2 Timothy 3 Cross References - Moffatt

¹ Mark this, there are hard times coming in the last days. ² For men will be selfish, fond of money, boastful, haughty, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, irreverent, ³ callous, relentless, scurrilous, dissolute, and savage; they will hate goodness, ⁴ 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. ⁶ Some of them worm their way into families and get hold of the women-folk who feel crushed by the burden of their sins — wayward creatures of impulse, ⁷ who are always curious to learn and never able to attain the knowledge of the Truth. ⁸ 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. ⁹ However, they will get no further, for their aberration will be detected by everyone, as was the case with these magicians. ¹⁰ Now you have followed my teaching, my practice, my aims, my faith, my patience, my love, my stedfastness, ¹¹ my persecutions, my sufferings — all that befell me at Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, all the persecutions I had to undergo, from which the Lord rescued me. ¹² Yes, and all who want to live the religious life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. ¹³ Bad characters and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving others and deceived themselves; ¹⁴ but hold you to what you have been taught, hold to your convictions, remember who your teachers were, ¹⁵ remember you have known from childhood the sacred writings that can impart saving wisdom by faith in Christ Jesus. ¹⁶ All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for amendment, and for moral discipline, ¹⁷ to make the man of God proficient and equip him for good work of every kind.

³ Let nobody delude you into this belief, whatever he may say. It will not come till the Rebellion takes place first of all, with the revealing of the Lawless One, the doomed One, ⁴ the adversary who vaunts himself above and against every so-called god or object of worship, actually seating himself in the temple of God with the proclamation that he himself is God. ⁵ Do you not remember I used to tell you this when I was with you? ⁶ Well, you can recall now what it is that restrains him from being revealed before his appointed time. ⁷ For the secret force of lawlessness is at work already; only, it cannot be revealed till he who at present restrains it is removed. ⁸ Then shall the Lawless One be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will destroy with the breath of his lips and quell by his appearing and arrival — ⁹ that One whose arrival is due to Satan's activity, with the full power, the miracles and portents, of falsehood, ¹⁰ and with the full deceitfulness of evil for those who are doomed to perish, since they refuse to love the Truth that would save them. ¹¹ Therefore God visits them with an active delusion, till they put faith in falsehood, ¹² so that all may be doomed who refuse faith in the Truth but delight in evil.

¹ But in later days, the Spirit distinctly declares, certain people will rebel against the faith; they will listen to spirits of error and to the doctrines that daemons teach ² through plausible sophists who are seared in conscience — ³ men who prohibit marriage and insist on abstinence from foods which God created for believing men, who understand the Truth, to partake of with thanksgiving.

³ for the time will come when people will decline to be taught sound doctrine and will accumulate teachers to suit themselves and tickle their own fancies;

³ To begin with, you know that mockers will come with their mockeries in the last days, men who go by their own passions,

¹⁸ Children, it is the last hour. You have learned that 'Antichrist is coming.' Well, but many antichrists have appeared — which makes us sure it is the last hour.

¹⁷ Now, beloved, you must remember the words of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ;

¹ And when he opened the seventh seal, silence reigned in heaven for about half-an-hour. ² Then I saw seven trumpets being given to the seven angels who stand before God. ³ And another angel went and stood at the altar with a golden censer; he was given abundant incense, to be laid with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar in front of the throne; ⁴ and the smoke of the incense with the prayers of all the saints rose up from the angel's hand before God. ⁵ And the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and poured it on the earth; then followed peals of thunder, loud blasts, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake. ⁶ And the seven angels with the seven trumpets prepared to blow their blasts. ⁷ The first blew, and there came hail and fire mixed with blood, falling on the earth; a third of the earth was burnt up, a third of the trees were burnt up, and all the green grass was burnt up. ⁸ The second angel blew, and what looked like a huge mountain on fire was hurled into the sea; a third of the sea turned blood, ⁹ a third of the creatures in the sea — the living creatures — perished, and a third of the ships were destroyed. ¹⁰ The third angel blew, and a huge star blazing like a torch dropped out of the sky, dropped on a third of the rivers and on the fountains ¹¹ (the name of the star is Wormwood); a third of the waters became wormwood, and many people died of the waters, because they had turned bitter. ¹² The fourth angel blew; and a stroke fell on a third of the sun, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so as to darken one third of them, withdrawing light from a third of the day and likewise of the night. ¹³ Then I looked, and I heard an eagle flying in mid-heaven with a loud cry, "Woe, woe, woe to the dwellers on earth, for the rest of the trumpet-blasts that the three angels are about to blow!"

⁶ need not honour his father or mother. So you have repealed the law of God to suit your own tradition.

¹¹ But you say that if a man tells his father or mother, 'This money might have been at your service, but it is Korban' (that is, dedicated to God), ¹² he is exempt, so you hold, from doing anything for his father or mother.

¹⁵ Then he said to them, "See and keep clear of covetousness in every shape and form, for a man's life is not part of his possessions because he has ample wealth."

¹⁴ Now the Pharisees who were fond of money heard all this, and they sneered at him.

³⁶ In days gone by Theudas started up, claiming to be a person of importance; a number of men, about four hundred of them, rallied to him, but he was slain, and all his followers were dispersed and wiped out.

²⁹ till they are filled with all manner of wickedness, depravity, lust, and viciousness, filled to the brim with envy, murder, quarrels, intrigues, and malignity — slanderers, ³⁰ defamers, loathed by God, outrageous, haughty, boastful, inventive in evil, disobedient to parents, ³¹ devoid of conscience, false to their word, callous, merciless;

¹⁸ do not pride yourself at the expense of these branches. Remember, in your pride, the stem supports you, not you the stem.

¹ We who are strong ought to bear the burdens that the weak make for themselves and us. We are not to please ourselves. ² Each of us must please his neighbour, doing him good by building up his faith. ³ Christ certainly did not please himself, but, as it is written, The reproaches of those who denounced Thee have fallen upon me. —

¹⁵ and that he died for all in order to have the living live no longer for themselves but for him who died and rose for them.

