Ephesians -1 Timothy Paul, by God's will an apostle of Christ Jesus, to God's people who are faithful in Christ Jesus;

Williams⁽ⁱ⁾ ¹ Paul, by God's will an apostle of Christ Jesus, to God's people who are faithful in Christ Jesus; ² spiritual blessing and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. ³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who through Christ has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realm. ⁴ Through Him He picked us out before the creation of the world, to be consecrated and above reproach in His sight in love. ⁵ He foreordained us to become His sons by adoption through Christ Jesus, to carry out the happy choice of His will, ⁶ so that we might praise the splendid favor which He has shown us in His beloved Son. ⁷ It is through union with Him that we have redemption by His blood and the forgiveness of our shortcomings, in accordance with the generosity of His unmerited favor ⁸ which He lavished upon us. Through perfect wisdom and spiritual insight ⁹ He has made known to us the secret of His will, which is in accordance with His purpose which He planned in Christ, ¹⁰ so that, at the coming of the climax of the ages, everything in heaven and on earth should be unified through Christ, ¹¹ in union with whom we were made God's portion, since we had been foreordained in accordance with the purpose of Him who in everything carries out the plan of His will, ¹² that we who had first put our hope in Christ might praise His glory. ¹³ You too, as you have heard the message of the truth, the good news that means your salvation, and as you have trusted in Him too, have been stamped with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit, ¹⁴ who is the first installment of our inheritance, so that we may finally come into full possession of the prize of redemption, and praise His glory for it. ¹⁵ This is why I myself, since I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and in all His people, ¹⁶ never cease to thank God for you when I mention you in my prayers, ¹⁷ that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may grant you the Spirit to give wisdom and revelation which come through a growing knowledge of Him, ¹⁸ by having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, so that you may know what the hope is to which He calls you, how glorious rich God's portion in His people is, ¹⁹ and how surpassingly great is His power for us who believe, measured by His tremendously mighty power ²⁰ when He raised Christ from the dead, and seated Him at His right hand in heaven, ²¹ far above every other government, authority, power, and dominion, yea, far above every other title that can be conferred, not only in this world but in the world to come. ²² And so He has put all things under His feet and made Him the supreme Head of the church, ²³ which is His body, that is being filled by Him who fills everything everywhere. ² ¹ You too were dead because of the shortcomings and sins ² in which you once lived in accordance with the spirit of this present world, and the mighty prince of the air, who is always at work in the disobedient, among whom all of us, we Jews as well as you heathen, ³ once lived while gratifying the cravings of our lower nature, as we continued to carry out the impulses of our lower nature and its thoughts, and by nature we were exposed to God's wrath, as the rest of mankind. ⁴ But God, who is so rich in mercy on account of the great love He has for us, ⁵ has made us, though dead because of our shortcomings, live again in fellowship with Christ -- it is by His unmerited favor that you have been saved. ⁶ And He raised us with Him and through union with Christ Jesus He made us sit down with Him in the heavenly realm, ⁷ to show, throughout the coming ages, the boundless generosity of His unmerited favor shown us in His goodness to us through Christ Jesus. ⁸ For it is by His unmerited favor through faith that you have been saved; it is not by anything that you have done, it is the gift of God. ⁹ It is not the result of what anyone can do, so that no one can boast of it. ¹⁰ For He has made us what we are, because He has created us through our union with Christ Jesus for doing good deeds which He beforehand planned for us to do. ¹¹ So remember that you were once heathen in a physical sense, called the uncircumcised by those who call themselves the circumcised -- though only in a physical sense, by human hands. ¹² At that time you were without any connection with Christ; you were aliens to the commonwealth of Israel, strangers to the sacred compacts made by God's promise, with no hope, and no God in the world. ¹³ But now through your union with Christ Jesus you who were once far away have through the blood of Christ been brought near. ¹⁴ For He Himself is our peace, He is the one who has made us both into one body and has broken down the barrier that kept us apart; ¹⁵ through His human nature He has put a stop to the hostility between us, namely, the law with its commands and decrees, in order to create one new humanity out of the two parties and so make peace through union with Himself, and in one body ¹⁶ to reconcile them both to God with His cross after He had killed the hostility through it. ¹⁷ When He came, He brought the good news of peace for you who were far away and for you who were near; ¹⁸ for it is by Him through one Spirit that both of us now have an introduction to the Father. ¹⁹ So you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but you are fellow-citizens of God's people and members of His family; ²⁰ for you are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself the cornerstone. ²¹ In union with Him the whole building is harmoniously fitted together and continues to grow into a temple, sacred through its union with the Lord, ²² and you yourselves, in union with Him, in fellowship with one another, are being built up into a dwelling for God through the Spirit. ³ ¹ This is why I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of the heathen -- ² that is, if you have heard how God's favor has been entrusted to me for you, ³ and how by revelation the secret was made known to me, as I have briefly written before. ⁴ By reading this you will be able to understand my insight into the secret about the Christ -- ⁵ which in the earlier ages, so different from the present, was not made known to mankind as fully as now, but through the Spirit it has been revealed to His Holy apostles and prophets -- ⁶ that the heathen through union with Christ Jesus are fellow-heirs with the Jews, are members with them of the same body, and sharers with them of the promise through the good news, ⁷ for which I was called to serve in accordance with the gift of God's unmerited favor which was bestowed on me by the exercise of His power-- ⁸ yes, on me, the very least of all His people, this unmerited favor was bestowed -- that I might preach as good news to the heathen the boundless riches of Christ, ⁹ and to make clear how is to be carried out the trusteeship of this secret which has for ages been hidden away in God, the Creator of all things, ¹⁰ so that the many phases of God's wisdom may now through the church be made known to the rulers and authorities in heaven, ¹¹ in accordance with the eternal purpose which God executed in the gift of Christ Jesus our Lord. ¹² By union with Him and through faith in Him we have a free and confidential introduction to God. ¹³ So I beg you not to lose heart over the sorrows that I am suffering for your sake, for they bring you honor. ¹⁴ For this reason I kneel before the Father, ¹⁵ from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, ¹⁶ and beg Him to grant you, in accordance with the riches of His perfect character, to be mightily strengthened by His Spirit in your inmost being, ¹⁷ and that Christ in His love, through your faith, may make His permanent home in your hearts. You must be deeply rooted, your foundations must be strong, ¹⁸ so that you with all God's people may be strong enough to grasp the idea of the breadth and length, the height and depth, ¹⁹ yes, to come at last to know the love of Christ, although it far surpasses human understanding, so that you may be filled with the perfect fullness of God. ²⁰ To Him who by His power that is at work within us can do surpassingly more than all we ask or imagine, ²¹ be glory in the church and through Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen. ⁴ ¹ So I, a prisoner for the Lord's sake, entreat you to live lives worthy of the call you have received, ² with perfect humility and gentleness, with patience, lovingly bearing with one another, ³ continuing with eager earnestness to maintain the unity of the Spirit through the tie of peace. ⁴ There is but one body and one Spirit, just as there is but one hope resulting from the call you have received; ⁵ there is but one Lord, one faith, one baptism, ⁶ one God and Father of all, who is over us all, who pervades us all, and who is within us all. ⁷ But in accordance with the measure of Christ's gift, His favor has been bestowed upon each one of us. ⁸ Concerning this the Scripture says: "He led a host of captives, when He went up on high, and granted gifts to men." ⁹ What does "He went up" mean, except that He had first gone down into the lower regions of the earth? ¹⁰ The very