Faith led to Enoch's removal from earth, that he might not experience death. 'He could not be found because God had removed him.' For, before his removal, he was renowned as having pleased God;

And so from one man--and that when his powers were dead--there sprang a people as numerous 'as the stars in the heavens or the countless grains of sand upon the shore.'

All these died sustained by faith. They did not obtain the promised blessings, but they saw them from a distance and welcomed the sight, and they acknowledged themselves to be only aliens and strangers on the earth.

For he argued that God was able even to raise a man from the dead--and indeed, figuratively speaking, Abraham did receive Isaac back from the dead.

Faith saved Rahab, the prostitute, from perishing with the unbelievers, after she had entertained the spies with friendliness.

since God had in view some better thing for us, that they, apart from us, should not attain perfection.

Weigh well the example of him who had to endure such opposition from 'men who were sinning against themselves,' so that you should not grow weary or faint-hearted.

Beware how you refuse to hear him who is speaking. For, if the Israelites did not escape punishment, when they refused to listen to him who taught them on earth the divine will, far worse will it be for us, if we turn away from him who is teaching us from Heaven.

Let your love for the Brethren continue. :24 Give our greeting to all your Leaders, and to all Christ's People. Our friends from Italy send their greetings to you.

Through him let us offer, as our sacrifice, continual praise to God--an offering from lips that glorify his Name.

May God, the source of all peace, who brought back from the dead him who, 'by virtue of the blood that rendered valid the unchangeable Covenant, is the Great Shepherd of God's Sheep,' Jesus, our Lord--

Give our greeting to all your Leaders, and to all Christ's People. Our friends from Italy send their greetings to you.

My Brothers, whatever may be the temptations that beset you from time to time, always regard them as a reason for rejoicing,

If one of you is deficient in wisdom, let him ask wisdom from the God who gives freely to every one without reproaches, and it will be given to him.

Such a man must not expect that he will receive anything from the Lord,

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.

Every good thing given us, and every perfect gift, is from above, and comes down to us from the Maker of the Lights in the heavens, who is himself never subject to change or to eclipse.

Some one, indeed, may say--"You are a man of faith, and I am a man of action." "Then show me your faith," I reply, "apart from any actions, and I will show you my faith by my actions."

From the very same mouth come blessings and curses! My Brothers, it is not right that this should be so.

Does a spring give both good and bad water from the same source?

That is not the wisdom which comes from above; no, it is earthly, animal, devilish.

But the wisdom from above is, before every thing else, pure; then peace-loving, gentle, open to conviction, rich in compassion and good deeds, and free from partiality and insincerity.

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?'

Therefore submit to God; but resist the Devil, and he will flee from you.

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.

My Brothers, should one of you be led astray from the Truth, and some one bring him back again,

Be sure that he who brings a sinner back from his mistaken ways will save that man's soul from Death, and throw a veil over countless sins.

and who were chosen in accordance with the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the consecration of the Spirit, to learn obedience, and to be purified by the sprinkling of the Blood of Jesus Christ, from Peter, an Apostle of Jesus Christ. May blessing and peace be yours in ever-increasing measure.

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,

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;

And it was revealed to them that it was not for themselves, but for you, that they were acting as Ministers of the truths which have now been told to you, by those who, with the help of the Holy Spirit sent from Heaven, have brought you the Good News--truths into which even angels long to look.

but in your whole life show yourselves to be holy, after the pattern of the Holy One from whom you received your Call.

For you know that it was not by perishable things, such as silver and gold, that you were Ransomed from the aimless way of living which was handed down to you from your ancestors,

who, through him, are faithful to God who raised him from the dead and gave him honour, so that your faith and hope are now in God.

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

and, as living stones, form yourselves into a spiritual House, to be a consecrated Priesthood, for the offering of spiritual sacrifices that will be acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

Dear friends, I urge you, as pilgrims and strangers upon earth, to refrain from indulging the cravings of your earthly nature, for they make war upon the soul.

Let your daily life among the Gentiles be so upright, that, whenever they malign you as evil-doers, they may learn, as they watch, from the uprightness of your conduct, to praise God 'at the time when he shall visit them.'

He 'never sinned, nor was anything deceitful ever heard from his lips.'

Again, you married women should submit to your husbands, so that if any of them reject the Message, they may, apart from the Message, be won over, by the conduct of their wives,

'He who would enjoy life And see happy days-- let him keep his tongue from evil And his lips from deceitful words,

Let him turn from evil and do good, Let him seek for peace and follow after it;

I urge you to be true shepherds of the flock of God among you, not because you are compelled, but of your own free will; not from a base love of gain, but with a ready spirit;

Stand firm against him, strong in your faith; knowing, as you do, that the very sufferings which you are undergoing are being endured to the full by your Brotherhood throughout the world.

God, from whom all help comes, and who called you, by your union with Christ, into his eternal glory, will, when you have suffered for a little while, himself perfect, establish, strengthen you.

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 it was through this that he gave us what we prize as the greatest of his promises, that through them you might participate in the divine nature, now that you have fled from the corruption in the world, resulting from human passions.

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!

For he received honour and glory from God the Father, when from the Glory of the Divine Majesty there were borne to his ears words such as these-- 'This is my Son, my Beloved, in whom I delight.'