²¹ Everybody is selfish, instead of caring for Jesus Christ.

⁵ So put to death those members that are on earth: sexual vice, impurity, appetite, evil desire, and lust (which is idolatry),

⁴ the adversary who vaunts himself above and against every so-called god or object of worship, actually seating himself in the temple of God with the proclamation that he himself is God.

²⁰ including Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have made over to Satan. That will teach them to stop their blasphemous ongoings!

³ not a drunkard or violent, but lenient and conciliatory, not a lover of money,

⁴ is a conceited, ignorant creature, with a morbid passion for controversy and argument which only leads to envy, dissension, insults, insinuations,

¹⁰ For love of money is the root of all mischief; it is by aspiring to be rich that certain individuals have gone astray from the faith and found themselves pierced with many a pang of remorse.

⁴ they will be treacherous, reckless and conceited, preferring pleasure to God —

⁸ If you really fulfil the royal law laid down by scripture, You must love your neighbour as yourself, well and good;

⁶ Yet he gives grace more and more: thus it is said, The haughty God opposes, but to the humble he gives grace.

¹⁶ But here you are, boasting in your proud pretensions! All such boasting is wicked.

⁵ You younger men must also submit to the presbyters. Indeed you must all put on the apron of humility to serve one another, for the haughty God opposes, but to the humble he gives grace.

³ in their lust they will exploit you with cunning arguments — men whose doom comes apace from of old, and destruction is awake upon their trail.

¹² But those people! — like irrational animals, creatures of mere instinct, born for capture and corruption, they scoff at what they are ignorant of; and like animals they will suffer corruption and ruin,

¹⁴ their eyes are full of harlotry, insatiable for sin; their own hearts trained to lust, they beguile unsteady souls. Accursed generation! ¹⁵ they have gone wrong by leaving the straight road, by following the road of Balaam son of Bosor, who liked the profits of evil-doing —

¹⁸ By talking arrogant futilities they beguile with the sensual lure of fleshly passion those who are just escaping from the company of misconduct —

¹⁰ But these people scoff at anything they do not understand; and whatever they do understand, like irrational animals, by mere instinct, that proves their ruin. ¹¹ Woe to them! they go the road of Cain, rush into Balaam's error for what it brings them, and perish in Korah's rebellion.

¹⁶ For these people are murmurers, grumbling at their lot in life — they fall in with their own passions, their talk is arrogant, they pay court to men to benefit themselves.

¹ Then I stood on the sand of the sea, and I saw a Beast rising out of the sea with ten horns and seven heads, ten diadems on his horns, and blasphemous titles on his heads.

⁵ He was allowed to utter loud and blasphemous vaunts, and allowed to exert authority for two and forty months; ⁶ so he opened his mouth for blasphemies against God, to blaspheme his name and his dwelling (that is, the dwellers in heaven).

⁹ till men, scorched by the fierce heat, blasphemed the name of the God who had control of these plagues; yet they would not repent and give him glory.

¹¹ blaspheming the God of heaven for their pains and their ulcers, but refusing to repent of their doings.

²¹ and huge hailstones fell from heaven on men, till men blasphemed God for the plague of the hail — for the plague of it was fearful.

¹² freights of gold, silver, jewels, pearls, fine linen, purples, silk, scarlet stuff, all sorts of citron wood and ivory wares, all articles of costly wood, of bronze, of iron and of marble, ¹³ with cinnamon, balsam, spices, myrrh, frankincense, wines, olive-oil, fine flour and wheat, with cattle, sheep, horses, carriages, slaves, and the souls of men.

¹ Then Jesus was led into the desert by the Spirit to be tempted by the devil.

²¹ Brother will betray brother to death, the father will betray his child, children will rise against their parents and put them to death,

¹⁶ He who listens to you listens to me, he who rejects you rejects me, and he who rejects me rejects him who sent me."

⁷⁰ Jesus answered them, "Did I not choose you, the twelve? And yet one of you is a devil!"

³¹ devoid of conscience, false to their word, callous, merciless;

⁵ Do not withhold sexual intercourse from one another, unless you agree to do so for a time in order to devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again. You must not let Satan tempt you through incontinence.

⁹ Still, if they cannot restrain themselves, let them marry. Better marry than be aflame with passion!

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

¹¹ Their wives must be serious too; they must not be slanderers but temperate and absolutely trustworthy.

⁸ he must be hospitable, a lover of goodness, master of himself, a just man, a religious man, and abstemious;

³ Tell the older women also to be reverent in their demeanour and not to be slanderers or slaves to drink;

⁶ Now you insult the poor. Is it not the rich who lord it over you and drag you to court?

¹⁴ their eyes are full of harlotry, insatiable for sin; their own hearts trained to lust, they beguile unsteady souls. Accursed generation!

¹⁹ promising them freedom, when they are themselves enslaved to corruption (for a man is the slave of whatever overpowers him).

¹⁸ they told you beforehand, "At the end of things there will be mockers who go by their own impious passions."

¹⁵ and to this statue of the Beast he was allowed to impart the breath of life, so that the statue of the Beast should actually speak. He has everyone put to death who will not worship the statue of the Beast,

¹⁷ so that no one can buy or sell unless he bears the mark, that is, the name of the Beast or the cipher of his name.

⁶ They poured out the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink! They deserve it!"

⁶ Then I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of the saints and the blood of the witnesses of Jesus; and as I looked at her I marvelled greatly.

²⁰ Granted. They were broken off — for their lack of faith. And you owe your position to your faith. You should feel awed instead of being uplifted.

¹⁸ Such creatures are no servants of Christ our Lord, they are slaves of their own base desires; with their plausible and pious talk they beguile the hearts of unsuspecting people. But surely not of you!