One that went down has gone up, too, far above all the heavens, to fill the universe. ¹¹ And He has given some men to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, some to be pastors and teachers, ¹² for the immediate equipment of God's people for the work of service, for the ultimate building up of the body of Christ, ¹³ until we all attain to unity in faith and to perfect knowledge of the Son of God, namely, to a mature manhood and to a perfect measure of Christ's moral stature; ¹⁴ so that we may not be babies any longer, or like sailors tossed about and driven around by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men through their cunning in inventing new methods of error. ¹⁵ But, on the other hand, we shall go on holding to the truth and in love growing up into perfect union with Him, that is, Christ Himself who is the Head. ¹⁶ For it is under His direction that the whole body is perfectly adjusted and united by every joint that furnishes its supplies; and by the proper functioning of each particular part there is brought about the growing of the body for its building up in love. ¹⁷ So I mean this and now testify to it in the name of the Lord: You must now stop living as the heathen usually do, in the frivolity of their minds, ¹⁸ with darkened understanding, estranged from the life of God because of the ignorance that exists among them and because of the stubbornness of their hearts; ¹⁹ for in their recklessness they have abandoned themselves to sensuality which leads to excessive practices of all sorts of immorality. ²⁰ But this is not the way you have learned what Christ means, ²¹ if, as I take it, you have heard Him and in union with Him have been taught the truth as it is seen in Jesus, ²² to lay aside, with your former way of living, your old self which is on the way to destruction in accordance with its deceptive impulses; ²³ and to have a new attitude of mind ²⁴ and put on the new self which has been created in the likeness of God, which fruits in right and holy living inspired by the truth. ²⁵ So you must lay aside falsehood and each of you practice telling the truth to his neighbor, for we are parts of one another. ²⁶ If you do get angry, you must stop sinning in your anger. Do not ever let the sun go down on your anger; ²⁷ stop giving the devil a chance. ²⁸ The man who used to steal must now stop stealing; rather, he must keep on working and toiling with his own hands at some honest vocation, so as to have something to contribute to the needy. ²⁹ You must stop letting any bad word pass your lips, but only words that are good for building up as the occasion demands, so that they will result in spiritual blessing to the hearers. ³⁰ You must stop offending the Holy Spirit of God by whom you have been stamped for the day of redemption. ³¹ You must remove all bitterness, rage, anger, loud threats, and insults, with all malice. ³² You must practice being kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has graciously forgiven you. ⁵ ¹ So you must keep on following God's example, as dearly loved children of His, ² and practice living in love, just as Christ loved you too and gave Himself for you as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. ³ But sexual vice and any form of immorality or sensual greed must not so much as be mentioned among you, as that is the only course becoming in God's people; ⁴ there must be no indecency, silly talk or suggestive jesting, for they are unbecoming. There should be thanksgiving instead. ⁵ For you may be absolutely sure that no one who is sexually impure, immoral or greedy for gain (for that is idolatry) can have a part in the kingdom of Christ and God. ⁶ Stop letting anyone deceive you with groundless arguments about these things, for it is because of these very sins that God's anger comes down upon the disobedient. ⁷ So you must stop having anything to do with them. ⁸ For at one time you were darkness itself, but now in union with the Lord you are light itself. You must live like children of light, ⁹ for the product of light consists in practicing everything that is good and right and true; ¹⁰ you must approve what is pleasing to the Lord. ¹¹ Stop having anything to do with the profitless doings of darkness; instead you must continue to expose them. ¹² For it is disgraceful even to mention the vices practiced in secret by them; ¹³ and yet anything that is exposed by the light is made clear to them, for anything that is made clear is light. ¹⁴ So it is said: "Wake up, sleeper; get up from the dead, and Christ will make day dawn on you." ¹⁵ So you must be very careful how you live, not thoughtlessly but thoughtfully, ¹⁶ and continue to make the most of your opportunities, for the times are evil. ¹⁷ So stop becoming senseless, but understand what the Lord's will is. ¹⁸ Stop getting drunk on wine, for that means profligacy, but ever be filled with the Spirit, ¹⁹ and always be speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Keep on praying and praising the Lord with all your heart; ²⁰ continue giving thanks for everything to God our Father; ²¹ keep on living in subordination to one another out of reverence to Christ. ²² You married women must continue to live in subordination to your husbands, as you do to the Lord, ²³ for a husband is the head of his wife, just as Christ is the Head of the church, His body, and Saviour of it. ²⁴ Just as the church is subject to Christ, so the married women in everything must be subject to their husbands. ²⁵ You married men must love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her, ²⁶ to consecrate her, after cleansing her through His word, as pictured in the water bath, ²⁷ that He might present the church to Himself as a splendid bride without a blot or wrinkle or anything like it, but to be consecrated and faultless. ²⁸ This is the way married men ought to love their wives, as they do their own bodies. The married man who loves his wife is really loving himself, ²⁹ for no one ever hates his own physical person, but he feeds and fosters it, just as Christ does the church; ³⁰ because we are parts of His body. ³¹ Therefore, a man must leave his father and mother and so perfectly unite himself to his wife that the two shall be one. ³² This is a great secret; I mean this about Christ and the church. ³³ But each one of you married men must love his wife as he loves himself, and the married woman, too, must respect her husband. ⁶ ¹ Children, obey your parents, for this is right. ² "You must honor your father and mother" -- this is the first commandment, with a promise to make it good ³ "so that you may prosper and live a long life on earth." ⁴ You parents, too, must stop exasperating your children, but continue to bring them up with the sort of education and counsel the Lord approves. ⁵ You slaves must practice obedience to your earthly masters, with reverence and awe, with sincerity of heart, as you would obey Christ, ⁶ not serving them as though they were watching you, but as true slaves of Christ, trying to carry out the will of God. ⁷ Heartily and cheerfully keep on working as slaves, as though it were for the Lord and not for men, ⁸ for you know that everyone, slave or free, will get his reward from the Lord for anything good he has done. ⁹ You slave-owners, too, must maintain the same attitude toward your slaves, and stop threatening them, for you know that their real Lord and yours is in heaven, and that He never shows partiality. ¹⁰ From now on you must grow stronger through union with the Lord and through His mighty power. ¹¹ You must put on God's full armor, so as to be able to stand up against the devil's stratagems. ¹² For our contest is not with human foes alone, but with the rulers, authorities, and cosmic powers of this dark world; that is, with the spirit-forces of evil challenging us in the heavenly contest. ¹³ So you must take on God's full armor, so as to be able to take a stand in the day when evil attacks you, and, after having completely finished the contest, to hold your own. ¹⁴ Hold your position, then, with your waist encircled with the belt of truth, put on right-doing as a coat of mail, ¹⁵ and put on your feet the preparation the good news of peace supplies. ¹⁶ Besides all these, take on the shield which faith provides, for with it you will be able to put out all the fire-tipped arrows shot by the evil one, ¹⁷ take the helmet salvation provides, and take the sword the Spirit wields, which is the word of God. ¹⁸ Keep on praying in the Spirit, with every kind of prayer and entreaty, at every opportunity, be ever on the alert with perfect devotion and entreaty for all God's people, ¹⁹ and for me that a message may be given me when I open my lips, so that I may boldly make known the open secret of the good news, ²⁰ for the sake of which I am an envoy in prison: so that, when I tell it, I may speak as courageously as I ought. ²¹ That you may also know how I am, Tychicus, our dearly loved brother and a faithful minister in the Lord's service, will give you all the information; ²² that is the very reason I am sending him, to let you know how I am and to cheer your hearts. ²³ Peace to the brothers and love with faith, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. ²⁴ Spiritual blessing be with all who have an undying love for our Lord Jesus Christ.

