2 Thessalonians 3 Cross References - Moffatt

¹ Finally, brothers, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may speed on and triumph, as in your own case, ² and that we may be delivered from perverse and evil men — for the faith is not held by all. ³ However, the Lord is faithful; he will be sure to strengthen you and protect you from the Evil one. ⁴ Now, we rely on you in the Lord, confident that you do and will do what we enjoin. ⁵ May the Lord direct your hearts towards God's love and towards Christ's patience! ⁶ Brothers, we charge you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to shun any brother who is loafing, instead of following the rule you got from us. ⁷ For you know quite well how to copy us; we did not loaf in your midst, ⁸ 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. ⁹ Not that we have no right to such support; it was simply to give you a pattern to copy. ¹⁰ We used to charge you even when we were with you, 'If a man will not work, he shall not eat.' ¹¹ But we are informed that some of your number are loafing, busybodies instead of busy. ¹² Now in the Lord Jesus Christ we charge and exhort such persons to keep quiet, to do their work and earn their own living. ¹³ As for yourselves, brothers, never grow tired of doing what is right. ¹⁴ Only, if anyone will not obey our orders in this letter, mark that man, do not associate with him — that will make him feel ashamed! ¹⁵ You are not to treat him as an enemy, but to put him under discipline, as a brother. ¹⁶ May the Lord of peace himself grant you peace continually, whatever comes. The Lord be with you all. ¹⁷ The salutation is in my own hand, Paul's; that is a mark in every letter of mine. This is how I write. ¹⁸ 'The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.'

²³ The maiden will conceive and bear a son, and his name will be called Immanuel (which may be translated, God is with us).

³⁷ Let what you say be simply 'yes' or 'no'; whatever exceeds that springs from evil.

¹¹ give us to-day our bread for the morrow,

¹³ and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.'

³⁸ so pray the Lord of the harvest to send labourers to gather his harvest."

¹⁰ nor a wallet for the road, nor two shirts, nor sandals, nor stick — the workman deserves his rations.

¹⁷ Jesus answered, "O faithless and perverse generation, how long must I still be with you? How long have I to bear with you? Bring him here to me."

¹⁵ If your brother sins [against you], go and reprove him, as between you and him alone. If he listens to you, then you have won your brother over;

¹⁷ If he refuses to listen to them, tell the church; and if he refuses to listen to the church, treat him as a pagan or a taxgatherer.

²³ Woe to you, you impious scribes and Pharisees! you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and omit the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faithfulness; these latter you ought to have practised — without omit ting the former.

²⁰ and teach them to obey all the commands I have laid on you. And I will be with you all the time, to the very end of the world."

¹⁴ "Glory to God in high heaven, and peace on earth for men whom he favours!"

² He said to them, "The harvest is rich, but the labourers are few; so pray the Lord of the harvest to send labourers to gather his harvest.

³ give us our bread for the morrow day by day, ⁴ and forgive us our sins for we do forgive everyone who has offended us; and lead us not into temptation."

³⁶ and be like men who are expecting their lord and master on his return from a marriage-banquet, so as to open the door for him at once when he comes and knocks. ³⁷ Blessed are those servants whom the lord and master finds awake when he comes! I tell you truly, he will gird himself, make them recline at table, and come forward to wait on them.

¹⁸ I will be up and off to my father, and I will say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; ¹⁹ I don't deserve to be called your son any more; only make me like one of your hired men."' ²⁰ So he got up and went off to his father. But when he was still far away his father saw him and felt pity for him and ran to fall upon his neck and kiss him. ²¹ The son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I don't deserve to be called your son any more.'

¹ He also told them a parable about the need of always praying and never losing heart.

⁸ I tell you, he will quickly see justice done to his elect! And yet, when the Son of man does come, will he find faith on earth?"

⁴⁴ Then he said to them, "When I was still with you, this is what I told you, that whatever is written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the psalms must be fulfilled."

²³ When he was in Jerusalem at the festival of the passover, many people believed in his name, as they witnessed the Signs which he performed. ²⁴ Jesus, however, would not trust himself to them; he knew all men, ²⁵ and required no evidence from anyone about human nature; well did he know what was in human nature.

¹⁵ for I have been setting you an example, that you should do what I have done to you.