¹⁸ For many — as I have often told you and tell you now with tears — many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. ¹⁹ Destruction is their fate, the belly is their god, they glory in their shame, these men of earthly mind!

⁶ he must not be a new convert, in case he gets conceited and incurs the doom passed on the devil;

⁶ whereas the widow who plunges into dissipation is dead before ever she dies.

¹⁷ 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;

¹⁰ particularly those who fall in with the polluting appetite of the flesh and despise the Powers celestial. Daring, presumptuous creatures! they are not afraid to scoff at the angelic Glories; ¹¹ whereas even angels, superior in might and power, lay no scoffing charge against these before the Lord. ¹² But those people! — like irrational animals, creatures of mere instinct, born for capture and corruption, they scoff at what they are ignorant of; and like animals they will suffer corruption and ruin, ¹³ done out of the profits of their evil-doing. Pleasure for them is revelling in open daylight — spots and blots, with their dissipated revelling, as they carouse in your midst! — ¹⁴ their eyes are full of harlotry, insatiable for sin; their own hearts trained to lust, they beguile unsteady souls. Accursed generation! ¹⁵ they have gone wrong by leaving the straight road, by following the road of Balaam son of Bosor, who liked the profits of evil-doing — ¹⁶ but he got reproved for his malpractice: a dumb ass spoke with human voice and checked the prophet's infatuation. ¹⁷ These people are waterless fountains and mists driven by a squall, for whom the nether gloom of darkness is reserved. ¹⁸ By talking arrogant futilities they beguile with the sensual lure of fleshly passion those who are just escaping from the company of misconduct — ¹⁹ promising them freedom, when they are themselves enslaved to corruption (for a man is the slave of whatever overpowers him). ²⁰ After escaping the pollutions of the world by the knowledge of our Lord and saviour Jesus Christ, if they get entangled and overpowered again, the last state is worse for them than the first. ²¹ Better had they never known the Way of righteousness, than to know it and then turn back from the holy command which was committed to them. ²² They verify the truth of the proverb: "The dog turns back to what he has vomited, the sow when washed will wallow in the mire."

⁴ for certain persons have slipped in by stealth (their doom has been predicted long ago), impious creatures who pervert the grace of our God into immorality and disown our sole liege and Lord, Jesus Christ.

⁸ Despite it all, these visionaries pollute their flesh, scorn the Powers celestial, and scoff at the angelic Glories. ⁹ Now the very archangel Michael, when he disputed the body of Moses with Satan, did not dare to condemn him with scoffs; what he said was, The Lord rebuke you!

¹⁹ These are the people who set up divisions and distinctions, sensuous creatures, destitute of the Spirit.

¹⁵ Beware of false prophets; they come to you with the garb of sheep but at heart they are ravenous wolves.

²⁷ Woe to you, you irreligious scribes and Pharisees! you are like tombs white-washed; they look comely on the outside, but inside they are full of dead men's bones and all manner of impurity. ²⁸ So to men you seem just, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.

²⁰ a tutor for the foolish, a teacher of the simple, because in the Law you have the embodiment of knowledge and truth — ²¹ well then, do you ever teach yourself, you teacher of other people? You preach against stealing; do you steal? ²² You forbid adultery; do you commit adultery? You detest idols; do you rob temples? ²³ You pride yourself on the Law; do you dishonour God by your breaches of the Law? ²⁴ Why, it is owing to you that the name of God is maligned among the Gentiles, as scripture says!

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. ¹⁸ Such creatures are no servants of Christ our Lord, they are slaves of their own base desires; with their plausible and pious talk they beguile the hearts of unsuspecting people. But surely not of you!

¹⁴ instead of remaining immature, blown from our course and swayed by every passing wind of doctrine, by the adroitness of men who are dexterous in devising error;

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.

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!

⁸ Whoever does not provide for his own relatives and particularly for his own family, has repudiated the faith: he is worse than an infidel.

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

¹⁶ Avoid all that profane jargon, for it leads people still further into irreligion,

²³ Shut your mind against foolish, popular controversy; be sure that only breeds strife.

¹⁶ They profess to know God, but they deny him by their deeds; they are detestable, disobedient, and useless for good work of any kind.

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

¹⁰ If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not admit him to the house — do not even greet him, ¹¹ for he who greets him shares in his wicked work. ¹² I have a great deal to write to you, but I do not mean to use ink and paper; I hope to visit you and have a talk with you, so that your joy may be unimpaired.

²⁸ Come to me, all who are labouring and burdened, and I will refresh you.

¹³ Woe to you, you impious scribes and Pharisees! you shut the Realm of heaven in men's faces; you neither enter yourselves, nor will you let those enter who are on the point of entering.

¹⁹ but the worries of the world and the delight of being rich and all the other passions come in to choke the word; so it proves unfruitful.

² You know when you were pagans, how your impulses led you to dumb idols;

⁹ Those who are eager to be rich get tempted and trapped in many senseless and pernicious propensities that drag men down to ruin and destruction.

¹¹ they must be silenced, for they are undermining whole families by teaching objectionable doctrine for the base end of making money.

³ For we ourselves were once senseless, disobedient, astray, enslaved to all manner of passions and pleasures; we spent our days in malice and envy, we were hateful, and we hated one another.

¹⁷ Now, beloved, you are forewarned: mind you are not carried away by the error of the lawless and so lose your proper footing;

¹¹ He replied, "Because it is granted you to understand the open secrets of the Realm of heaven, but it is not granted to these people.

²⁰ for anyone whose practices are corrupt loathes the light and will not come out into it, in case his actions are exposed, ²¹ whereas anyone whose life is true comes out into the light, to make it plain that his actions have been divinely prompted.

⁴⁴ How can you believe, you who accept credit from one another instead of aiming at the credit which comes from the only God?

⁴² Still, a number even of the authorities believed in him, though they would not confess it on account of the Pharisees, in case of being excommunicated; ⁴³ they preferred the approval of men to the approval of God.