Philippians

¹ ¹ Paul and Timothy, slaves of Christ Jesus, to all God's people in union with Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and assistants: ² spiritual blessing and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. ³ Every time I remember you I thank my God, ⁴ and always do it with joy in every entreaty I make for all of you, ⁵ for your cooperation in spreading the good news, from the first day you heard it until now. ⁶ For I am certain of this very thing, that He who began the good work in you will go on until the day of Jesus Christ to complete it. ⁷ And I have a right to think this way about you, because I always have you in my heart, whether shut up in prison or out defending and vindicating the good news, for you are sharers with me of God's favor. ⁸ For God is my witness how I never stop yearning for all of you with the affection Christ Jesus inspires. ⁹ And it is my prayer that your love may overflow still more and more, directed by fuller knowledge and keener insight, ¹⁰ so that you may always approve the better things, and be men of transparent character and blameless life, ¹¹ men that are abounding in the fruits of right-doing with the help of Jesus Christ, to the honor and praise of God. ¹² Now I want you to rest assured, brothers, that those things which have befallen me have actually resulted in the progress of the good news; ¹³ in this way it has become well known throughout the Imperial Guard and to all the rest here that I am a prisoner in the service of Christ, ¹⁴ and that most of the Christian brothers have grown confident enough, because of my imprisonment, to dare to tell God's message without being afraid. ¹⁵ Some, indeed, are actually preaching Christ because they are moved by jealousy and partisanship, but others are doing so from the motive of good will; ¹⁶ the latter, indeed, are doing so from love to me, for they know that I am providentially put here to defend the good news; ¹⁷ the former are preaching Christ from the motive of rivalry, not in sincerity, supposing that this is making it harder for me to bear my imprisonment. ¹⁸ What difference then does it make? In one way or another, whether in pretense or in sincerity, Christ is being preached, and that is the thing that makes me glad; yes, more too, I will continue to be glad of it, ¹⁹ for I know that through your prayers and a bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my spiritual welfare, ²⁰ in accordance with my eager expectation and hope that I shall never disgrace myself, but that now as always hitherto, by my all-conquering courage, whether by living or dying, Christ will be honored in me. ²¹ For to me living means Christ and dying brings gain. ²² But if to keep on living here means fruit from my labor, I cannot tell which to choose. ²³ I am hesitating between two desires, for I long to depart and to be with Christ, for that is far, far better, ²⁴ And yet for your sakes it is very necessary for me to stay on here. ²⁵ Now since I am certain of this, I know that I shall stay on and stay by you all to promote the progress of your faith ²⁶ which will result in your joy; so that, through union with Christ Jesus, you may have more than sufficient ground for boasting about me, through my being with you again. ²⁷ Only you must practice living lives that are worthy of the good news, so that whether I come and see you or stay away, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, and that with one purpose you are continuing to cooperate in the fight for faith in the good news. ²⁸ Never in the slightest degree be frightened by your opponents, for such fearlessness will be strong evidence to them of their impending destruction, but to you a sure sign, and that from God, of your salvation. ²⁹ For it has been graciously granted to you for Christ's sake, not only to trust in Him but also to suffer for Him, ³⁰ since you are having the same struggle that you once saw me have and which you hear that I am still having. ² ¹ So, if there is any appeal in our union with Christ, if there is any persuasive power in love, if we have any common share in the Spirit, if you have any tenderheartedness and sympathy, ² fill up my cup of joy by living in harmony, by fostering the same disposition of love, your hearts beating in unison, your minds set on one purpose. ³ Stop acting from motives of selfish strife or petty ambition, but in humility practice treating one another as your superiors. ⁴ Stop looking after your own interests only but practice looking out for the interests of others too. ⁵ Keep on fostering the same disposition that Christ Jesus had. ⁶ Though He was existing in the nature of God, He did not think His being on an equality with God a thing to be selfishly grasped, ⁷ but He laid it aside as He took on the nature of a slave and became like other men. ⁸ Because He was recognized as a man, in reality as well as in outward form, He finally humiliated Himself in obedience so as to die, even to die on a cross. ⁹ This is why God has highly exalted Him, and given Him the name that is above every other name, ¹⁰ so that in the name of Jesus everyone should kneel, in heaven, on earth, and in the underworld, ¹¹ and everyone should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the praise of God the Father. ¹² So, my dearly loved friends, as you have always been obedient, so now with reverence and awe keep on working clear down to the finishing point of your salvation not only as though I were with you but much more because I am away; ¹³ for it is God Himself who is at work in you to help you desire it as well as do it. ¹⁴ Practice doing everything without grumbling and disputing, ¹⁵ so that you may prove to be blameless and spotless, faultless children of God in a crooked and perverted age, in which you shine as light-bearers in the world as you continue ¹⁶ to hold up the message of life. That will give me ground for boasting on the day of Christ, because neither my career nor my labor has been a failure. ¹⁷ Yes, even if I am pouring out my life as a libation on the sacrifice and service your faith is rendering, I am glad to do so and congratulate you upon it; ¹⁸ you too must do likewise, be glad of it, and congratulate me. ¹⁹ I hope, with the approval of the Lord Jesus, soon to send Timothy to you, so that I too may be cheered on getting the news about you. ²⁰ For I have no one else with a heart like his who would take such genuine interest in you, ²¹ for most people are looking out for their own interests, not for the interests of Jesus Christ. ²² But you know his tested character, how like a son in fellowship with his father he has toiled with me like a slave in preaching the good news. ²³ So I hope to send him to you just as soon as I can see how my case is going to turn out. ²⁴ Really, I am trusting that by the help of the Lord I soon shall come myself. ²⁵ But I think it proper now to send back to you Epaphroditus, my brother, fellow-laborer, and fellow-soldier, but your messenger to minister to my needs, ²⁶ for he has been longing to see you and has been homesick because you have heard that he was sick. ²⁷ For he was so sick that he was on the point of dying, but God took pity on him, and not only on him but on me too, to keep me from having one sorrow after another. ²⁸ I very eagerly send him, so that when you see him you may be glad of it, and I may be less sorrowful. ²⁹ So give him a hearty Christian welcome and hold in honor men like him, ³⁰ because he came near dying for the sake of the Lord's work and risked his life to make up for your lack of opportunity to minister to me. ³ ¹ Finally, my brothers, continue to be glad that you are in union with the Lord. I am not tired of writing you the same things over and over: it means your safety. ² Look out for those dogs, those mischief-makers, those self-mutilators! ³ For we are the true circumcision, who by the Spirit of God worship Him, who take pride in Christ Jesus only, and do not rely on outward privileges, ⁴ though I too might rely on these. If anyone thinks that he can rely on outward privileges, far more might I do so: ⁵ circumcised when I was a week old; a descendant of Israel; a member of the tribe of Benjamin; a Hebrew, a son of Hebrews. Measured by the law, I was a Pharisee; ⁶ by the standard set by zeal, I was a persecutor of the church, and measured by the uprightness reached by keeping the law, I was faultless. ⁷ But for Christ's sake I have counted all that was gain to me as loss. ⁸ Yes, indeed, I certainly do count everything as loss compared with the priceless privilege of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have lost everything, and value it all as mere refuse, in order to gain Christ ⁹ and be actually in union with Him, not having a supposed right standing with God which depends on my doing what the law commands, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the real right standing with God which originates from Him and rests on faith. ¹⁰ Yes, I long to come to know Him; that is, the power of His resurrection and so to share with Him his sufferings as to be continuously transformed by His death, ¹¹ in the hope of attaining, in some measure, the resurrection that lifts me out from among the dead. ¹² It is not a fact that I have already secured it or already reached perfection, but I am pressing on to see if I can capture it, the ideal for which I was captured by Christ Jesus. ¹³ Brothers, I do not think that I have captured it yet, but here is my one aspiration, so forgetting what is behind me and reaching out for what is ahead of me, ¹⁴ I am pressing onward toward the goal, to win the prize to which God through Jesus Christ is calling us upward. ¹⁵ So let us all who are mature have this attitude. If you have a different attitude, God will make it clear to you. ¹⁶ However, we must continue to live up to that degree of success that we have already reached. ¹⁷ Follow my example, brothers, and keep your eyes on those who practice living by the pattern we have set you. ¹⁸ For there are many, of whom I have often told you, and now tell you in tears, who practice living as the enemies of the cross of Christ. ¹⁹ Their doom is destruction, their stomach is their god, their glory is in their shame, and their minds are feeding on earthly things, ²⁰ But we are citizens of the republic in heaven, from which we are eagerly waiting for our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. ²¹ He will so change the outward appearance of our lowly bodies that they will be like His glorious body, by the exertion of the power He has to subject everything to Himself. ⁴ ¹ So, my dearly loved brothers, whom I long to see, my joy and crown, by the help of the Lord keep on standing firm, dearly loved friends. ² I beg Euodia and I beg Syntyche to live in harmony by the help of the Lord. ³ And I solemnly beg you, my true comrade, keep on cooperating with those two women, because they shared with me the struggle in spreading the good news, together with Clement and the rest of my fellow-workers, whose names are in the book of life. ⁴ By the help of the Lord always keep up the glad spirit; yes, I will repeat it, keep up the glad spirit. ⁵ Let your forbearing spirit be known to everybody. The Lord is near. ⁶ Stop being worried about anything, but always, in prayer and entreaty, and with thanksgiving, keep on making your wants known to God. ⁷ Then, through your union with Christ Jesus, the peace of God, that surpasses all human thought, will keep guard over your hearts and thoughts. ⁸ Now, brothers, practice thinking on what is true, what is honorable, what is right, what is pure, what is lovable, what is high-toned, yes, on everything that is excellent or praiseworthy. ⁹ Practice the things you learned, received, and heard from me, things that you saw me do, and then the God who gives us peace will be with you. ¹⁰ I was made very happy as a Christian to have your interest in my welfare revived again after so long; because you have always had the interest but not the opportunity to show it. ¹¹ Not that I refer to any personal want, for I have learned to be contented in whatever circumstances I am. ¹² I know how to live in lowly circumstances and I know how to live in plenty. I have learned the secret, in all circumstances, of either getting a full meal or of going hungry, of living in plenty or being in want. ¹³ I can do anything through Him who gives me strength. ¹⁴ But you did me a kindness to share my sorrow with me. ¹⁵ And you Philippians yourselves know that immediately after the good news was first preached to you, when I left Macedonia, no church but yours went into partnership with me to open an account of credits and debits. ¹⁶ Even while I was at Thessalonica you sent money more than once for my needs. ¹⁷ It is not your gift that I want, but I do want the profits to pile up to your credit. ¹⁸ I have received your payment in full, and more too. I am amply supplied after getting the things you sent by Epaphroditus; they are like sweet incense, the kind of sacrifice that God accepts and approves. ¹⁹ My God will amply supply your every need, through Christ Jesus, from His riches in glory. ²⁰ Glory to our God and Father forever and ever. Amen. ²¹ Remember me to every one of God's people in union with Christ Jesus. The brothers who are with me wish to be remembered to you. ²² All God's people wish to be remembered to you, but more especially the members of the Emperor's household. ²³ The spiritual blessing of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirits.

Colossians

¹ ¹ Paul, by God's will an apostle of Christ Jesus, and our brother Timothy, ² to the consecrated and faithful brothers at Colossae who are in union with Christ: spiritual blessing and peace to you from God our Father. ³ Every time we pray for you we thank God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, ⁴ because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all God's people, ⁵ because of your hope of what is laid up for you in heaven. Long ago you heard of this hope through the message of the good news ⁶ which reached you, and since it is bearing fruit and growing among you, just as it is all over the world, from the day you first heard of God's favor and in reality came to know it, ⁷ as you learned it from Epaphras, our dearly loved fellow-slave. As a faithful minister of Christ for me ⁸ he is the very one who told me of the love awakened in you by the Spirit. ⁹ This is why, ever since I heard of it, I have never ceased praying for you and asking God to fill you, through full wisdom and spiritual insight, with a clear knowledge of His will, ¹⁰ so that you may lead lives worthy of the Lord to His full satisfaction, by perennially bearing fruit in every good enterprise and by a steady growth in fuller knowledge of God; ¹¹ then you will be perfectly empowered by His glorious might for every sort of joyous endurance and forbearance, ¹² and you will always be thanking the Father who has qualified you to share the lot of His people in the realm of light. ¹³ It is God who has delivered us out of the dominion of darkness and has transferred us into the kingdom of His dearly loved Son, ¹⁴ by whom we possess the ransom from captivity, which means the forgiveness of our sins. ¹⁵ Yes, He is the exact likeness of the unseen God, His first-born Son who existed before any created thing, ¹⁶ for it was through Him that everything was created in heaven and on earth, the seen and the unseen, thrones, dominions, principalities, authorities; all things have been created through Him and for Him. ¹⁷ So He existed before all things, and through Him all things are held together. ¹⁸ Yes, He is the Head of the church as His body. For He is the beginning, the first-born among the dead, so that He alone should stand first in everything. ¹⁹ It is so because it was the divine choice that all the divine fullness should dwell in Him, ²⁰ and that through Him He might reconcile to Himself all things on earth or in heaven, making this peace through the blood He shed On His cross. ²¹ So you, who were once estranged from Him, and hostile in disposition as shown by your wrongdoings, He has now reconciled ²² by His death in His human body, so as to present you consecrated, faultless, and blameless in His presence, ²³ if indeed you continue well grounded and firm in faith and never shift from the hope inspired by the good news you heard, which has been preached all over the world, and of which I, Paul, have been made a minister. ²⁴ I am now glad to be suffering for you, and in my own person I am filling in what is lacking in Christ's sufferings for His body, that is, the church. ²⁵ In it I have been made a minister in accordance with the trusteeship God entrusted to me for you, that I might prove among you the universal message of God, ²⁶ the open secret, covered up from the people of former ages and generations, but now uncovered to God's people, ²⁷ to whom God has chosen to make known how glorious are the riches of this open secret among the heathen, namely, Christ in you the hope of your glorification. ²⁸ We are proclaiming Him, warning everyone and teaching everyone with ample wisdom, in order to present to God everyone mature through union with Christ. ²⁹ For this I am toiling and struggling by His active energy which is mightily working in me. ² ¹ I want you to know what a battle I am fighting for you and for those in