My fellow-prisoner, Aristarchus, sends you his greeting, and Barnabas's cousin, Mark, sends his. (You have received directions about him. If he comes to you, make him welcome.)

Joshua, who is called Justus, also sends his greeting. These are the only converts from Judaism who have worked with me for the kingdom of God; I have found them a great comfort.

Recalling continually before our God and Father the efforts that have resulted from your faith, the toil prompted by your love, and the patient endurance sustained by your hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Nor did we seek to win honour from men, whether from you or from others, although, as Apostles of Christ, we might have burdened you with our support.

You will not have forgotten, Brothers, our labor and toil. Night and day we used to work at our trades, so as not be a burden to any of you, while we proclaimed to you God's Good News.

For what hope or joy will be ours, or what crown shall we have to boast of, in the presence of our Lord Jesus, at his Coming, if it be not you?

Therefore, since I could no longer endure the uncertainty, I sent to make inquiries about your faith, fearing that the Tempter had tempted you, and that our toil might prove to have been in vain.

Further, Brothers, we beg and exhort you in the name of our Lord Jesus to carry out more fully than ever--as indeed you are already doing--all that you have heard from us as to what your daily life must be, if it is to please God.

For you have not forgotten the directions that we gave you on the authority of our Lord Jesus.

None of you over-reaching or taking advantage of his Brother in such matters. 'The Lord takes vengeance' upon all who do such things, as we have already warned you and solemnly declared.

As to love for the Brethren there is no need to write to you; for you have yourselves been taught by God to love one another;

We do not wish you to remain in ignorance, Brothers, with regard to those who have passed to their rest, that your grief may not be like that of others, who have no hope.

For, as we believe that Jesus died and rose again, so also we believe that God will bring, with Jesus, those who through him have passed to their rest.

This we tell you on the authority of the Lord--that those of us who are still living at the Coming of the Lord will not anticipate those who have passed to their rest.

Therefore, comfort one another with what I have told you.

For you all are 'Sons of Light' and 'Sons of the Day.' We have nothing to do with night, or darkness.

That, whether we are still watching or have fallen asleep, we may live with him.

I adjure you in the Lord's name to have this letter read to all the Brethren.

So much is this the case that we ourselves speak with pride, before the Churches of God, of the patience and faith which you have shown, in spite of all the persecutions and troubles that you are enduring.

When he comes to be honour ed in his People,' and to be revered in all who have learned to believe in him (for you also believed our testimony)--as he will be on 'That Day.'

With this in view, our constant prayer for you is that our God may count you worthy of the Call that you have received, and by his power make perfect your delight in all goodness and the efforts that have resulted from your faith.

to the ruin of those who are on the path to destruction, because they have never received and loved the Truth to their own Salvation.

If any one disregards what we have said in this letter, mark that man and avoid his company, that he may feel ashamed.

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

with faith, and with a clear conscience; and it is because they have thrust this aside, that, as regards the Faith, some have wrecked their lives.

but men who hold the deep truths of the Faith and have a clear conscience.

Those who have filled that post with honour gain for themselves an honorable position, as well as great confidence through the faith that they place in Christ Jesus.

and they discourage marriage and enjoin abstinence from certain kinds of food; though God created these foods to be enjoyed thankfully by those who hold the Faith and have attained a full knowledge of the Truth.

Put all this before the Brethren, and you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, sustained by the precepts of the Faith and of that Good Teaching by which you have guided your life.

With that aim we toil and struggle, for we have set our hopes on the Living God, who is the Savior of all men, and especially of those who hold the Faith.

A widow, when her name is added to the list, should not be less than sixty years old; she should have been a faithful wife,

and be well spoken of for her kind actions. She should have brought up children, have shown hospitality to strangers, have washed the feet of her fellow Christians, have relieved those who were in distress, and devoted herself to every kind of good action.

There are some who have already left us, to follow Satan.

Those who have Christian masters should not think less of them because they are their Brothers, but on the contrary they should serve them all the better, because those who are to benefit by their good work are dear to them as their fellow Christians. Those are the things to insist upon in your teaching.

and incessant wrangling on the part of these corrupt-minded people who have lost all hold on the Truth, and who think of religion only as a source of gain.

Love of money is a source of all kinds of evil; and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the Faith, and have been pierced to the heart by many a regret.

for there are those who, while asserting their proficiency in it, have yet, as regards the Faith, gone altogether astray. God bless you all.

now that I have been reminded of the sincere faith that you have shown. That faith was seen first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and is now, I am convinced, in you also.

Do not, therefore, be ashamed of the testimony which we have to bear to our Lord, nor yet of me who am a prisoner for him; but join with me in suffering for the Good News, as far as God enables you.

That is why I am undergoing these sufferings; yet I feel no shame, for I know in whom I have put my faith, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until 'That Day.'

The Lord grant that he may find mercy at the hands of the Lord on 'That Day.' The many services that he rendered at Ephesus you have the best means of knowing.