¹ But I could not discuss things with you, my brothers, as spiritual persons; I had to address you as worldlings, as mere babes in Christ. ² I fed you with milk, not with solid food. You were not able for solid food, and you are not able even now; ³ you are still worldly. For with jealousy and quarrels in your midst, are you not worldly, are you not behaving like ordinary men? ⁴ When one cries, "I belong to Paul," and another, "I belong to Apollos," what are you but men of the world?

⁴ to the God who desires all men to be saved and to attain the knowledge of the Truth.

²⁵ he must be gentle in his admonitions to the opposition — God may perhaps let them change their mind and admit the Truth;

³ for the time will come when people will decline to be taught sound doctrine and will accumulate teachers to suit themselves and tickle their own fancies; ⁴ they will give up listening to the Truth and turn to myths.

¹¹ On this point I have a great deal to say, which it is hard to make intelligible to you. For you have grown dull of hearing.

²¹ You come in for no share or lot in this religion. Your heart is all wrong in the sight of God. ²² So repent of this wickedness of yours, and ask God whether you cannot be forgiven for your heart's purpose.

⁸ But the sorcerer Elymas (for that is the translation of his name) tried to divert the proconsul from the faith. ⁹ So Saul (who is also called Paul), filled with the holy Spirit, looked steadily at him ¹⁰ and said, "You son of the devil, you enemy of all good, full of all craft and all cunning, will you never stop diverting the straight paths of the Lord? ¹¹ See here, the Lord's hand will fall on you, and you will be blind, unable for a time to see the sun." In a moment a dark mist fell upon him, and he groped about for someone to take him by the hand.

²⁴ Having learned that some of our number, quite unauthorized by us, have unsettled you with their teaching and upset your souls,

²⁸ Yes, as they disdained to acknowledge God any longer, God has given them up to a reprobate instinct, for the perpetration of what is improper,

¹³ 'Apostles'? They are spurious apostles, false workmen — they are masquerading as 'apostles of Christ.' ¹⁴ No wonder they do, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. ¹⁵ So it is no surprise if his ministers also masquerade as ministers of righteousness. Their doom will answer to their deeds.

⁵ Put yourselves to the proof, not me; test yourselves, to see if you are in the faith. Do you not understand that Christ Jesus is within you? Otherwise you must be failures. ⁶ But I trust you will find I am no failure,

⁷ It simply means that certain individuals are unsettling you; they want to distort the gospel of Christ. ⁸ Now even though it were myself or some angel from heaven, whoever preaches a gospel that contradicts the gospel I preached to you, God's curse be on him! ⁹ I have said it before and I now repeat it: whoever preaches a gospel to you that contradicts the gospel you have already received, God's curse be on him!

⁴ There were traitors of false brothers, who had crept in to spy out the freedom we enjoy in Christ Jesus; they did aim at enslaving us again. ⁵ But we refused to yield for a single instant to their claims; we were determined that the truth of the gospel should hold good for you.

⁹ that One whose arrival is due to Satan's activity, with the full power, the miracles and portents, of falsehood, ¹⁰ and with the full deceitfulness of evil for those who are doomed to perish, since they refuse to love the Truth that would save them. ¹¹ Therefore God visits them with an active delusion, till they put faith in falsehood,

¹⁹ keeping hold of faith and a good conscience. Certain individuals have scouted the good conscience and thus come to grief over their faith —

² through plausible sophists who are seared in conscience —

¹⁵ for he has been bitterly hostile to anything I have said.

¹⁰ For there are plenty of insubordinate creatures who impose on people with their empty arguments, particularly those who have come over from Judaism;

¹ Still, false prophets did appear among the People, as among you also there will be false teachers, men who will insinuate destructive heresies, even disowning the Lord who ransomed them; they bring rapid destruction on themselves, ² and many will follow their immorality (thanks to them the true Way will be maligned); ³ in their lust they will exploit you with cunning arguments — men whose doom comes apace from of old, and destruction is awake upon their trail.

¹ Do not believe every spirit, beloved, but test the spirits to see if they come from God; for many false prophets have emerged in the world.

¹⁸ they told you beforehand, "At the end of things there will be mockers who go by their own impious passions." ¹⁹ These are the people who set up divisions and distinctions, sensuous creatures, destitute of the Spirit.

⁶ Still, you have this in your favour: you hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, and I hate them too.

¹⁴ But I have one or two things against you: you have some adherents there of the tenets of Balaam, who taught Balak how to set a pitfall before the sons of Israel by making them eat food which had been sacrificed to idols and give way to sexual vice. ¹⁵ So even with you; you likewise have some adherents of the tenets of the Nicolaitans.

²⁰ Still I have this against you: you are tolerating that Jezebel of a woman who styles herself a prophetess and seduces my servants by teaching them to give way to sexual vice and to eat food which has been sacrificed to idols.

¹¹ See here, the Lord's hand will fall on you, and you will be blind, unable for a time to see the sun." In a moment a dark mist fell upon him, and he groped about for someone to take him by the hand.

¹⁵ But the evil spirit retorted, "Jesus I know and Paul I know, but you — who are you?" ¹⁶ And the man in whom the evil spirit resided leapt at them, overpowered them all, and belaboured them, till they rushed out of the house stripped and wounded. ¹⁷ This came to the ears of all the inhabitants of Ephesus, Jews as well as Greeks; awe fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified.

⁸ 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.

³ and inasmuch as I have gone carefully over them all myself from the very beginning, I have decided, O Theophilus, to write them out in order for your excellency,

⁴² They devoted themselves to the instruction given by the apostles and to fellowship, breaking bread and praying together.

²³ When he came and saw the grace of God he rejoiced, and encouraged them all to hold by the Lord with heartfelt purpose

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,

⁴ How I lived from my youth up among my own nation and at Jerusalem, all that early career of mine, is known to all the Jews.

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.

