For to this you were called, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving an example for you to follow in his steps.

like Sarah who obeyed Abraham, calling him lord. You become her children when you do what is good and have no fear in doing so.

Because Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, to bring you to God, by being put to death in the flesh but by being made alive in the spirit.

Therefore, brothers and sisters, make every effort to be sure of your calling and election. For by doing this you will never stumble into sin.

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,

especially those who indulge their fleshly desires and who despise authority. Brazen and insolent, they are not afraid to insult the glorious ones,

But these men, like irrational animals – creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed – do not understand whom they are insulting, and consequently in their destruction they will be destroyed,

The Lord is not slow concerning his promise, as some regard slowness, but is being patient toward you, because he does not wish for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.

If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us.

(My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin.) But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous One,

And now, little children, remain in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink away from him in shame when he comes back.

By this we know that we reside in God and he in us: in that he has given us of his Spirit.

And if we know that he hears us in regard to whatever we ask, then we know that we have the requests that we have asked from him.

If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house and do not give him any greeting,

But these men do not understand the things they slander, and they are being destroyed by the very things that, like irrational animals, they instinctively comprehend.

But you have a few individuals in Sardis who have not stained their clothes, and they will walk with me dressed in white, because they are worthy.

The locusts were not given permission to kill them, but only to torture them for five months, and their torture was like that of a scorpion when it stings a person.

The beast was permitted to go to war against the saints and conquer them. He was given ruling authority over every tribe, people, language, and nation,

Then I saw another beast coming up from the earth. He had two horns like a lamb, but was speaking like a dragon.

When he had contemplated this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, because the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.