when you were buried with him in your baptism and thereby raised with him as you believed in the power of the God who raised him from the dead.

Let no one lay down rules for you as he pleases, with regard to fasting and the cult of angels, presuming on his visions and inflated by his sensuous notions,

As you died with Christ to the Elemental spirits of the world, why live as if you still belonged to the world? Why submit to rules and regulations like

As God's own chosen, then, as consecrated and beloved, be clothed with compassion, kindliness, humility, gentleness, and good temper ??13 forbear and forgive each other in any case of complaint; as Christ forgave you, so must you forgive.

Also, let the peace of Christ be supreme within your hearts ??that is why you have been called as members of the one Body. And you must be thankful.

Whatever be your task, work at it heartily, as servants of the Lord and not of men;

and pray for me as well, that God may give me an opening for the word, to speak of the open secret of Christ for which I am in custody.

Pray that I may unfold it as I should.

as we recall your active faith and labour of love and patient hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, before our God and Father.

At Philippi, as you know, we had been ill-treated and insulted, but we took courage and confidence in our God to tell you the gospel of God in spite of all the strain.

we never sought honour from men, from you or from anybody else, though as apostles of Christ we had the power of claiming to be men of weight;

fain, in our yearning affection for you, to impart not only the gospel of God to you but our very souls as well ??you had so won our love.

Brothers, you recollect our hard labour and toil, how we worked at our trade night and day, when we preached the gospel to you, so as not to be a burden to any of you.

how (as you know) we treated each of you as a father treats his children, beseeching you, encouraging you, and charging you

We thank God constantly for this too, that when you received the word of the divine message from us, you took it not as a human word but for what it really is, the word of God. It proves effective in you believers,

for you have started, my brothers, to copy the churches of God in Christ Jesus throughout Judaea; you have suffered from your compatriots just as they have suffered from the Jews,

for we told you beforehand, when we were with you, that "we Christians are to have trouble" ??and, as you know, it has been so.)

But when Timotheus reached me a moment ago, on his return from you, bringing me the good news of your faith and love and of how you always remember me kindly, longing to see me as I long to see you,

And may the Lord make you increase and excel in love to one another and to all men (as is my love for you),

so as to strengthen your hearts and make them blameless in holiness before our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones. [Amen.]

Finally, brothers, we beg and beseech you in the Lord Jesus to follow our instructions about the way you are to live so as to satisfy God; you are leading that life, but you are to excel in it still further.

not to gratify sensual passion like the Gentiles in their ignorance of God ??6 no one is to defraud or overreach his brother in this matter, for the Lord avenges all these sins, as we told you already in our solemn protest against them.

as indeed is your practice towards all the brothers throughout all Macedonia. We beseech you, brothers, to excel in this more and more;

also, endeavour to live quietly, attend to your own business, and ??as we charged you ??work with your hands,

For we tell you, as the Lord has told us, that we the living, who survive till the Lord comes, are by no means to take precedence of those who have fallen asleep.

As regards the course and periods of time, brothers, you have no need of being written to.

but we must be sober, we who belong to the day, clad in faith and love as our coat of mail, with the hope of salvation as our helmet ??9 for God destined us not for Wrath but to gain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,

Encourage one another, therefore, and let each edify the other ??as indeed you are doing.

and repay you who are troubled (as well as us) with rest and relief, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven together with the angels of his power

Now we are bound always to thank God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you as the first to be reaped for salvation, by the consecration of your spirit and by faith in the Truth;

Finally, brothers, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may speed on and triumph, as in your own case,

we did not take free meals from anyone; no, toiling hard at our trade, we worked night and day, so as not to be a burden to any of you.

As for yourselves, brothers, never grow tired of doing what is right.

You are not to treat him as an enemy, but to put him under discipline, as a brother.

As I asked you when I was on my way to Macedonia, stay where you are at Ephesus and warn certain individuals against teaching novelties

as laid down by that glorious gospel of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted.

the man Christ Jesus who gave himself as a ransom for all": ??in due time this was attested,

but with good deeds (as befits women who make a religious profession).

However, women will get safely through childbirth if they continue to be faithful and loving and holy as well as unassuming.

They too must be put on probation; after that, if they are above reproach, they can serve as deacons.

For those who do good service as deacons win a good position for themselves as well as great freedom in the faith of Christ Jesus.

Watch yourself and watch your teaching; stick to your work; if you do that, you will save your hearers as well as yourself.

Never censure an older man harshly; appeal to him as a father. Treat younger men like brothers,

she must have a reputation for good service, as a woman who has brought up children, shown hospitality, washed the feet of the saints, relieved distress, and interested herself in all good works.

As it is, some widows have already turned after Satan. ??16 Any believer, man or woman, who has widowed relatives, must give them relief; the church is not to be burdened with them; she has to relieve the widows who really need relief.

Those who have Christian believers as their masters must not take liberties with them because they are brothers; they must be all the better servants because those who get the good of their service are believers and beloved. This is what you are to teach and preach.