Laodicea, yes, for all who have never known me personally, ² that their hearts may be encouraged, by having been knit together in love and by having atoned to the full assurance of understanding, so that they may finally reach the fullest knowledge of the open secret, Christ Himself, ³ in whom all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are stored up. ⁴ I am saying this to keep anyone from misleading you by persuasive arguments. ⁵ For though I am far away in person, still I am with you in spirit, and I am glad to note your fine order and the firmness of your faith in Christ. ⁶ So, just as you once accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue living in vital union with Him, ⁷ with your roots deeply planted in Him, being continuously built up in Him, and growing stronger in faith, just as you were taught to do, overflowing through it in your gratitude. ⁸ Take care that nobody captures you by the idle fancies of his so-called philosophy, following human tradition and the world's crude notions instead of Christ. ⁹ For it is in Him that all the fullness of Deity continues to live embodied, ¹⁰ and through union with Him you too are filled with it. He is the Head of all principalities and dominions. ¹¹ And through your union with Him you once received, not a hand-performed circumcision but one performed by Christ, in stripping you of your lower nature, ¹² for you were buried with Him in baptism and raised to life with Him through your faith in the power of God who raised Him from the dead. ¹³ Yes, although you were dead through your shortcomings and were physically uncircumcised, God made you live again through fellowship with Christ. He graciously forgave us all our shortcomings, ¹⁴ canceled the note that stood against us, with its requirements, and has put it out of our way by nailing it to the cross. ¹⁵ He thus stripped the principalities and dominions of power and made a public display of them, triumphing over them by the cross. ¹⁶ Stop letting anyone pass judgment on you in matters of eating and drinking, or in the matter of annual or monthly feasts or sabbaths. ¹⁷ These were but the shadow of what was coming; the reality belongs to Christ. ¹⁸ Stop letting anyone, in gratuitous humility and worship of angels, defraud you as an umpire, for such a one is taking his stand on the mere visions he has seen, and is groundlessly conceited over his sensuous mind. ¹⁹ Such a person is not continuing in connection with the Head, from which the whole body, when supplied and united through its joints and sinews, grows with a growth that God produces. ²⁰ If once through fellowship with Christ you died and were separated from the world's crude notions, why do you live as though you belonged to the world? Why submit to rules such as, ²¹ "You must not handle," "You must not taste," "You must not touch," ²² which refer to things that perish in the using, in accordance with human rules and teachings? ²³ Such practices have the outward expression of wisdom, with their self-imposed devotions, their self-humiliation, their torturings of the body, but they are of no value; they really satisfy the lower nature. ³ ¹ So if you have been raised to life in fellowship with Christ, keep on seeking the things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. ² Practice occupying your minds with the things above, not with the things on earth; ³ for you have died, and your life is now hidden in God through your fellowship with Christ. ⁴ When Christ, who is our life, appears, you too will appear to be glorified in fellowship with Him. ⁵ So once for all put to death your lower, earthly nature with respect to sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which is real idolatry. ⁶ It is on account of these very sins that God's anger is coming. ⁷ You too used to practice these sins, when you used to live that sort of life. ⁸ But now you too must once for all put them all aside -- anger, rage, malice, and abusive, filthy talk from your lips. ⁹ Stop lying to one another, for you have stripped off the old self with its practices, ¹⁰ and have put on the new self which is in the process of being made new in the likeness of its Creator, so that you may attain a perfect knowledge of Him. ¹¹ In this new relation there is no Greek and Jew, no circumcised and uncircumcised, no barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is everything and in us all. ¹² So as God's own chosen people, consecrated and dearly loved, you must once for all clothe yourselves with tenderheartedness, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience; you must keep on ¹³ forbearing one another and freely forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; just as the Lord has freely forgiven you, so must you also do. ¹⁴ And over all these qualities put on love, which is the tie of perfection that binds us together. ¹⁵ Let the peace that Christ can give keep on acting as umpire in your hearts, for you were called to this state as members of one body. And practice being thankful. ¹⁶ Let the message of Christ continue to live in you in all its wealth of wisdom; keep on teaching it to one another and training one another in it with thankfulness, in your hearts singing praise to God with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. ¹⁷ And whatever you say or do, let it all be done with reference to the Lord Jesus, and through Him continue to give thanks to God the Father. ¹⁸ You married women must continue to live in subordination to your husbands, for this is your Christian duty. ¹⁹ You husbands must continue to love your wives and stop being harsh with them. ²⁰ Children, practice obedience to your parents in everything, for this is acceptable in Christians. ²¹ Fathers, stop exasperating your children, so as to keep them from losing heart. ²² Slaves, practice obedience to your earthly masters in everything, not as though they were watching you and as though you were merely pleasing men, but with sincerity of heart, because you fear the Lord. ²³ Whatever you do, do it with all your heart, as work for the Lord and not for men, ²⁴ for you know that it is from the Lord that you are going to get your pay in the form of an inheritance; so keep on serving Christ the Lord. ²⁵ For the man who wrongs another will be paid back the wrong he has done; and there are no exceptions. ⁴ ¹ Masters, you must practice doing the right and square things by your slaves, for you know that you have a Master in heaven. ² You must persevere in prayer and by this means stay wide awake when you give thanks. ³ At the same time keep on praying for me too, that God may open the door of opportunity for the message, so that I may tell the open secret about Christ, for the sake of which I am held a prisoner, ⁴ in order to make it evident why I have to tell it. ⁵ Practice living prudently in your relations with outsiders, making the most of your opportunities. ⁶ Always let your conversation be seasoned with salt, that is, with winsomeness, so that you may know how to make a fitting answer to everyone. ⁷ My dearly loved Tychicus, a faithful minister and my fellow-servant in the Lord's work, will tell you all about me. ⁸ I am sending him to you for the express purpose of letting you know my circumstances, and of cheering your hearts; ⁹ he is accompanied by Onesimus, a faithful and dearly loved brother, who is one of your own number. They will tell you everything that is going on here. ¹⁰ Aristarchus, my fellow-prisoner, wishes to be remembered to you; and so does Mark, the cousin of Barnabas; if he comes to see you, give him a hearty welcome. ¹¹ So does Jesus who is called Justus. These are the only converts from Judaism that are fellow-workers with me here for the kingdom of God, who have proved a real comfort to me. ¹² Epaphras, one of your own number, a slave of Christ Jesus, wishes to be remembered to you. He is always earnestly pleading for you in his prayers that you may stand fast as men mature and of firm convictions in everything required by the will of God. ¹³ For I can testify how great his toiling for you is and for the brothers in Laodicea and Hierapolis. ¹⁴ Our dearly loved Luke, the physician, and Demas, wish to be remembered to you. ¹⁵ Remember me to the brothers in Laodicea and to Nympha and the church that meets at her house. ¹⁶ When this letter has been read to you, have it read to the church at Laodicea too, and see to it that you too read the one that is coming from Laodicea. ¹⁷ And tell Archippus, "See to it that you continue until you fill full your ministry which you received in the Lord's work." ¹⁸ This farewell greeting is in my own hand, from Paul. Remember that I am still a prisoner. Spiritual blessing be with you.