²⁷ Peace I leave to you, my peace I give to you; I give it not as the world gives its 'Peace!' Let not your hearts be disquieted or timid.

⁴ I have told you all this, so that when the time for it arrives, you may remember what I said to you. I did not tell you about this at the beginning, because I was with you then;

³³ I have said all this to you that in me you may have peace; in the world you have trouble, but courage! I have conquered the world.

¹⁵ I pray not that thou wilt take them out of the world, but that thou wilt keep them from the evil one.

⁷ And the word of God spread; the number of the disciples in Jerusalem greatly increased, and a host of priests became obedient to the faith.

²⁴ The word of God spread and multiplied.

⁴⁵ But when the Jews saw the crowds they were filled with jealousy; they began to contradict what Paul said and to abuse him.

⁴⁸ When the Gentiles heard this they rejoiced and glorified the word of the Lord and believed, that is, all who had been ordained to eternal life; ⁴⁹ and the word of the Lord went far and wide over the whole country. ⁵⁰ But the Jews incited the devout women of high rank and the leading men in the town, who stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas and drove them out of their territory.

² [Move to follow vs 3] But the refractory Jews stirred up and exasperated the feeling of the Gentiles against the brothers.

⁵ But the Jews were aroused to jealousy; they got hold of some idle rascals to form a mob and set the town in an uproar; they attacked Jason's house in the endeavour to bring them out before the populace,

³ and as he belonged to the same trade he stayed with them and they all worked together. (They were workers in leather by trade.)

²⁰ Thus did the word of the Lord increase and prevail mightily.

¹⁸ When they came to him, he said, "You know quite well how I lived among you all the time ever since I set foot in Asia,

³⁴ you know yourselves how these hands of mine provided everything for my own needs and for my companions.

²⁴ Some were convinced by what he said, but the others would not believe.

⁷ to all in Rome who are beloved by God, called to be saints, grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

⁷ eternal life to those who by patiently doing good aim at glory, honour, and immortality,

⁵ a hope which never disappoints us, since God's love floods our hearts through the holy Spirit which has been given to us.

²⁵ But if we hope for something that we do not see, we wait for it patiently.

²⁸ We know also that those who love God, those who have been called in terms of his purpose, have his aid and interest in everything.

¹⁶ But they have not all given in to the gospel of glad news? No, Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed what they heard from us?

¹⁴ Personally I am quite certain, my brothers, that even as it is you have ample goodness of heart, you are filled with knowledge of every kind, and you are well able to give advice to one another.

¹⁸ I will not make free to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished by me in the way of securing the obedience of the Gentiles, by my words and by my deeds,

³⁰ Brothers, I beg of you, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love that the Spirit inspires, rally round me by praying to God for me; ³¹ pray that I may be delivered from the unbelievers in Judaea, and also that my mission to Jerusalem may prove acceptable to the saints.

³³ The God of peace be with you all! Amen.

¹⁷ Brothers, I beg of you to keep your eye on those who stir up dissensions and put hindrances in your way, contrary to the doctrine which you have been taught. Avoid them.

²⁰ The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet! The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

²³ Gaius, my host and the host of the church at large salutes you. Erastus the city-treasurer salutes you; so does brother Quartus.

⁹ Faithful is the God who called you to this fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.

¹² we work hard for our living; when reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we put up with it;

¹⁴ I do not write this to make you feel ashamed, but to instruct you as beloved children of mine.

¹⁶ Then imitate me, I beg of you.

⁴ by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ; I have met with you in spirit, and by the power of our Lord Jesus ⁵ I have consigned that individual to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, in order that his spirit may be saved on the Day of the Lord Jesus.

⁹ In my letter I wrote that you were not to associate with the immoral.

¹¹ What I now write is that you are not to associate with any so-called brother who is immoral or lustful or idolatrous or given to abuse or drink or robbery. Associate with him! Do not even eat with him!

¹¹ What I now write is that you are not to associate with any so-called brother who is immoral or lustful or idolatrous or given to abuse or drink or robbery. Associate with him! Do not even eat with him! ¹² Outsiders it is no business of mine to judge. No, you must judge those who are inside the church, for yourselves; ¹³ as for outsiders, God will judge them. Expel the wicked from your company.

¹⁹ Circumcision counts for nothing, uncircumcision counts for nothing; obedience to God's commands is everything.