¹⁷ Such was my intention. Now, have I shown myself 'fickle'? When I propose some plan, do I propose it in a worldly way, ready to mean 'no' as well as 'yes'?

⁴ I prove myself at all points a true minister of God, by great endurance, by suffering, by troubles, by calamities, ⁵ by lashes, by imprisonment; mobbed, toiling, sleepless, starving; ⁶ with innocence, insight, patience, kindness, the holy Spirit, unaffected love, ⁷ true words, the power of God; with the weapons of integrity for attack or for defence, ⁸ amid honour and dishonour, amid evil report and good report, an 'impostor' but honest, ⁹ 'unknown' but well-known, dying but here I am alive, chastened but not killed, ¹⁰ grieved but always glad, a 'pauper', but the means of wealth to many, without a penny but possessed of all.

²² But you know how he has stood the test, how he has served with me in the gospel, like a son helping his 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),

³ 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

⁶ Lay this before the brotherhood, and you will be an excellent minister of Christ Jesus, brought up on the truths of the faith and on the lessons of the good doctrine you have already followed.

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 Attend to your Scripture-reading, your preaching, and your teaching, till I come.

¹¹ Shun that, O man of God, aim at integrity, piety, faith, love, stedfastness, and suavity;

²² So shun the lusts of youth and aim at integrity, faith, love and peace, in the company of those who invoke the Lord out of a pure heart.

¹⁶ All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for amendment, and for moral discipline, ¹⁷ to make the man of God proficient and equip him for good work of every kind.

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

⁹ Never let yourselves be carried away with a variety of novel doctrines; for the right thing is to have one's heart strengthened by grace, not by the eating of food — that has never been any use to those who have had recourse to it.

⁵ for this very reason, do you contrive to make it your whole concern to furnish your faith with resolution, resolution with intelligence, ⁶ intelligence with self-control, self-control with stedfastness, stedfastness with piety, ⁷ piety with brotherliness, brotherliness with Christian love.

¹¹ Now as all things are thus to be dissolved, what holy and pious men ought you to be in your behaviour,

⁹ Anyone who is 'advanced' and will not remain by the doctrine of Christ, does not possess God: he who remains by the doctrine of Christ possesses both the Father and the Son. ¹⁰ If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not admit him to the house — do not even greet him,

¹⁶ I will show him all he has to suffer for the sake of my Name."

²³ and the Jews, after a number of days had elapsed, conspired to make away with him. ²⁴ But their plot came to the ears of Saul, and, although they kept watch on the gates day and night in order to make away with him, ²⁵ his disciples managed one night to let him down over the wall by lowering him in a basket.

¹⁴ but they passed on from Perga and arrived at Pisidian Antioch. On the sabbath they went into the synagogue and sat down;

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

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. ⁵¹ They shook the dust off their feet as a protest and went to Iconium.

¹ At Iconium the same thing happened. They went into the synagogue of the Jews and spoke in such a way that a great body both of Jews and Greeks believed. ² [Move to follow vs 3] But the refractory Jews stirred up and exasperated the feeling of the Gentiles against the brothers.

⁵ But, when the Gentiles and Jews along with their rulers made a hostile movement to insult and stone them, ⁶ the apostles grasped the situation and escaped to the Lycaonian towns of Lystra and Derbe and to the surrounding country;

¹⁹ But Jews from Antioch and Iconium arrived, who won over the crowds, and after pelting Paul with stones they dragged him outside the town, thinking he was dead. ²⁰ However, as the disciples gathered round him, he got up and went into the town. Next day he went off with Barnabas to Derbe, ²¹ and after preaching the gospel to that town and making a number of disciples, they turned back to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch,

¹⁹ how I served the Lord in all humility, with many a tear and many a trial which I encountered owing to the plots of the Jews,

²³ Only, I know this, that in town after town the holy Spirit testifies to me that bonds and troubles are awaiting me. ²⁴ But then, I set no value on my own life as compared with the joy of finishing my course and fulfilling the commission I received from the Lord Jesus to attest the gospel of the grace of God.

³² Taking some soldiers and officers, he at once rushed down to them, and when they saw the commander and the soldiers they stopped beating Paul. ³³ Then the commander came up and seized him; he ordered him to be bound with a couple of chains, and asked "Who is he?" and "What has he done?"

¹⁰ The quarrel then became so violent that the commander was afraid they would tear Paul in pieces; he therefore ordered the troops to march down and take him from them by force, bringing him inside the barracks.

¹² When day broke, the Jews formed a conspiracy, taking a solemn oath neither to eat nor to drink till they had killed Paul. ¹³ There were more than forty of them in this plot. ¹⁴ They then went to the high priests and elders, saying, "We have taken a solemn oath to taste no food till we have killed Paul. ¹⁵ Now you and the Sanhedrin must inform the commander that you propose to investigate this case in detail, so that he may have Paul brought down to you. We will be all ready to kill him on the way down." ¹⁶ Now Paul's nephew heard about their treacherous ambush; so he got admission to the barracks and told Paul. ¹⁷ Paul summoned one of the officers and said, "Take this young man to the commander, for he has some news to give him." ¹⁸ So the officer took him to the commander, saying, "The prisoner Paul has summoned me to ask if I would bring this young man to you, as he has something to tell you." ¹⁹ The commander then took him by the hand aside and asked him in private, "What is the news you have for me?" ²⁰ He answered, "The Jews have agreed to ask you to bring Paul down to-morrow to the Sanhedrin, on the plea that they propose to examine his case in detail. ²¹ Now do not let them persuade you. More than forty of them are lying in ambush for him, and they have taken a solemn oath neither to eat nor to drink till they have murdered him. They are all ready at this moment, awaiting your consent." ²² Then the commander dismissed the youth, bidding him "Tell nobody that you have informed me of this." ²³ He summoned two of the officers and said, "Get ready by nine o'clock to-night two hundred infantry to march as far as Caesarea, also seventy troopers, and two hundred spearmen." ²⁴ Horses were also to be provided, on which they were to mount Paul and carry him safe to Felix the governor.

