For see what this very sorrow, suffered in accordance with the will of God, has done for you! How earnest it has made you, how concerned to clear yourselves, how indignant, how alarmed, how much it made you long to see me, how loyal to me, how determined to punish the offender! At every point you have cleared yourselves in the matter.

Yes, his heart is running over toward you, as he continues recalling how you all obeyed him, with what reverence and trembling you welcomed him.

Now finish doing it too, so that your readiness to finish it may be just like your readiness to start it, in accordance with what you have.

If a man is ready and willing to give, his gift is acceptable in accordance with what he has, not with what he does not have.

For I am taking the precaution to do what is right, not only in the sight of the Lord but also in the eyes of men.

Each must give what he has purposed in his heart to give, not sorrowfully or under compulsion, for it is the happy giver that God loves.

Such people should consider this: When I arrive for action I shall do exactly what I said I would in my letters when far away.

and when I was with you and needed money, I never burdened a single one of you for a cent, for the brothers came from Macedonia and supplied what I needed. And so I kept myself, as I shall always do, from being a burden to you in any way.

So it is no surprise if his servants also masquerade as ministers for doing right, whose doom shall be in accordance with what they do.

In what respect, then, were you inferior to the rest of the churches, except for the fact that I, and I only, never received from you any financial support? Please forgive me this wrong.

Those who were looked upon as leaders -- what they were makes no difference to me -- God pays no attention to outward appearances these leaders added nothing new to me.

because we know that a man does not come into right standing with God by doing what the law commands, but by simple trust in Christ, we too have trusted in Christ Jesus, in order to come into right standing with God by simple trust in Christ and not by doing what the law commands, because by doing what the law commands no man can come into right standing with God.

For if I try to build again what I tore down, I really prove myself to be a wrongdoer.

I want to ask you only this one thing: Did you receive the Spirit by doing what the law commands, or by believing the message you heard?

Now when He supplies you with the Spirit and performs His wonder-works among you, does He do it because you do what the law commands, or because you believe the message that you heard --

For those who depend on what the law commands are under a curse, for the Scripture says, "Cursed be everyone who does not continue in all the commands that are written in the book of the law, to do them."

Then what about the law? It was added later on to increase transgressions, until the descendant to whom the promise was made should come, enacted through the agency of angels in the person of an intermediary.

Tell me, you who want to be subject to law, will you not listen to what the law says?

But what does the Scripture say? "Drive off the slave girl and her son, for the slave girl's son shall never share the inheritance with the son of the free woman."

Here is what I am saying to you: If you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ can do you no good.

Do not be deceived anymore; God is not to be scoffed at. A person will reap just what he sows, whatever it is.

See what large letters I make, when I write to you with my own hand!

by having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, so that you may know what the hope is to which He calls you, how glorious rich God's portion in His people is,

It is not the result of what anyone can do, so that no one can boast of it.

For He has made us what we are, because He has created us through our union with Christ Jesus for doing good deeds which He beforehand planned for us to do.

What does "He went up" mean, except that He had first gone down into the lower regions of the earth?

But this is not the way you have learned what Christ means,

you must approve what is pleasing to the Lord.

So stop becoming senseless, but understand what the Lord's will is.

What difference then does it make? In one way or another, whether in pretense or in sincerity, Christ is being preached, and that is the thing that makes me glad; yes, more too, I will continue to be glad of it,

and be actually in union with Him, not having a supposed right standing with God which depends on my doing what the law commands, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the real right standing with God which originates from Him and rests on faith.

Brothers, I do not think that I have captured it yet, but here is my one aspiration, so forgetting what is behind me and reaching out for what is ahead of me,

Now, brothers, practice thinking on what is true, what is honorable, what is right, what is pure, what is lovable, what is high-toned, yes, on everything that is excellent or praiseworthy.

because of your hope of what is laid up for you in heaven. Long ago you heard of this hope through the message of the good news

I am now glad to be suffering for you, and in my own person I am filling in what is lacking in Christ's sufferings for His body, that is, the church.

I want you to know what a battle I am fighting for you and for those in Laodicea, yes, for all who have never known me personally,

These were but the shadow of what was coming; the reality belongs to Christ.

For the people themselves tell us what a welcome you gave us, and how you turned from idols to the true God, to serve the God who lives on and is real,

You can testify, and God too, with what pure, upright, and irreproachable motives I dealt with you who believed;

For what is our hope or happiness or crown of boasting, except you, in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ when He comes?

as night and day I continue to pray with deepest earnestness and keenest eagerness that I may see your faces and round out to completeness what is lacking in your faith?

but continue to prove all things until you can approve them, and then hold on to what is good.

This is why God sends them a misleading influence till they actually believe what is false,

If anyone refuses to obey what we have said in this letter, mark that person and stop having anything to do with him, so that he will feel ashamed of it.

Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you; continue to turn away from the worldly, futile phrases and contradictions of what is falsely called "knowledge,"

This is why I am suffering so, but I am not ashamed of it, for I know whom I have trusted and I am absolutely sure that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day.

Keep on thinking about what I am saying, for the Lord will grant you understanding of it in all its phases.