Charge the rich of this world not to be supercilious, and not to fix their hopes on so uncertain a thing as riches but on the living God who richly provides us with all the enjoyments of life;

I render thanks to God, the God of my fathers whom I worship with a pure conscience, as I mention you constantly in my prayers.

for I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, as it dwells (I feel sure) in yourself.

for which I have to suffer imprisonment as if I were a criminal. (But there is no prison for the word of God.)

they may come to their senses again and escape the snare of the devil, as they are brought back to life by God to do his will.

they will be treacherous, reckless and conceited, preferring pleasure to God ??5 for though they keep up a form of religion, they will have nothing to do with it as a force. Avoid all such.

For these guides of theirs are hostile to the Truth, just as Jannes and Jambres were hostile to Moses; they are depraved in mind and useless for all purposes of faith.

However, they will get no further, for their aberration will be detected by everyone, as was the case with these magicians.

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

I left you behind in Crete in order to finish putting things right and to appoint presbyters in every town as I told you,

he must hold by the sure truths of doctrine so as to be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and refute objections raised by any.]

not to embezzle, but to prove themselves truly faithful at all points, so as to be an ornament to the doctrine of God our Saviour in all respects.

Our people must really learn to profess honest occupations, so as to be able to meet such special occasions; they must not be idle.

for as I hear of your love and loyalty to the Lord Jesus and to all the saints,

I prefer to appeal to you on the ground of love. Well then, as Paul the old man, who now-a-days is a prisoner for Christ Jesus,

I would have liked to keep him beside me, that as your deputy he might serve me during my imprisonment for the gospel;

no longer a mere slave but something more than a slave ??a beloved brother; especially dear to me but how much more to you as a man and as a Christian!

You count me a partner? Then receive him as you would receive me,

but in these days at the end he has spoken to us by a Son ??a Son whom he appointed heir of the universe, as it was by him that he created the world.

and thus he is superior to the angels, as he has inherited a Name superior to theirs.

while God corroborated their testimony with signs and wonders and a variety of miraculous powers, distributing the holy Spirit as it pleased him.

One writer, as we know, has affirmed, What is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that thou carest for him?

putting all things under his feet. Now by putting all things under him, the writer meant to leave nothing out of his control. But, as it is, we do not yet see all things controlled by man;

It is as he suffered by his temptations that he is able to help the tempted.

Jesus has been adjudged greater glory than Moses, inasmuch as the founder of a house enjoys greater honour than the house itself.

Besides, while Moses was faithful in every department of God's house as an attendant ??by way of witness to the coming revelation ??6 Christ is faithful as a Son over God's house. Now we are this house of God, if we will only keep confident and proud of our hope.

Therefore, as the holy Spirit says, To-day, when you hear his voice,

harden not your hearts as at the Provocation, on the day of the Temptation in the desert,

Rather admonish one another daily, so long as this word To-day is uttered, that none of you may be deceived by sin and hardened.

this word ever sounding in our ears, To-day, when you hear his voice, harden not your hearts as at the Provocation.

Well then, as the promise of entrance into his Rest is still left to us, let us be afraid of anyone being judged to have missed it.

For we have had the good news as well as they; only, the message they heard was of no use to them, because it did not meet with faith in the hearers.

For we do enter the Rest by our faith: according to his word, As I swore in my anger, they shall never enter my Rest ??although his works were all over by the foundation of the world.

he again fixes a day; To-day ??as he says in 'David' after so long an interval, and as has been already quoted ??To-day, when you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.

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

As we have a great high priest, then, who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession;

can deal gently with those who err through ignorance, since he himself is beset with weakness ??3 which obliges him to present offerings for his own sins as well as for those of the People.

Also, it is an office which no one elects to take for himself; he is called to it by God, just as Aaron was.

Just as elsewhere he says, Thou art a priest for ever, with the rank of Melchizedek.

God is not unfair; he will not forget what you have done, or the love you have shown for his sake in ministering, as you still do, to the saints.

For as men swear by a greater than themselves, and as an oath means to them a guarantee that ends any dispute,

anchoring the soul to it safe and sure, as it enters the inner Presence behind the veil.

Hence for all time he is able to save those who approach God through him, as he is always living to intercede on their behalf.

Now, as every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices, he too must have something to offer.

(men who serve a mere outline and shadow of the heavenly ??as Moses was instructed, when he was about to execute the building of the tabernacle: see, God said, that you make everything on the pattern shown you upon the mountain).

As it is, however, the divine service he has obtained is superior, owing to the fact that he mediates a superior covenant, enacted with superior promises.

By this the holy Spirit means that the way into the Holiest Presence was not disclosed so long as the first tent

But when Christ arrived as the high priest of the bliss that was to be, he passed through the greater and more perfect tent which no hands had made (no part, that is to say, of the present order),

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?

A will only holds in cases of death; it is never valid so long as the testator is alive.

And just as it is appointed for men to die once and after that to be judged,

For as the Law has a mere shadow of the bliss that is to be, instead of representing the reality of that bliss, it never can perfect those who draw near with the same annual sacrifices that are perpetually offered.

As it is, they are an annual reminder of sins

and let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good deeds ??25 not ceasing to meet together, as is the habit of some, but admonishing one another, all the more so, as you see the Day coming near.