How true this saying is-- 'If we have shared his death, we shall also share his life.

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.

Yes, and all who aim at living a religious life in union with Christ Jesus will have to suffer persecution;

and that, from your childhood, you have known the Sacred Writings, which can give you the wisdom that, through belief in Christ Jesus, leads to Salvation.

I have run the great Race; I have finished the Course; I have kept the Faith.

And now the crown of righteousness awaits me, which the Lord, the just Judge, will give me on 'That Day'--and not only to me, but to all who have loved his Appearing.

I have sent Tychicus to Ephesus.

They are to be men of irreproachable character, who are faithful husbands, whose children are Christians and have never been charged with dissolute conduct or have been unruly.

Do you, however, speak of such subjects as properly have a place in sound Christian teaching.

How true that saying is! And it is on these subjects that I desire you to lay especial stress, so that those who have learned to trust in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing good. Such subjects are excellent in themselves, and of real use to mankind.

But have nothing to do with foolish discussions, or with genealogies, or with controversy, or disputes about the Law. They are useless and futile.

If a man is causing divisions among you, after warning him once or twice, have nothing more to say to him.

As soon as I send Artemas or Tychicus to you, join me as quickly as possible at Nicopolis, for I have arranged to spend the winter there.

I have indeed found great joy and encouragement in your love, knowing, as I do, how the hearts of Christ's People have been cheered, brother, by you.

I plead with you for this Child of mine, Onesimus, to whom, in my parson, I have become a Father.

It may be that he was separated from you for an hour, for this very reason, that you might have him back for ever,

Even as I write, I have such confidence in your compliance with my wishes, that I am sure that you will do even more than I am asking.

For to which of the angels did God ever say-- 'Thou art my Son; this day I have become thy Father'? or again-- 'I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son'?

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;

Therefore, Christian Brothers, you who, all alike, have received the Call from Heaven, fix your attention on Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our Religion.

Therefore I was sorely vexed with that generation, And I said-- "Their hearts are always straying; They have never learned my ways";

We must, therefore, be very careful, though there is a promise still standing that we shall enter upon God's Rest, that none of you even appear to have missed it.

For we have had the Good News told us just as they had. But the Message which they heard did them no good, since they did not share the faith of those who were attentive to it.

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;

Now if Joshua had given 'Rest' to the people, God would not have spoken of another and later day.

Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter upon that Rest, so that none of us fall through such disbelief as that of which we have had an example.

There is no created thing that can hide itself from the sight of God. Everything is exposed and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we have to give account.

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.

In the same way, even the Christ did not take the honour of the High Priesthood upon himself, but he was appointed by him who said to him-- 'Thou art my Son; this day I have become thy Father';

Now on this subject I have much to say, but it is difficult to explain it to you, because you have shown yourselves so slow to learn.

But 'solid food' is for Christians of mature faith--those whose faculties have been trained by practice to distinguish right from wrong.

On the one hand, we have the abolition of a previous regulation as being both inefficient and useless

(for the Law never brought anything to perfection); and, on the other hand, we have the introduction of a better hope, which enables us to draw near to God.

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,

Every High Priest is appointed for the purpose of offering gifts and sacrifices to God; it follows, therefore, that this High Priest must have some offering to make.

If that first Covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion for a second.

For, if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of the ashes of a heifer, purify those who have been defiled (as far as ceremonial purification goes),

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.

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.

Otherwise, would not the offering of these sacrifices have been abandoned, as the worshipers, having been once purified, would have had their consciences clear from sins?

So I said, "See, I have come' (as is written of me in the pages of the Book), "To do thy will, O God."'

and then there is added-- 'See, I have come to do thy will.' The former sacrifices are set aside to be replaced by the latter.

And it is in the fulfillment of the will of God that we have been purified by the sacrifice, once and for all, of the body of Jesus Christ.

We have also the testimony of the Holy Spirit. For, after saying--

then we have-- 'And their sins and their iniquities I will no longer remember.'

and, since we have in him 'a great priest set over the House of God,'

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

How much worse then, think you, will be the punishment deserved by those who have trampled underfoot the Son of God, who have treated the blood that rendered the Covenant valid--the very blood by which they were purified--as of no account, and who have outraged the Spirit of Love?

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

You still have need of patient endurance, in order that, when you have done God's will, you may obtain the fulfillment of his promise.

'For there is indeed but a very little while ere He who is coming will have come, without delay;

But we do not belong to those who draw back, to their Ruin, but to those who have faith, to the saving of their souls.

If they had been thinking of the land that they had left, they could have found opportunities to return.

You have not yet, in your struggle with sin, resisted to the death;

and you have forgotten the encouraging words which are addressed to you as God's Children-- 'My child, think not lightly of the Lord's discipline, do not despond when he rebukes you;

It is for your discipline that you have to endure all this. God is dealing with you as his Children. For where is there a child whom his father does not discipline?