³ as a special favour, to send for him to Jerusalem, meaning to lay an ambush for him and murder him on the road. ⁴ Festus replied that Paul would be kept in custody at Caesarea, but that he himself meant to leave for Caesarea before long —

¹⁷ I will rescue you from the People and also from the Gentiles — to whom I send you,

²² To this day I have had the help of God in standing, as I now do, to testify alike to low and high, never uttering a single syllable beyond what the prophets and Moses predicted was to take place.

³⁵ What can ever part us from Christ's love? Can anguish or calamity or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or the sword? ³⁶ (Because, as it is written, For thy sake we are being killed all the day long, we are counted as sheep to be slaughtered.) ³⁷ No, in all this we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

⁹ For it seems to me that God means us apostles to come in at the very end, like the doomed gladiators in the arena! We are made a spectacle to the world, to angels and to men! ¹⁰ We, for Christ's sake, are 'fools'; you in Christ are sensible. We are weak, you are strong; you are honoured, we are in disrepute. ¹¹ To this very hour we hunger and thirst, we are ill-clad and knocked about, we are waifs,

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.

⁸ on every side I am harried but not hemmed in, perplexed but not despairing, ⁹ persecuted but not abandoned, struck down but not destroyed — ¹⁰ wherever I go, I am being killed in the body as Jesus was, so that the life of Jesus may come out in my body: ¹¹ every day of my life I am being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus may come out within my mortal flesh.

²³ Ministers of Christ? yes perhaps, but not as much as I am (I am mad to talk like this!), with all my labours, with all my lashes, with all my time in prison — a record longer far than theirs. I have been often at the point of death; ²⁴ five times have I got forty lashes (all but one) from the Jews, ²⁵ three times I have been beaten by the Romans, once pelted with stones, three times shipwrecked, adrift at sea for a whole night and day; ²⁶ I have been often on my travels, I have been in danger from rivers and robbers, in danger from Jews and Gentiles, through dangers of town and of desert, through dangers on the sea, through dangers among false brothers — ²⁷ through labour and hardship, through many a sleepless night, through hunger and thirst, starving many a time, cold and ill-clad, and all the rest of it. ²⁸ And then there is the pressing business of each day, the care of all the churches.

⁷ I have fought in the good fight; I have run my course; I have kept the faith.

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.

³³ partly by being held up yourselves to obloquy and anguish, partly by making common cause with those who fared in this way; ³⁴ for you did sympathize with the prisoners, and you took the confiscation of your own belongings cheerfully, conscious that elsewhere you had higher, you had lasting, possessions.

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,

¹⁰ Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of goodness! the Realm of heaven is theirs. ¹¹ Blessed are you when men denounce you and persecute you and utter all manner of evil against you for my sake; ¹² rejoice and exult in it, for your reward is rich in heaven; that is how they persecuted the prophets before you.

²² and you will be hated by all men on account of my name; but he will be saved who holds out to the very end. ²³ When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next; truly I tell you, you will not have covered the towns of Israel before the Son of man arrives. ²⁴ A scholar is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his lord; ²⁵ enough for the scholar to fare like his teacher, and the servant like his lord. If men have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they miscall his servants!

²⁴ Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me;

³⁴ This is why I will send you prophets, wise men, and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, some of whom you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town;

³⁰ who does not get a hundred times as much — in this present world homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and lands, together with persecutions, and in the world to come life eternal.

²⁶ "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, aye and his own life, he cannot be a disciple of mine; ²⁷ whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me, he cannot be a disciple of mine.

¹⁹ If you belonged to the world, the world would love what it owned; it is because you do not belong to the world, because I have chosen you from the world, that the world hates you. ²⁰ Remember what I told you, 'A servant is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will persecute you; if they hold to my word, they will hold to yours. ²¹ They will do all this to you on account of my name, because they know not him who sent me.

² They will excommunicate you; indeed the time is coming when anyone who kills you will imagine he is performing a service to God.

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.

¹⁴ I have given them thy word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world.

²² strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to hold by the faith, and telling them that "we have to get into the Realm of God through many a trouble."

¹⁹ Ah, if in this life we have nothing but a mere hope in Christ, we are of all men to be pitied most!

¹² My proud boast is the testimony of my conscience that holiness and godly sincerity, not worldly cunning but the grace of God, have marked my conduct in the outside world and in particular my relations with you.

³ to prevent anyone being disturbed by these troubles. (Troubles are our lot, you know that well; 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.)

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

¹⁶ And who does not admit how profound is the divine truth of our religion? — it is He who was "manifest in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by the angels, preached among the nations, believed on throughout the world, taken up to glory."

³ Anyone who teaches novelties and refuses to fall in with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the doctrine that tallies with piety,

¹ Paul a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ for the faith of God's elect and for their knowledge of the Truth that goes with a religious life,

¹² and it schools us to renounce irreligion and worldly passions and to live a life of self-mastery, of integrity, and of piety in this present world,

³² And what more shall I say? Time would fail me to tell of Gideon, of Barak and Samson and Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets — ³³ men who by faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promises, shut the mouth of lions, ³⁴ quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness won to strength, proved valiant in warfare, and routed hosts of foreigners. ³⁵ Some were given back to their womankind, raised from the very dead; others were broken on the wheel, refusing to accept release, that they might obtain a better resurrection; ³⁶ others, again, had to experience scoffs and scourging, aye chains and imprisonment — ³⁷ they were stoned, sawn in two, and cut to pieces; they had to roam about in sheepskins and goatskins, forlorn, oppressed, ill-treated ³⁸ (men of whom the world was not worthy), wanderers in the desert and among the hills, in caves and gullies.

²⁰ Where is the credit in standing punishment for having done wrong? No, if you stand suffering for having done right, that is what God counts a merit. ²¹ It is your vocation; for when Christ suffered for you, he left you an example, and you must follow his footsteps.