1 Thessalonians

¹ ¹ Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy to the Thessalonian church in union with God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: spiritual blessing and peace be to you. ² We always thank God for you all as we continually mention you in our prayers, ³ for we can never for a moment before our God forget your energizing faith, your toiling love, and your enduring hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁴ For we know, brothers so beloved by God, that He has chosen you, ⁵ for our preaching of the good news came to you not entirely in words but with power and with the Holy Spirit and with absolute certainty (for you know the kind of men we were among you for your own sakes). ⁶ And you followed the example set by us and by the Lord, because you welcomed our message with a joy inspired by the Holy Spirit, in spite of the painful persecutions it brought you, ⁷ so that you became examples to all the believers in Macedonia and Greece. ⁸ ^(1:7) For the message of the Lord has rung out from you, not only in Macedonia and Greece, but everywhere the report of your faith in God has been told, so that we need never mention it. ⁹ For the people themselves tell us what a welcome you gave us, and how you turned from idols to the true God, to serve the God who lives on and is real, ¹⁰ and to wait for the coming from heaven of His Son, whom He raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come. ² ¹ For you know yourselves, brothers, that our visit to you was by no means a failure. ² But, although we had just suffered and been insulted, as you remember, at Philippi, we again summoned courage by the help of God, in spite of the terrific strain, to tell you God's good news. ³ For our appeal did not originate from a delusion or an impure motive; it was not made in fraud; ⁴ for since we have been so approved by God as to be entrusted with the good news, we are now telling it, not to please men but God, who proves and finds approved our hearts. ⁵ Indeed, we never resorted to flattery, as you are well aware, nor to any pretext for making money; God is our witness. ⁶ We never sought praise from men, either from you or from anyone else; although as apostles we could have stood on our official dignity. ⁷ Instead we were little children among you; we were like a mother nursing her children. ⁸ Because we were yearning for you so tenderly, we were willing, not only to share with you God's good news, but to lay down our very lives too for you, all because you were so dearly loved by us. ⁹ You remember, brothers, our hard labor and toil. We kept up our habit of working night and day, in order not to be a burden to any of you when we preached to you. ¹⁰ You can testify, and God too, with what pure, upright, and irreproachable motives I dealt with you who believed; ¹¹ for you know how, as a father deals with his children, we used to encourage you, cheer you on, and charge each of you ¹² to live lives worthy of God who calls you into His kingdom and His glory. ¹³ For another reason too, we, as far as we are concerned, are constantly giving thanks to God; that is, when you received the message you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the message of men but as the message of God, as it really is, which keeps on working in you who believe. ¹⁴ For you, brothers, followed the example of God's churches in Judea that are in union with Christ Jesus, for you too have suffered the same sort of ill-treatment at the hands of your fellow-countrymen as they did at the hands of the Jews, ¹⁵ who killed the Lord Jesus and persecuted the prophets and us; and who continue to displease God and show themselves in opposition to all mankind, ¹⁶ by trying to keep us from speaking to the heathen, so that they may be saved, so as always to fill to the brim the cup of their sins. But at last God's wrath has come upon them. ¹⁷ Now we, brothers, on our part, when we were separated from you for a little while -- in person but not in heart -- were extremely eager and intensely longing to see you. ¹⁸ Because we did want to come to see you; I mean, that I myself, Paul, wanted again and again to come, but Satan prevented it. ¹⁹ For what is our hope or happiness or crown of boasting, except you, in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ when He comes? ²⁰ You, indeed, are our glory and our joy. ³ ¹ So when I could not bear it any longer, I decided to be left behind in Athens alone, ² and so I sent my brother Timothy, God's minister in the preaching of the good news of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you in your faith, ³ so that none of you might be deceived amid these difficulties. For you knew yourselves that this is our appointed lot, ⁴ for when we were with you, we told you beforehand that we were going to be pressed with difficulties, and it took place, as you know. ⁵ That was why, when I could bear it no longer, I sent to learn about your faith, for I was afraid that the tempter had tempted you and our labor might be lost. ⁶ But now, since Timothy has just come back to me from you, and brought me good tidings of your faith and love, and told me how kindly you remembered me and that you are longing to see me as much as I am to see you, ⁷ this is the very reason, namely, through your faith, brothers, that I have been encouraged about you, in spite of all my distresses and crushing difficulties, ⁸ for now I am really living, since you are standing firm in the Lord. ⁹ For how can I render God enough thanks for you, for all the joy I have on account of you in the presence of our God, ¹⁰ as night and day I continue to pray with deepest earnestness and keenest eagerness that I may see your faces and round out to completeness what is lacking in your faith? ¹¹ Now may our God and Father Himself and our Lord Jesus guide my way to you! ¹² May the Lord make you increase and overflow in love for one another and for all men, as my love for you does, ¹³ so that He may strengthen your hearts to be faultless in purity in the sight of God, when our Lord Jesus comes back with all His consecrated ones. ⁴ ¹ Now, brothers, we ask and beg you, in the face of our union with the Lord Jesus, as you once received from us how you ought to live so as to please God -- as indeed you are living -- to continue to live this life better and better. ² For you are aware of the instructions which we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus. ³ For it is God's will that you should keep pure in person, that you should practice abstinence from sexual immorality, ⁴ that each man among you should learn to take his own wife out of pure and honorable motives, ⁵ not out of evil passions as the heathen do who do not know God; ⁶ that no one should do wrong and defraud his brother in this matter, because the Lord takes vengeance for all such things, as we told you before and solemnly warned you. ⁷ For God did not call us to a life of immorality, but to one of personal purity. ⁸ So whoever rejects this teaching is rejecting not man but God who continues to put His Spirit in you. ⁹ Now as to brotherly love, you have no need of anyone's writing you, for you have yourselves been taught by God to love one another, ¹⁰ as you are practicing it toward all the brothers all over Macedonia. We beg you, brothers, to continue to live better and better; ¹¹ also keep up your ambition to live quietly, to practice attending to your own business and to work with your own hands, as we directed you, ¹² so that you may live influentially with the outsiders, and not be dependent on anybody. ¹³ Also we do not want you to have any misunderstanding, brothers, about those who are falling asleep, so as to keep you from grieving over them as others do who have no hope. ¹⁴ For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, then through Jesus, God will bring back with Him those who have fallen asleep. ¹⁵ For on the Lord's own authority we say that those of us who may be left behind and are still living when the Lord comes back, will have no advantage at all over those who have fallen asleep. ¹⁶ For the Lord Himself, at the summons sounded by the archangel's call and by God's trumpet, will come down from heaven, and first of all the dead in union with Christ will rise, ¹⁷ then those of us who are still living will be caught up along with them on clouds in the air to meet the Lord, and so we shall be with the Lord forever. ¹⁸ So continue encouraging one another with this truth. ⁵ ¹ But as to times and dates, brothers, you have no need of anyone's writing you, ² for you yourselves know perfectly well that the day of the Lord is coming like a thief in the night. ³ When people say, "Such peace and security!" then