³ but if anyone loves God, he is known by Him.

⁴ Have we no right to eat and drink at the expense of the churches? ⁵ Have we no right to travel with a Christian wife, like the rest of the apostles, like the brothers of the Lord, like Cephas himself? ⁶ What! are we the only ones, myself and Barnabas, who are denied the right of abstaining from work for our living? ⁷ Does a soldier provide his own supplies? Does a man plant a vineyard without eating its produce? Does a shepherd get no drink from the milk of the flock? ⁸ Human arguments, you say? But does not Scripture urge the very same? ⁹ It is written in the law of Moses, You must not muzzle an ox when he is treading the grain. Is God thinking here about cattle? ¹⁰ Or is he speaking purely for our sakes? Assuredly for our sakes. This word was written for us, because the ploughman needs to plough in hope, and the thresher to thresh in the hope of getting a share in the crop. ¹¹ If we sowed you the seeds of spiritual good, is it a great matter if we reap your worldly goods? ¹² If others share this right over you, why not we all the more? We did not avail ourselves of it, you say? No, we do not mind any privations if we can only avoid putting any obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ. ¹³ Do you not know that as men who perform temple-rites get their food from the temple, and as attendants at the altar get their share of the sacrifices, ¹⁴ so the Lord's instructions were that those who proclaim the gospel are to get their living by the gospel?

¹³ No temptation has waylaid you that is beyond man's power; trust God, he will never let you be tempted beyond what you can stand, but when temptation comes, he will provide the way out of it, so that you can bear up under it.

¹ Copy me, as I copy Christ. ² I commend you for always bearing me in mind and for maintaining the traditions I passed on to you.

³³ for God is a God not of disorder but of harmony. [Move 33b-36 to follow vs 40] As is the rule in all churches of the saints,

³⁷ If anyone considers himself a prophet or gifted with the Spirit, let him understand that what I write to you is a command of the Lord.

²⁸ and when everything is put under him, then the Son himself will be put under Him who put everything under him, so that God may be everything to everyone.

³² What would it avail me that, humanly speaking, I 'fought with wild beasts' at Ephesus? If dead men do not rise, let us eat and drink, for we will be dead to-morrow!

⁹ for I have wide opportunities here for active service — and there are many to thwart me.

²¹ I Paul write this salutation with my own hand.

⁸ Now I would like you to know about the distress which befell me in Asia, brothers. I was crushed, crushed far more than I could stand, so much so that I despaired even of life; ⁹ in fact I told myself it was the sentence of death. But that was to make me rely not on myself but on the God who raises the dead; ¹⁰ he rescued me from so terrible a death, he rescues still, and I rely upon him for the hope that he will continue to rescue me. ¹¹ Let me have your cooperation in prayer, so that many a soul may render thanks to him on my behalf for the boon which many have been the means of him bestowing on myself.

³ So the very reason I wrote was that I might not come only to be pained by those who ought to give me joy; I relied on you all, I felt sure that my joy would be a joy for everyone of you.

⁶ This censure from the majority is severe enough for the individual in question, ⁷ so that instead of censuring you should now forgive him and comfort him, in case the man is overwhelmed by excessive remorse. ⁸ So I beg you to reinstate him in your love. ⁹ For my aim in writing was simply to test you, to see if you were absolutely obedient.

⁹ For my aim in writing was simply to test you, to see if you were absolutely obedient. ¹⁰ If you forgive the man, I forgive him too; anything I had to forgive him has been forgiven in the presence of Christ for your sakes,

¹⁰ If you forgive the man, I forgive him too; anything I had to forgive him has been forgiven in the presence of Christ for your sakes,

¹ Hence, as I hold this ministry by God's mercy to me, I never lose heart in it;

³ Even if my gospel is veiled, it is only veiled in the case of the perishing; ⁴ there the god of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers, to prevent them seeing the light thrown by the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the likeness of God.

¹⁶ Hence I never lose heart; though my outward man decays, my inner man is renewed day after day.

¹⁹ For in Christ God reconciled the world to himself instead of counting men's trespasses against them; and he entrusted me with the message of his reconciliation. ²⁰ So I am an envoy for Christ, God appealing by me, as it were — be reconciled to God, I entreat you on behalf of Christ. ²¹ For our sakes He made him to be sin who himself knew nothing of sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

¹⁵ His own heart goes out to you all the more when he remembers how you all obeyed him, and how you received him with reverence and trembling.