These were the words that we heard, borne to our ears from Heaven, when we were with him on that Sacred Mountain.

for no prophetic teaching ever came in the old days at the mere wish of man, but men, moved by the Holy Spirit, spoke direct from God.

The Lord, therefore, knows how to deliver the pious from temptation, and to keep the wicked, who are even now suffering punishment, in readiness for 'the Day of Judgment'--

With boastful and foolish talk, they appeal to the passions of man's lower nature, and, by their profligacy, entice those who are just escaping from the men who live such misguided lives.

It would, indeed, have been better for them not to have known the Way of Righteousness, than, after knowing it, to turn away from the holy Command delivered to them.

Do you, therefore, dear friends, now that you know this beforehand, be on your guard against being led away by the errors of reckless people, and so lapsing from your present steadfastness;

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.'

But, if our lives are lived in the Light, as God himself is in the Light, we have communion with one another, and the Blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

If we confess our sins, God may be trusted, in his righteousness, to forgive us our sins and purify us from all wickedness.

My children, I am writing to you to keep you from sinning; but if any one should sin, we have one who can plead for us with the Father--Jesus Christ, the Righteous--

Dear friends, it is no new command that I am writing to you, but an old command, which you have had from the first. That old command is the Message to which you listened.

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.

From us, it is true, they went out, but they had never belonged to us; for, if they had belonged to us, they would have remained among us. They left us that it might be made clear that they do not, any of them, belong to us.

You, however, have received consecration from the Holy One.

You all know--But I am not writing to you because you do not know the Truth, but because you do know it, and because nothing false can come from the Truth.

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.

He who lives sinfully belongs to the Devil, for the Devil has sinned from the first. It was for this that the Son of God appeared, that he might undo the Devil's work.

No one who has received the new Life from God lives sinfully, because the very nature of God dwells within him; and he cannot live in sin, because he has received the new Life from God.

By this the Children of God are distinguished from the Children of the Devil--No one who lives unrighteously comes from God, and especially the man who does not love his Brother.

For these are the Tidings that we heard from the first--that we are to love one another.

We have learned to know what love is from this--that Christ laid down his life on our behalf. Therefore we also ought to lay down our lives on behalf of our Brothers.

and we receive from him whatever we ask, because we are laying his commands to heart, and are doing what is pleasing in his sight.

Dear friends, do not trust every inspiration, but test each inspiration, to see whether it proceeds from God; because many false Prophets have gone out into the world.

This is the way by which to know the inspiration of God--All inspiration that acknowledges Jesus Christ as come in our human nature is from God;

while all inspiration that does not acknowledge Jesus is not inspiration from God. It is the inspiration of the Anti-Christ; you have heard that it was to come, and it is now already in the world.

You, my Children, come from God, and you have successfully resisted such men as these, because he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

We come from God. He who knows God listens to us; the man who does not come from God does not listen to us. By that we may know the true inspiration from the false.

Dear friends, let us love one another, because Love comes from God; and every one who loves has received the new Life from God and knows God.

Indeed, we have this Command from God-- 'He who loves God must also love his Brother.'

Every one who believes that Jesus is the Christ has received the new Life from God; and every one who loves him who gave that Life loves him who has received it.

because all that has received the new Life from God conquers the world. And this is the power that has conquered the world--our faith!

And if we realize that he listens to us--whatever we ask--we realize that we have what we have asked from him.

We know that no one who has received the new Life from God lives in sin. No, he who has received the new Life from God keeps the thought of God in his heart, and then the Evil One does not touch him.

We realize that we come from God, while all the world is under the influence of the Evil One.

To an eminent Christian Lady, and to her Children, from the Officer of the Church. I sincerely love you all, and not I only, but also all those who have learned to know the Truth.

It was a great joy to me to find the lives of some of your children guided by the Truth, in obedience to the command that we received from the Father.

And now, I pray you, Lady--not as though I were writing a new command for you; no, it is the command which we had from the first--Let us love one another.

And this is love--to live in obedience to the Father's commands. This is the Command as you learned from the first, to live in a spirit of love.

To his dear friend Gaius, whom he sincerely loves, From the Officer of the Church.

Nothing gives me greater pleasure than to hear from time to time that the lives of my Children are guided by the Truth.

For it was on behalf of the Name that they left their homes, and refused to take anything from the Gentiles.

Therefore, when I come, I shall not forget his conduct in ridiculing us with his wicked tongue. Not content with that, he not only declines to recognize our Brothers himself, but actually prevents those who would, and expels them from the Church.

Dear friend, take what is good for your example, not what is bad. The man who does what is good is from God; the man who does what is bad has never seen God.

To those who, having received the Call, have been loved by God the Father and protected by Jesus Christ, From Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ, and the brother of James.

Now I want to remind you--but you already know it all--that, though the Lord delivered the People from Egypt, yet he afterwards destroyed those who refused to believe in him;

To these men, as to others, Enoch, the seventh in descent from Adam, declared-- 'See! the Lord has come with his hosts of holy ones around him,

These men are always murmuring, and complaining of their lot; they follow where their passions lead them; they have arrogant words upon their lips; and they flatter men for the sake of what they can get from them.

To him who is able to guard you from falling, and to bring you into his glorious presence, blameless and rejoicing-