Now if perfection had been reached through the Levitical priesthood -- for on it as a basis even the law was enacted for the people-- what further need would there have been of appointing a different priest, with the rank of Melchizedek, instead of designating one with the rank of Aaron?

For when a change in the priesthood takes place, a change in its law necessarily takes place.

for the law had never made anything perfect -- and so a better hope is brought to us, through which we have approach to God.

For the law appoints imperfect men as high priests, but the assertion about the taking of an oath, which was spoken after the time of the law, appoints a Son who is perfectly qualified to be High Priest forever.

However, if He were still on earth, He would not be a priest at all, because there are those who officiate in accordance with the law in offering the gifts;

For after every regulation in the law had been spoken by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water, crimson wool, and a bunch of hyssop, and sprinkled the book containing the law and all the people,

In fact, under the law, almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood no forgiveness is granted.

For since the law cast only a shadow of the blessings to come and did not possess the reality itself of those blessings, the priests with the same sacrifices that are perpetually offered year after year cannot make perfect those who come to worship.

Although at first He said, "You never wished or took delight in sacrifices and offerings, burnt-offerings and sin-offerings" -- all of which are repeatedly offered in accordance with the law --

Anyone who breaks the law of Moses pays the death penalty without any show of pity, on the evidence of two or three witnesses only.

keeping our eyes on Jesus, the perfect leader and example of faith, who, instead of the joy which lay before Him, endured the cross with no regard for its shame, and since has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of God.

But the man who looks at the flawless law that makes men free, and keeps on looking, proving himself to be, not a forgetful hearer but an actual doer of what it requires, will be blessed in what he does.

But if you really observe the law of the King in accordance with the Scripture, "You must love your neighbor as you do yourself," you are doing right;

but if you show partiality, you are committing sin, because you are convicted by the law as lawbreakers.

For whoever obeys the whole law, except to slip in a single instance, is guilty of breaking it all.

You must continue talking and acting like people who are to be judged by the law that treats them as free.

Stop talking against one another, brothers. Whoever is in the habit of talking against a brother or of criticizing his brother is criticizing and condemning the law. But if you are in the habit of criticizing the law, you are not a practicer but a critic of the law.

It must be so, because the Scriptures say: "Here now I lay in Zion a chosen stone, a costly cornerstone, And not a single one who puts his trust in Him will ever be put to shame."

We know what love is from the fact that He laid down His life for us; and so we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.

See! I am going to lay her on a bed of sickness, and bring down to great and pressing sorrow those who practice immorality with her, unless they repent of their practices;

But to the rest of you at Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching and have not learned the 'deep things' of Satan -- as they speak of them -- to you I say, I have no extra burden to lay on you,

they had tails like scorpions with stings in them, so in their tails their power lay to injure men for five months.

For the power of the horses lay in their mouths and their tails; their tails were like snakes, and they had heads with which they injured people.

and their lifeless bodies will lie on the streets of the great city that is figuratively called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord also was crucified.

and they have never been known to tell a lie with their lips; they are blameless.