¹⁵ His own heart goes out to you all the more when he remembers how you all obeyed him, and how you received him with reverence and trembling. ¹⁶ I am glad to have full confidence in you.

²² Along with them I am also sending our brother: I have had ample proof of his keen interest on many occasions, and it is specially keen on this occasion, as he has absolute confidence in you.

⁶ I am prepared to court-martial anyone who remains insubordinate, once your submission is complete.

⁸ Even supposing I were to boast somewhat freely of my authority (and the Lord gave it to me for building you up, not for demolishing you), I would feel quite justified.

⁹ even when I ran short, during my stay with you, I was no encumbrance to anybody, for the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied my wants. Thus I kept myself, as I intend to keep myself, from being a burden to you in any way.

¹⁰ I am writing thus to you in absence, so that when I do come I may not have to deal sharply with you; I have the Lord's authority for that, but he gave it to me for building you up, not for demolishing you. ¹¹ Now brothers, goodbye; mend your ways, listen to what I have told you, live in harmony, keep the peace; then the God of love and peace will be with you.

¹⁰ I feel persuaded in the Lord that you will not go wrong. But he who unsettles you will have to meet his doom, no matter who he is.

²² But the harvest of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, good temper, kindliness, generosity, fidelity,

¹ Even if anyone is detected in some trespass, brothers, you are spiritual, you must set the offender right in a spirit of gentleness; let each of you look to himself, in case he too is tempted.

⁶ Those who are taught must share all the blessings of life with those who teach them the Word.

⁹ Never let us grow tired of doing what is right, for if we do not faint we shall reap our harvest at the opportune season. ¹⁰ So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all men and in particular to the household of the faith.

¹⁴ For he is our peace, he who has made both of us a unity and destroyed the barrier which kept us apart; ¹⁵ in his own flesh he put an end to the feud of the Law with its code of commands, so as to make peace by the creation of a new Man in himself out of both parties, ¹⁶ so as himself to give the death-blow to that feud by reconciling them both to God in one Body through the cross; ¹⁷ he came with a gospel of peace for those far away (that is, for you) and for those who were near,

¹⁷ Now in the Lord I insist and protest that you must give up living like pagans; for their purposes are futile,

²⁸ Let the thief steal no more; rather let him work and put his hands to an honest task, so as to have something to contribute to the needy.

¹⁹ and on my behalf also, that I may be allowed to speak and open my lips in order to expound fully and freely that open secret of the gospel ²⁰ for the sake of which I am in custody as its envoy. Pray that I may have freedom to declare it as I should.

⁶ of this I am confident, that he who has begun the good work in you will go on completing it until the day of Jesus Christ.

⁹ And it is my prayer that your love may be more and more rich in knowledge and all manner of insight, enabling you to have a sense of what is vital,

¹² Therefore, my beloved, as you have been obedient always and not simply when I was present, so, now that I am absent, work all the more strenuously at your salvation with reverence and trembling,

¹⁷ Copy me, brothers, one and all of you, and notice those who live by the example you get from me.

²⁰ But we are a colony of heaven, and we wait for the Saviour who comes from heaven, the Lord Jesus Christ, ²¹ who will transform the body that belongs to our low estate till it resembles the body of his Glory, by the same power that enables him to make everything subject to himself.

⁷ so shall God's peace, that surpasses all our dreams, keep guard over your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. ⁸ Finally, brothers, keep in mind whatever is true, whatever is worthy, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is attractive, whatever is high-toned, all excellence, all merit. ⁹ Practise also what you have learned and received from me, what you heard me say and what you saw me do; then the God of peace will be with you.

⁹ Practise also what you have learned and received from me, what you heard me say and what you saw me do; then the God of peace will be with you.

¹⁷ Indeed, whatever you say or do, let everything be done in dependence on the Lord Jesus, giving thanks in his name to God the Father.

³ 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.

¹⁸ This salutation is in my own hand, from Paul. 'Remember I am in prison. Grace be with you.'

³ as we recall your active faith and labour of love and patient hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, before our God and Father.