¹⁴ Even supposing you have to suffer for the sake of what is right, still you are blessed. Have no fear of their threats, do not let that trouble you,

¹² Beloved, do not be surprised at the ordeal that has come to test you, as though some foreign experience befell you. ¹³ You are sharing what Christ suffered; so rejoice in it, that you may also rejoice and exult when his glory is revealed. ¹⁴ If you are denounced for the sake of Christ, you are blessed; for then the Spirit of glory and power, the Spirit of God himself, is resting on you. ¹⁵ None of you must suffer as a murderer or a thief or a bad character or a revolutionary; ¹⁶ but if a man suffers for being a Christian, he must not be ashamed, he must rather glorify God for that.

⁹ Resist him; keep your foothold in the faith, and learn to pay the same tax of suffering as the rest of your brotherhood throughout the world. ¹⁰ Once you have suffered for a little, the God of all grace who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ Jesus, will repair and recruit and strengthen you.

⁹ I John, your brother and your companion in the distress and realm and patient endurance which Jesus brings, found myself in the island called Patmos, for adhering to God's word and the testimony of Jesus. ¹⁰ On the Lord's day I found myself rapt in the Spirit, and I heard a loud voice behind me like a trumpet calling,

¹⁴ I said to him, "You know, my lord." So he told me, "These are the people who have come out of the great Distress, who washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

⁴ his tail swept away a third of the stars of heaven and flung them to the earth. And the dragon stood in front of the woman who was on the point of being delivered, to devour her child as soon as it was born.

⁷ And war broke out in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting with the dragon; the dragon and his angels also fought, ⁸ but he failed, and there was no place for them in heaven any longer. ⁹ So the huge dragon was thrown down — that old serpent called the Devil and Satan, the seducer of the whole world — thrown down to the earth, and his angels thrown down along with him. ¹⁰ Then I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, "Now it has come, the salvation and power, the reign of our God and the authority of his Christ! — for the Accuser of our brothers is thrown down, who accused them before God day and night.

⁶ Well, you can recall now what it is that restrains him from being revealed before his appointed time. ⁷ For the secret force of lawlessness is at work already; only, it cannot be revealed till he who at present restrains it is removed. ⁸ Then shall the Lawless One be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will destroy with the breath of his lips and quell by his appearing and arrival —

¹ But in later days, the Spirit distinctly declares, certain people will rebel against the faith; they will listen to spirits of error and to the doctrines that daemons teach

¹⁶ Avoid all that profane jargon, for it leads people still further into irreligion, ¹⁷ and their doctrine spreads like a gangrene. So it is with Hymenaeus and Philetus;

²⁰ After escaping the pollutions of the world by the knowledge of our Lord and saviour Jesus Christ, if they get entangled and overpowered again, the last state is worse for them than the first.

⁹ So the huge dragon was thrown down — that old serpent called the Devil and Satan, the seducer of the whole world — thrown down to the earth, and his angels thrown down along with him.

¹⁴ and by dint of the miracles he is allowed to perform in presence of the Beast, he seduces the dwellers on earth; he bids the dwellers on earth erect a statue to the Beast who lived after being wounded by the sword,

²³ For the magnates of earth were thy traders; all nations were seduced by thy magic spells.

³¹ inasmuch as he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world justly by a man whom he has destined for this. And he has given proof of this to all by raising him from the dead."

⁵ Then again, this man rates one day above another, while that man rates all days alike. Well, everyone must be convinced in his own mind;

² May their hearts be encouraged! May they learn the meaning of love! May they have all the wealth of conviction that comes from insight! May they learn to know that open secret of God, the Father of Christ,

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,

¹⁶ Watch yourself and watch your teaching; stick to your work; if you do that, you will save your hearers as well as yourself.

¹³ Model yourself on the sound instruction you have had from me in the faith and love of Christ Jesus.

² and transmit the instructions I gave you in presence of many witnesses to trustworthy men, that they may be competent to teach others.

¹⁵ remember you have known from childhood the sacred writings that can impart saving wisdom by faith in Christ Jesus.

¹¹ It is my heart's desire that each of you would prove equally keen upon realizing your full hope to the very end,

²² let us draw near with a true heart, in absolute assurance of faith, our hearts sprinkled clean from a bad conscience, and our bodies washed in pure water;

²⁹ Jesus answered them, "You go wrong because you understand neither the scriptures nor the power of God.

¹⁵ for he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, he will drink neither wine nor strong drink, he will be filled with the holy Spirit from his very birth;

⁴⁰ And the child grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the favour of God was on him.

²⁷ Then he began with Moses and all the prophets and interpreted to them the passages referring to himself throughout the scriptures.

³² And they said to one another, "Did not our hearts glow within us when he was talking to us on the road, opening up the scriptures for us?"

⁴⁵ Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures.

³⁹ You search the scriptures, imagining you possess eternal life in their pages — and they do testify to me — ⁴⁰ but you refuse to come to me for life.

⁴³ All the prophets testify that everyone who believes in him is to receive remission of sins through his Name."

²⁹ and, after carrying out all that had been predicted of him in scripture, they lowered him from the gibbet and laid him in a tomb.

³⁸ So you must understand, my brothers, that remission of sins is proclaimed to you through him, ³⁹ and that by him everyone who believes is absolved from all that the law of Moses never could absolve you from.

² and Paul as usual went in; for three sabbaths he argued with them on the scriptures,

² (which he promised of old by his prophets in the holy scriptures)

²⁶ has now been disclosed and made known on the basis of the prophetic scriptures (by command of the eternal God) to all the Gentiles for their obedience to the faith —

³ First and foremost, I passed on to you what I had myself received, namely, that Christ died for our sins as the scriptures had said, ⁴ that he was buried, that he rose on the third day as the scriptures had said,

⁵ 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.