But you, on your part, must continue to abide by what you have learned and been led to rely upon, because you know from whom you learned it

All Scripture is inspired by God, and useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in doing what is right,

Alexander, a worker in metal, did me ever so much harm. The Lord will repay him for what he did.

You must continue telling the people what is proper for wholesome teaching:

the older women, too, to be reverent in their deportment, and not to be slanderers or slaves to heavy drinking, but to be teachers of what is right,

For to what angel did God ever say, "You are my Son, today I have become your Father"?

But to what angel did He ever say: "Just keep your seat at my right hand, until I make your foes a footstool for your feet"?

For someone somewhere has solemnly said: "What is man that you should think of him, or the Son of Man that you should care for Him?

Although He was a Son, He learned from what He suffered how to obey,

And so by patiently waiting he obtained what God had promised him.

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?

who does not need, as did the Levitical priests, to offer sacrifices, first for his own sins and then for those of the people; this latter is just what He did once for all when He offered up Himself.

Now the main point in what I am saying is this: We have such a High Priest as this, one who has taken His seat at the right hand of God's majestic throne in heaven

By faith Joseph, at the closing of his life, made mention of the future migration of the Israelites, and gave directions what to do with his body.

Though all these people by their faith won God's approval, yet none of them received what He had promised,

You must have a turn of mind that is free from avarice; you must be content with what you have, for God Himself has said, "I will never fail you, I will never forsake you."

So we can confidently say: "The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can men do to me?"

perfectly fit you to do His will, He Himself, through Jesus Christ, accomplishing through you what is pleasing to Him. To Him be glory forever and ever. Amen.

for you surely know that what is genuine in your faith produces the patient mind that endures;

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.

My brothers, what good is there in a man's saying that he has faith, if he has no good deeds to prove it? Such faith cannot save him, can it?

and one of you says to him, "Blessings on you, keep warm, eat until you have aplenty," without giving him the things that are needed for the body, what good does it do?

What causes wars and quarrels among you? Is it not your different desires which are ever at war within your bodies? You desire things and cannot have them, and so you commit murder.

although you do not have the slightest knowledge of tomorrow. What is the nature of your life? It is really nothing but a mist which appears for a little while and then disappears.

So when a man knows what is right but does not do it, he is guilty of sin.

And if you address as Father, Him who judges everyone impartially in accordance with what he does, you must live reverently all your fleeting stay on earth,

Keep on living upright lives among the heathen, so that, when they slander you as evildoers, by what they see of your good deeds they may come to praise God on the judgment day.

For what credit is it to bear it patiently, if you do wrong and are beaten for it? But if you do right and patiently suffer for it, it is pleasing in the sight of God.

For the time that is past is enough for you to have accomplished what the heathen like to do, leading lives that are steeped in sensuality, lustful desires, drunkenness, carousing, revelry, dissipation, and idolatry that leads to lawlessness,

Because the time has come for judgment to begin at the household of God, and if it begins with us, what will the end be of those who are rejecting God's good news?

And if it is hard for the upright man to be saved, what will become of the godless and sinful?

and if He condemned, by burning them to ashes, the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, making them an example to godless people of what was coming to them,

for as long as that upright man was living among them, his upright soul, day and night, was always being tortured by what he saw and heard in their lawless actions --

In them is verified the truth of the proverb, "A dog turns back to what he has vomited"; and of that other proverb, "A sow that has washed herself goes back to wallow in the mire."

If all these things are to be dissolved in this way, what men you ought to be! What holy and pious lives you ought to lead,

It is what existed from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our own eyes, what we have beheld, what our own hands have touched, about the very message of life --

I repeat, it is what we have seen and heard that we now announce to you, so that you too may share this fellowship with us, for this fellowship that we have is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ;

Let what you have heard from the beginning continue to live in your hearts; if you do, you will always remain in union with the Son and the Father.

See what wonderful love the Father has bestowed on us in letting us be called God's children, and that is what we are! This is why the world does not know what we are, because it has never come to know Him.

Dearly beloved, we are now God's children, but what we are going to be has not been unveiled. We know that if it is unveiled, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is.

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.

and we obtain from Him whatever we ask for, because we practice obedience to His commands and do what pleases Him.

They are children of the world; this is why they speak what the world inspires, and why the world listens to them.

Look out for yourselves, so as not to lose what we have worked for, but so as to get your full reward.

Dearly beloved, you are acting faithfully in doing what you can for the brothers, especially as they are strangers.

So, if I come, I will remind you of what he is doing, how with malicious insinuations he is talking about me. Not content with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers himself, he interferes with those who want to do so, and tries to put them out of the church.

A revelation given by Jesus Christ which God gave to Him, to make known to His slaves what must very soon take place. He sent and communicated it through His angel to His slave John,

who testifies to what he saw, the message of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ.

Blessed be the man who reads them and the people who hear the messages of this prophecy read, and heed what is written in it, for the time is near.

"Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea."

So write what you have seen, what is and what is to take place hereafter.

"I know what you have done; your hard work and patient endurance; that you cannot tolerate wicked persons; that you have tested those who claimed to be apostles although they were not, and have found them to be imposters,

But you have it to your credit that you hate what the Nicolaitans are doing, as I do too.