⁵ for our gospel came to you not with mere words but also with power and with the holy Spirit, with ample conviction on our part (you know what we were to you, for your own good), ⁶ and you started to copy us and the Lord, welcoming the word, though it brought you heavy trouble, with a joy inspired by the holy Spirit. ⁷ Thus you became a pattern to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia; ⁸ for the word of the Lord has resounded from you not only through Macedonia and Achaia — no, your faith in God has reached every place. We never need to speak about it.

¹⁰ and to wait for the coming of his Son from heaven — the Son whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who rescues us from the Wrath to come.

¹ But you remember yourselves, brothers, that our visit to you was no failure.

⁶ 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;

⁹ 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. ¹⁰ You are witnesses, and so is God, to our behaviour among you believers, how pious and upright and blameless it was,

¹³ 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,

¹⁸ (We did want to reach you — I did, I Paul, more than once — but Satan stopped us.)

⁴ 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.)

¹¹ May our God and Father and our Lord Jesus direct my way to you!

¹ 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.

¹ 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. ² You remember the instructions we gave you on the authority of the Lord Jesus.

⁸ hence, he who disregards this, disregards not man but the God who gave you his holy Spirit.

¹⁰ as indeed is your practice towards all the brothers throughout all Macedonia. We beseech you, brothers, to excel in this more and more; ¹¹ also, endeavour to live quietly, attend to your own business, and — as we charged you — work with your hands,

¹⁴ We beseech you, brothers, keep a check upon loafers, encourage the faint-hearted, sustain weak souls, never lose your temper with anyone;

¹⁷ never give up prayer,

²³ May the God of peace consecrate you through and through! Spirit, soul, and body, may you be kept without break or blame till the arrival of our Lord Jesus Christ! ²⁴ He who calls you is faithful, he will do this. ²⁵ Pray for us too, brothers.

⁵ They are proof positive of God's equity; you are suffering for the realm of God, and he means to make you worthy of it —

¹⁵ Well then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the rules which you have learned from us orally or by letter.

¹⁷ graciously encourage your hearts and strengthen them for all good in deed and word.

⁶ Brothers, we charge you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to shun any brother who is loafing, instead of following the rule you got from us. ⁷ For you know quite well how to copy us; we did not loaf in your midst, ⁸ 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. ⁹ Not that we have no right to such support; it was simply to give you a pattern to copy. ¹⁰ We used to charge you even when we were with you, 'If a man will not work, he shall not eat.' ¹¹ But we are informed that some of your number are loafing, busybodies instead of busy. ¹² Now in the Lord Jesus Christ we charge and exhort such persons to keep quiet, to do their work and earn their own living.

¹⁴ Only, if anyone will not obey our orders in this letter, mark that man, do not associate with him — that will make him feel ashamed! ¹⁵ You are not to treat him as an enemy, but to put him under discipline, as a brother.

¹⁸ 'The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.'

² for kings and all in authority, that we may lead a tranquil life in all piety and gravity;

¹² Let no one slight you because you are a youth, but set the believers an example of speech, behaviour, love, faith, and purity.

¹³ Besides, they become idle unconsciously by gadding about from one house to another — and not merely idle but gossips and busybodies, repeating things they have no right to mention.

²¹ In the presence of God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the elect angels, I adjure you to be unprejudiced in carrying out these orders; be absolutely impartial.

⁵ and constant friction between people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the Truth. They imagine religion is a paying concern.

¹³ In the presence of God who is the Life of all, and of Christ Jesus who testified to the good confession before Pontius Pilate, I charge you ¹⁴ to keep your commission free from stain, free from reproach, till the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ —

⁹ for which I have to suffer imprisonment as if I were a criminal. (But there is no prison for the word of 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.

¹ In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus who will judge the living and the dead, in the light of his appearance and his reign,

⁸ Now the crown of a good life awaits me, with which the Lord, that just Judge, will reward me on the great Day — and not only me but all who have loved and longed for his appearance.

¹⁷ But the Lord supported me and gave me strength to make a full statement of the gospel and let all the heathen hear it. I was rescued from the jaws of the lion. ¹⁸ The Lord will rescue me from every assault of evil, he will bring me safe to his own realm in heaven. To him be glory for ever and ever! Amen.

²² The Lord Jesus be with your spirit. Grace be with you all.