suddenly destruction falls upon them, like birth pains upon a woman who is about to become a mother, but they shall not escape, no, not at all. ⁴ But you, brothers, are not in darkness, so that that day, like a thief, should take you by surprise; ⁵ for you are all sons of the light and sons of the day. We do not belong to the night or the darkness. ⁶ So let us stop sleeping as others do, but let us stay awake and keep sober. ⁷ For those who sleep at night and those who get drunk are drunken at night, ⁸ but let us who belong to the day keep sober, clothed with faith and love for a coat of mail and with the hope of salvation for a helmet. ⁹ For God appointed us not to reap His wrath but to gain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, ¹⁰ who died for us, so that whether we still live or sleep we may live in fellowship with Him. ¹¹ So continue encouraging one another and helping one another in character building. ¹² We beg you, brothers, to practice showing respect to those who labor among you, who are your leaders in the Lord's work, and who advise you; ¹³ continue to hold them in the highest esteem for the sake of the work they do. Practice living at peace with one another. ¹⁴ We beg you, brothers, continue to warn the shirkers, to cheer the faint-hearted, to hold up the weak, and to be patient with everybody. ¹⁵ Take care that none of you ever pays back evil for evil, but always keep looking for ways to show kindness to one another and everybody. ¹⁶ Always be joyful. ¹⁷ Never stop praying. ¹⁸ Make it a habit to give thanks for everything, for this is God's will for you through Christ Jesus. ¹⁹ Stop stifling the Spirit. ²⁰ Stop treating the messages of prophecy with contempt, ²¹ but continue to prove all things until you can approve them, and then hold on to what is good. ²² Continue to abstain from every sort of evil. ²³ May God Himself, who gave you peace, consecrate your whole being. May you be safely kept, spirit, soul, and body, so as to be blameless when our Lord Jesus Christ comes back. ²⁴ He who calls you is trustworthy and He will do this. ²⁵ Brothers, pray for us. ²⁶ Greet all the brothers with a sacred kiss. ²⁷ I solemnly charge you before the Lord to have this letter read to all the brothers. ²⁸ The spiritual blessing of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

2 Thessalonians

¹ ¹ Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy to the Thessalonian church in union with God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: ² spiritual blessing and peace be to you. ³ We always ought to be thanking God for you, brothers, as it is right to do so, because your faith is growing so much and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing ⁴ so that we are always boasting of you among the churches of God for your patient endurance and faith, in spite of your persecutions and crushing sorrows which you are enduring. ⁵ This is a proof of God's righteous judgment, His aim being to let you show yourselves worthy of His kingdom, for which you are suffering; since, ⁶ indeed, it is right for God to repay with crushing sorrows those who cause you these crushing sorrows, ⁷ and to give rest to you who are being crushed with sorrows, along with us, at the unveiling of our Lord Jesus Christ from heaven, with His mighty angels ⁸ in a flame of fire, who will take vengeance on those who do not know God, that is, those who will not listen to the good news of our Lord Jesus. ⁹ These will receive the punishment of eternal destruction as exiles from the presence of the Lord and His glorious might, ¹⁰ when on that day He comes to be glorified in His consecrated ones and to be admired by all who believe in Him because our testimony has been confidently accepted among you. ¹¹ With this in view we are always praying for you too, that our God may make you worthy of His call, and by His power fully satisfy your every desire for goodness, and complete every activity of your faith, ¹² so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you and you through union with Him, in accordance with the favor of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. ² ¹ As to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our final muster before Him, we beg you, brothers, ² not to let your minds be easily unsettled or even be excited, whether by some message by the Spirit or by some saying or letter that is claimed as coming from me, saying that the day of the Lord is already here. ³ Do not let anybody at all deceive you about this, because that cannot take place until the great revolt occurs and the representative of lawlessness is uncovered, the one who is doomed to destruction, ⁴ the one who keeps up his opposition and so far exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, that he actually takes his seat in the sanctuary of God, proclaiming himself to be God. ⁵ Do you not remember that while I was with you I used to tell you this? ⁶ So now you know the power that is holding him back, that he is to be unveiled at His own appointed time. ⁷ For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work, but only until he who is holding it back has been gotten out of the way. ⁸ Then the representative of lawlessness will be uncovered, and the Lord Jesus will destroy him with the breath of His mouth and put a stop to his operations by His appearance and coming; ⁹ that is, the representative of lawlessness, whose coming is in accordance with the working of Satan, with his plenitude of power and pretended signs and wonders, ¹⁰ and with a completely wicked deception for men who are on the way to destruction, because they refused to love the truth so as to be saved. ¹¹ This is why God sends them a misleading influence till they actually believe what is false, ¹² so that all who have refused to believe the truth but have chosen unrighteousness instead might be condemned. ¹³ We ought always to be thanking God for you, brothers dearly loved by the Lord, because God chose you from the beginning for salvation through the Spirit's consecration of you and through your faith in the truth, ¹⁴ and to this end He called you by our preaching of the good news, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. ¹⁵ So then, brothers, continue to stand firm and keep a tight grip on the teachings you have received from us, whether by word of mouth or by letter. ¹⁶ May our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who has loved us and graciously given us encouragement that is eternal, and a hope that is well-founded, ¹⁷ encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good thing you do or say. ³ ¹ Finally, brothers, pray for us, that the message of the Lord may continue to spread and prove its glorious power as it did among you, ² and that we may be delivered from unprincipled and wicked men; for not all men have faith. ³ But the Lord is to be trusted, and He will give you strength and guard you from the evil one. ⁴ We have confidence in you through the Lord that you are now practicing the directions which we give you and that you will continue to do so. ⁵ May the Lord guide you into a realization of God's love for you and into a patient endurance like Christ's. ⁶ Now we charge you, brothers, on the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ, to hold yourselves aloof from any brother who is living as a shirker instead of following the teachings you received from us. ⁷ You know yourselves how you ought to follow my example; for I was not a shirker when I was with you; ⁸ I did not eat any man's bread without paying for it, but with toil and hard labor I worked night and day, in order not to be a burden to any of you. ⁹ Not that I have no right to be supported, but to make myself an example for you to follow. ¹⁰ For when I was with you, I gave you this direction, "If a person refuses to work, he must not be allowed to eat." ¹¹ But we are informed that some among you are living as shirkers, mere busybodies, instead of busy at work. ¹² Now on the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ we charge and exhort such persons to do their own work with quiet and eat their own bread. ¹³ But you, brothers, must never grow tired of doing right. ¹⁴ If anyone refuses to obey what we have said in this letter, mark that person and stop having anything to do with him, so that he will feel ashamed of it. ¹⁵ You must not regard him as an enemy but warn him as a brother. ¹⁶ And may the Lord who gives us peace give you peace in whatever circumstances you may be. The Lord be with you all. ¹⁷ This greeting is in my own hand, Paul's; it is the mark in every letter of mine. This is my handwriting. ¹⁸ The spiritual blessing of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.

