Their end is destruction, their god is the belly, they exult in their shame, and they think about earthly things.

And what you learned and received and heard and saw in me, do these things. And the God of peace will be with you.

At the same time pray for us too, that God may open a door for the message so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains.

Now may God our Father himself and our Lord Jesus direct our way to you.

For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, so also we believe that God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep as Christians.

They will prohibit marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.

After God spoke long ago in various portions and in various ways to our ancestors through the prophets,

but of the Son he says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, and a righteous scepter is the scepter of your kingdom.

Again he says, “I will be confident in him,” and again, “Here I am, with the children God has given me.”

For he has spoken somewhere about the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works,”

For the one who enters God’s rest has also rested from his works, just as God did from his own works.

In the same way God wanted to demonstrate more clearly to the heirs of the promise that his purpose was unchangeable, and so he intervened with an oath,

“Then I said, ‘Here I am: I have come – it is written of me in the scroll of the book – to do your will, O God.’”

Now may the God of peace who by the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep, our Lord Jesus Christ,

Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted by evil, and he himself tempts no one.

In the same way, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. And all of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.

And, after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace who called you to his eternal glory in Christ will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.

For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but threw them into hell and locked them up in chains in utter darkness, to be kept until the judgment,

that if our conscience condemns us, that God is greater than our conscience and knows all things.

No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God resides in us, and his love is perfected in us.