow on the earth.

Pure, unsoiled religion in the judgment of God the Father means this: to care for orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself from the stain of the world.

blessing and cursing stream from the same lips! My brothers, this ought not to be.

Does a fountain pour out fresh water and brackish from the same hole?

That is not the wisdom which comes down from above, it is an earthly wisdom, sensuous, devilish;

The wisdom from above is first of all pure, then peaceable, forbearing, conciliatory, full of mercy and wholesome fruit, unambiguous, straightforward;

Where do conflicts, where do wrangles come from, in your midst? Is it not from these passions of yours that war among your members?

Well then, submit yourselves to God; resist the devil, and he will fly from you:

My brothers, if anyone of you goes astray from the truth and someone brings him back,

understand that he who brings a sinner back from the error of his way saves his soul from death and hides a host of sins.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy we have been born anew to a life of hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

to them it was revealed that they got this intelligence not for themselves but for you, regarding all that has now been disclosed to you by those who preached the gospel to you through the holy Spirit sent from heaven. The very angels long to get a glimpse of this!

you know it was not by perishable silver or gold that you were ransomed from the futile traditions of your past,

it is by him that you believe in God who raised him from the dead and gave him glory; and thus your faith means hope in God.

But you are the elect race, the royal priesthood, the consecrated nation, the People who belong to Him, that you may proclaim the wondrous deeds of Him who has called you from darkness to his wonderful light ??10 you who once were no people and now are God's people, you who once were unpitied and now are pitied.

Beloved, as sojourners and exiles I appeal to you to abstain from the passions of the flesh that wage war upon the soul.

Servants, be submissive to your masters with perfect respect, not simply to those who are kind and reasonable but to the surly as well ??19 for it is a merit when from a sense of God one bears the pain of unjust suffering.

he who would love Life and enjoy good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking guile:

Baptism, the counterpart of that, saves you to-day (not the mere washing of dirt from the flesh but the prayer for a clean conscience before God) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ

be shepherds to your flock of God; take charge of them willingly instead of being pressed to it, not to make a base profit from it but freely,

whereas he who has not these by him is blind, shortsighted, oblivious that he has been cleansed from his erstwhile sins.

when he was invested with honour and glory by God the Father, and when the following voice was borne to him from the sublime Glory, "This is my son, the Beloved, in whom I delight."

That voice borne from heaven we heard, we who were beside him on the sacred hill,

in their lust they will exploit you with cunning arguments ??men whose doom comes apace from of old, and destruction is awake upon their trail.

(for when that righteous man resided among them, by what he saw and heard his righteous soul was vexed day after day with their unlawful doings) ??9 then be sure the Lord knows how to rescue pious folk from trial, and how to keep the unrighteous under punishment till the day of doom,

By talking arrogant futilities they beguile with the sensual lure of fleshly passion those who are just escaping from the company of misconduct ??19 promising them freedom, when they are themselves enslaved to corruption (for a man is the slave of whatever overpowers him).

Better had they never known the Way of righteousness, than to know it and then turn back from the holy command which was committed to them.

to have you recollect the words spoken by the holy prophets beforehand and the command given by your apostles from the Lord and saviour.

asking, "Where is His promised advent? Since the day our fathers fell asleep, things remain exactly as they were from the beginning of creation."

It is of what existed from the very beginning, of what we heard, of what we saw, of what we witnessed and touched with our own hands, it is of the Logos of Life

Here is the message we learned from him and announce to you: 'God is light and in him there is no darkness, none.'

but if we live and move within the light, as he is within the light, then we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from every sin.

if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, he forgives our sins and cleanses us from all iniquity;

Beloved, I am not writing you any new command, but an old command which you have had from the very beginning: the old command is the word you have heard.

fathers, I am writing to you, because you know him who is from the very beginning: young men, I am writing to you, because you have conquered the evil One. Children, I have written to you, because you know the Father:

fathers, I have written to you, because you know him who is from the very beginning: young men, I have written to you, because you are strong, and the word of God remains within you, and you have conquered the evil One.

They withdrew from us, but they did not belong to us; had they belonged to us, they would have remained with us, but they withdrew to make it plain that they are none of us.

Let that remain in you which you learned from the very beginning; if what you learned from the very beginning remains with you, then you will remain in the Son and in the Father.

but the unction you received from him remains within you, and you really need no teaching from anyone; simply remain in him, for his unction teaches you about everything and is true and is no lie ??remain in him, as it has taught you to do.

Remain within him now, my dear children, so that when he appears we may have confidence, instead of shrinking from him in shame at his arrival.

he who commits sin belongs to the devil, for the devil is a sinner from the very beginning. (This is why the Son of God appeared, to destroy the deeds of the devil.)

For this is the message you have learned from the very beginning, that we are to love one another:

We know we have crossed from death to life, because we love the brotherhood; he who has no love [for his brother] remains in death.

and we get from him whatever we ask, because we obey his commands and do what is pleasing in his sight.

Do not believe every spirit, beloved, but test the spirits to see if they come from God; for many false prophets have emerged in the world.

You can recognize the Spirit of God by this: every spirit which confesses Jesus as the Christ incarnate comes from God,

and every spirit which does not confess Jesus [incarnate] does not come from God. This latter is the spirit of antichrist; you were told it was coming, and here it is already in the world.