⁷ set them an example of good conduct; be sincere and serious in your teaching,

¹³ awaiting the blessed hope of the appearance of the Glory of the great God and of our Saviour Christ Jesus,

¹⁰ After a first and a second warning have no more to do with a factious person;

²¹ I send you this letter relying on your obedience; I know you will do even more than I tell you.

²⁵ The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen.

² who had a tenth part of everything assigned him by Abraham — this Melchizedek is primarily a king of righteousness (that is the meaning of his name); then, besides that, king of Salem (which means, king of peace).

²⁸ so Christ, after being once sacrificed to bear the sins of many, will appear again, not to deal with sin but for the saving of those who look out for him.

² our eyes fixed upon Jesus as the pioneer and the perfection of faith — upon Jesus who, in order to reach his own appointed joy, steadily endured the cross, thinking nothing of its shame, and is now seated at the right hand of the throne of God. ³ Compare him who steadily endured all that hostility from sinful men, so as to keep your own hearts from fainting and failing.

³ Compare him who steadily endured all that hostility from sinful men, so as to keep your own hearts from fainting and failing.

⁵ And have you forgotten the word of appeal that reasons with you as sons? — My son, never make light of the Lord's discipline, never faint under his reproofs;

¹⁵ see to it that no one misses the grace of God, that no root of bitterness grows up to be a trouble by contaminating all the rest of you; ¹⁶ that no one turns to sexual vice or to a profane life as Esau did — Esau, who for a single meal parted with his birthright.

¹⁷ Obey your leaders, submit to them; for they are alive to the interests of your souls, as men who will have to account for their trust. Let their work be a joy to them and not a grief — which would be a loss to yourselves. ¹⁸ Pray for me, for I am sure I have a clean conscience; my desire is in every way to lead an honest life. ¹⁹ I urge you to this all the more, that I may get back to you the sooner. ²⁰ May the God of peace who brought up from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great Shepherd of the sheep, with the blood of the eternal covenant,

¹⁶ Make no mistake about this, my beloved brothers: ¹⁷ all we are given is good, and all our endowments are faultless, descending from above, from the Father of the heavenly lights, who knows no change of rising and setting, who casts no shadow on the earth. ¹⁸ It was his own will that we should be born by the Word of the truth, to be a kind of firstfruits among his creatures.

⁵ Listen, my beloved brothers; has not God chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and to inherit the realm which he has promised to those who love him?

¹⁹ My brothers, if anyone of you goes astray from the truth and someone brings him back, ²⁰ understand that he who brings a sinner back from the error of his way saves his soul from death and hides a host of sins.

²¹ It is your vocation; for when Christ suffered for you, he left you an example, and you must follow his footsteps.

¹ Well, as Christ has suffered for us in the flesh, let this very conviction that he who has suffered in the flesh gets quit of sin,

¹⁵ None of you must suffer as a murderer or a thief or a bad character or a revolutionary;

³ not by way of lording it over your charges but proving a pattern to the flock.

⁹ then be sure the Lord knows how to rescue pious folk from trial, and how to keep the unrighteous under punishment till the day of doom,

¹² you who expect and hasten the advent of the Day of God, which dissolves the heavens in fire and makes the stars blaze and melt!

¹⁹ We love, because He loved us first.

¹⁰ So when I come, I shall bring up what he is doing, babbling against me with wicked words — and, not satisfied with words, he refuses to welcome the brothers, checks those who want to welcome them, and excommunicates them from the church. ¹¹ Beloved, do not imitate evil but good; he who does good belongs to God, he who does evil has never seen God.

²² Snatch some from the fire, and have mercy on the waverers, ²³ trembling as you touch them, with loathing for the garment which the flesh has stained. ²⁴ Now to him who is able to keep you from slipping and to make you stand unblemished and exultant before his glory —

³ I know that you are enduring patiently and have borne up for my sake and have not wearied.

¹⁰ Because you have kept the word of my patient endurance, I will keep you safe through the hour of trial which is coming upon the whole world to test the dwellers on earth. ¹¹ I am coming very soon: hold to what you have, in case your crown is taken from you.

¹⁰ Whoever is destined for captivity, to captivity he goes: whoever kills with the sword, by the sword must he be killed. This is what shows the patience and the faith of the saints.