¹⁰ Even prophets have searched and inquired about that salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that was meant for you; ¹¹ the Spirit of messiah within them foretold all the suffering of messiah and his after-glory, and they pondered when or how this was to come; ¹² to them it was revealed that they got this intelligence not for themselves but for you, regarding all that has now been disclosed to you by those who preached the gospel to you through the holy Spirit sent from heaven. The very angels long to get a glimpse of this!

²⁰ understanding this, at the outset, that no prophetic scripture allows a man to interpret it by himself; ²¹ for prophecy never came by human impulse, it was when carried away by the holy Spirit that the holy men of God spoke.

¹⁶ speaking of this as he has done in all his letters — letters containing some knotty points, which ignorant and unsteady souls twist (as they do the rest of the scriptures) to their own destruction.

¹¹ And the testimony is, that God gave us life eternal and this life is in his Son. ¹² He who possesses the Son possesses life: he who does not possess the Son does not possess life.

¹⁰ Then I fell before his feet to worship him; but he said to me, "No, not that! I am but a servant like yourself and your brothers, who hold the testimony of Jesus. Worship God" (for the testimony borne by Jesus is the breath of all prophecy).

⁵² So he said to them, "Well then, every scribe who has become a disciple of the Realm of heaven is like a householder who produces what is new and what is old from his stores."

⁴² Jesus said to them, "Have you never read in the scriptures, The stone that the builders rejected is the chief stone now of the corner: this is the doing of the Lord, and a wonder to our eyes?

³¹ And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God, ³² I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob? He is not a God of dead people but of living."

⁴³ He said to them, "How is it then that David in the Spirit calls him Lord?

⁵⁴ Only, how could the scriptures be fulfilled then — the scriptures that say this must be so?"

⁵⁶ However, this has all happened for the fulfilment of the prophetic scriptures!" Then all the disciples left him and fled;

²⁴ Jesus said to them, "Is this not where you go wrong? — you understand neither the scriptures nor the power of God.

³⁶ David himself said in the holy Spirit, The Lord said to my Lord, 'Sit at my right hand, till I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.'

²⁰ for anyone whose practices are corrupt loathes the light and will not come out into it, in case his actions are exposed,

³⁵ If the Law said they were gods, to whom the word of God came — and scripture cannot be broken —

¹⁶ "My brothers," said he, "it had to be fulfilled, that scripture which the holy Spirit uttered beforehand by the lips of David with regard to Judas who acted as guide to those who arrested Jesus.

²⁵ He had been instructed in the Way of the Lord and he preached and taught about Jesus with ardour and accuracy, though all the baptism he knew was that of John.

²⁰ how I never shrank from letting you know anything for your good, or from teaching you alike in public and from house to house,

²⁷ I never shrank from letting you know the entire purpose of God.

²⁵ As they could not agree among themselves, they were turning to go away, when Paul added this one word: "It was an apt word that the holy Spirit spoke by the prophet Isaiah to your fathers,

²⁰ a tutor for the foolish, a teacher of the simple, because in the Law you have the embodiment of knowledge and truth —

² Much in every way. This to begin with — Jews were entrusted with the scriptures of God.

²³ And these words counted to him have not been written for him alone

⁴ All such words were written of old for our instruction, that by remaining stedfast and drawing encouragement from the scriptures we may cherish hope.

⁷ Each receives his manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

⁸ Besides, Scripture anticipated God's justification of the Gentiles by faith when it announced the gospel beforehand to Abraham in these terms: All nations shall be blessed in thee.

¹¹ he granted some men to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, some to shepherd and teach, ¹² for the equipment of the saints, for the business of the ministry, for the upbuilding of the Body of Christ, ¹³ till we should all attain the unity of the faith and knowledge of God's Son, reaching maturity, reaching the full measure of development which belongs to the fulness of Christ — ¹⁴ instead of remaining immature, blown from our course and swayed by every passing wind of doctrine, by the adroitness of men who are dexterous in devising error; ¹⁵ we are to hold by the truth, and by our love to grow up wholly into Him. For He, Christ, is the head, and under him, ¹⁶ as the entire Body is welded together and compacted by every joint with which it is supplied, the due activity of each part enables the Body to grow and build itself up in love.

¹¹ Have nothing to do with the fruitless enterprises of the darkness; rather expose them. ¹² One is indeed ashamed even to speak about what such men do in secret; ¹³ still, whatever the light exposes becomes illuminated — for anything that is illuminated turns into light.

² I adjure you to preach the word; keep at it in season and out of season, refuting, checking, and exhorting men; never lose patience with them, and never give up your teaching,

⁷ Therefore, as the holy Spirit says, To-day, when you hear his voice,

¹² For the Logos of God is a living thing, active and more cutting than any sword with double edge, penetrating to the very division of soul and spirit, joints and marrow — scrutinizing the very thoughts and conceptions of the heart.

¹ Now faith means we are confident of what we hope for, convinced of what we do not see.

¹⁹ and thus we have gained fresh confirmation of the prophetic word. Pray attend to that word; it shines like a lamp within a darksome spot, till the Day dawns and the daystar rises within your hearts —

³⁶ At Joppa there was a disciple called Tabitha (which may be translated Dorcas, or 'Gazelle'), a woman whose life was full of good actions and of charitable practices.

⁸ God is able to bless you with ample means, so that you may always have quite enough for any emergency of your own and ample besides for any kind act to others;

¹⁰ God has made us what we are, creating us in Christ Jesus for the good deeds which are prepared beforehand by God as our sphere of action.

²¹ If one will only keep clear of the latter, he will be put to noble use, he will be consecrated and useful to the Owner of the House, he will be set apart for good work of all kinds.

¹⁴ who gave himself up for us to redeem us from all iniquity and secure himself a clean people with a zest for good works.

¹ Remind them to be submissive to their rulers and authorities; they must obey, they must be ready for any good work,

²⁴ and let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good deeds —