1 Timothy

¹ ¹ Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by command of God our Saviour and of Christ Jesus our hope, ² to Timothy my genuine child in faith: spiritual blessing, mercy, and peace be with you from God our Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. ³ As I begged you to do when I was on my way to Macedonia, I still beg you to stay on in Ephesus to warn certain teachers ⁴ to stop devoting themselves to myths and never-ending pedigrees, for such things lead to controversies rather than stimulate our trusteeship to God through faith. ⁵ But the aim of your instruction is to be love that flows out of a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith. ⁶ Some people have stepped aside from these things and turned to fruitless talking. ⁷ They want to be teachers of the law, although they do not understand the words they use or the things about which they make such confident assertions. ⁸ Indeed, I know that the law is an excellent thing, if a man makes a lawful use of it; ⁹ that is, if he understands that law is not enacted for upright people but for the lawless and disorderly, the godless and sinful, the ignorant and profane, people who kill their fathers or mothers, murderers, ¹⁰ the immoral, men who practice sodomy, men who make other men their slaves, liars, perjurers, or anything else that is contrary to sound teaching, ¹¹ as measured by the glorious good news of the blessed God, with which I have been entrusted. ¹² I am always thanking Christ Jesus our Lord who has given me strength for it, for thinking me trustworthy and putting me into the ministry, ¹³ though I once used to abuse, persecute, and insult Him. But mercy was shown me by Him, because I did it in ignorance and unbelief, ¹⁴ and the spiritual blessing of our Lord in increasing floods has come upon me, accompanied by faith and love inspired by union with Christ Jesus. ¹⁵ It is a saying to be trusted and deserves our fullest acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; and I am the foremost of them. ¹⁶ Yet, mercy was shown me for the very purpose that in my case as the foremost of sinners Jesus might display His perfect patience, to make me an example to those who in the future might believe on Him to obtain eternal life. ¹⁷ To the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever! Amen. ¹⁸ This is the instruction which I entrust to you, my son Timothy, which is in accordance with the prophetic utterances formerly made about you, that you may, aided by them, continue to fight the good fight, ¹⁹ by keeping your hold on faith and a good conscience; for some have thrust the latter aside and so have made shipwreck of their faith. ²⁰ Among these are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have turned over to Satan to be so disciplined that they will stop their abusive speech. ² ¹ First of all, then, I urge that entreaties, prayers, and thanksgiving be offered for all men, ² for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead peaceful, quiet lives in perfect piety and seriousness. ³ This is the right thing to do and it pleases God our Saviour, ⁴ who is ever willing for all mankind to be saved and to come to an increasing knowledge of the truth. ⁵ For there is but one God and one intermediary between God and men, the man Christ Jesus ⁶ who gave Himself as a ransom for all, a fact that was testified to at the proper time, ⁷ and for which purpose I was appointed a preacher and an apostle -- I am telling the truth, I am not lying, -- a teacher of the heathen in the realm of faith and truth. ⁸ So I want the men everywhere to offer prayer, lifting to heaven holy hands which are kept unstained by anger and dissensions. ⁹ I want the women, on their part, to dress becomingly, that is, modestly and sensibly, not adorning themselves with braided hair and gold or pearls or expensive dresses, ¹⁰ but with good deeds; for this is appropriate for women who profess to be pious. ¹¹ A married woman must learn in quiet and in perfect submission. ¹² I do not permit a married woman to practice teaching or domineering over a husband; she must keep quiet. ¹³ For Adam was formed first, and then Eve; ¹⁴ and it was not Adam who was deceived, but it was the woman who was utterly deceived and fell into transgression. ¹⁵ But women will be saved through motherhood, if they continue to live in faith, love, and purity, blended with good sense. ³ ¹ This is a saying to be trusted: "Whoever aspires to the office of pastor desires an excellent work." ² So the pastor must be a man above reproach, must have only one wife, must be temperate, sensible, well-behaved, hospitable, skillful in teaching; ³ not addicted to strong drink, not pugnacious, gentle and not contentious, not avaricious, ⁴ managing his own house well, with perfect seriousness keeping his children under control ⁵ (if a man does not know how to manage his own house, how can he take care of a church of God?). ⁶ He must not be a new convert, or else becoming conceited he may incur the doom the devil met. ⁷ He must also have a good reputation with outsiders, or else he may incur reproach and fall into the devil's trap. ⁸ Deacons, too, must be serious, sincere in their talk, not addicted to strong drink or dishonest gain, ⁹ but they must continue to hold the open secret of faith with a clear conscience. ¹⁰ They, too, should first be tested till approved, and then, if they are found above reproach, they should serve as deacons. ¹¹ The deaconesses too must be serious, not gossips; they must be temperate and perfectly trustworthy. ¹² A deacon too must have only one wife, and manage his children and household well. ¹³ For those who render good service win a good standing for themselves in their faith in Christ Jesus. ¹⁴ Though I hope to come to you soon, I am writing you this, ¹⁵ so that, if I am detained, you may know how people ought to conduct themselves in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth. ¹⁶ Undoubtedly the mystery of our religion is a great wonder: "He was made visible in human form; He was vindicated by the Spirit; He was seen by angels; He was proclaimed among the heathen; He was trusted in throughout the world; He was taken up to glory." ⁴ ¹ Now the Spirit distinctly declares that in later times some will turn away from the faith, because they continuously give their attention to deceiving spirits and the things that demons teach ² through the pretensions of false teachers, men with seared consciences, ³ who forbid people to marry and teach them to abstain from certain sorts of food which God created for the grateful enjoyment of those who have faith and a clear knowledge of the truth. ⁴ For everything in God's creation is good, and nothing is to be refused, provided it is accepted with thanksgiving; ⁵ for in this way it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer. ⁶ If you continue to put these things before the brothers, you will be a good minister of Christ Jesus, ever feeding your own soul on the truths of the faith and of the fine teaching which you have followed. ⁷ But make it your habit to let worldly and old women's stories alone. Continue training yourself for the religious life. ⁸ Physical training, indeed, is of some service, but religion is of service for everything, for it contains a promise for the present life as well as the future. ⁹ This is a saying to be trusted and deserves to be accepted by all. ¹⁰ To this end we are toiling and struggling, because we have fixed our hope on the living God, who is the Saviour of all mankind, especially of believers. ¹¹ Continue to give these orders and to teach these truths. ¹² Let no one think little of you because you are young, but always set an example for believers, in speech, conduct, love, faith, and purity. ¹³ Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of the Scriptures, and to preaching and teaching. ¹⁴ Stop neglecting the gift you received, which was given you through prophetic utterance when the elders laid their hands upon you. ¹⁵ Continue cultivating these things; be devoted to them, so that everybody will see your progress. ¹⁶ Make it your habit to pay close attention to yourself and your teaching. Persevere in these things, for if you do you will save both yourself and those who listen to you. ⁵ ¹ Never reprove an older man, but always appeal to him as a father. Treat younger men like brothers, ² older women like mothers, younger women like sisters, with perfect purity. ³ Always care for widows who are really dependent. ⁴ But if a widow has children or grandchildren, they must first learn to practice piety in the treatment of their own families, and to pay the debt they owe their parents or grandparents, for this is acceptable to God. ⁵ But a woman who is really a widow and lives alone has fixed her hope on God, and night and day devotes herself to prayers and entreaties, ⁶ while a widow who gives herself up to luxury is really dead though still alive. ⁷ Continue to give these directions so that the people may be without reproach. ⁸ Whoever fails to provide for his own relatives, and especially for those of his immediate family, has disowned the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. ⁹ No widow under sixty years of age should be put on this roll. A widow must have had but one husband, ¹⁰ must have a reputation for doing good deeds, as bringing up children, being hospitable to strangers, washing the feet of God's people, helping people in distress, or devoting herself to any sort of doing good. ¹¹ Keep the young widows off this roll, for when they get to indulging their lower nature in opposition to Christ, they want to marry, ¹² and so deserve censure for breaking their previous pledge. ¹³ Besides, as they get the habit of gadding about from house to house, they learn to be idle, and not only idle but gossips and busybodies, talking of things they ought not to mention. ¹⁴ So I would have the younger women marry, have children, and keep house, so as not to give our opponents any occasion for slander. ¹⁵ For some widows have already turned aside to follow Satan. ¹⁶ If a Christian woman has widowed relatives, she should help them, and let the church be free from the burden, so that it can help the widows who are really dependent. ¹⁷ Elders who do their duties well should be considered as deserving twice the salary they get especially those who keep on toiling in preaching and teaching. ¹⁸ For the Scripture says, "You must not muzzle an ox when he is treading out the grain," and, "The workman deserves his pay." ¹⁹ Make it a rule not to consider a charge preferred against an elder, unless it is supported by two or three witnesses. ²⁰ Those who are guilty reprove in public, so that others may be warned. ²¹ I solemnly charge you before God and Christ Jesus and the chosen angels, to carry out these instructions without prejudice and with perfect impartiality. ²² Make it a rule not to ordain anyone in haste, and not to be responsible for the sins of others; keep yourself pure. ²³ Stop drinking water only, but take a little wine to strengthen your stomach and relieve its frequent attacks. ²⁴ Some men's sins are very evident and clearly lead them on to judgment, but the sins of others lag behind. ²⁵ Good deeds, too, are usually very evident, and if they are not, they cannot be completely concealed. ⁶ ¹ All who are under the yoke of slavery must esteem their masters to be deserving the highest respect, so that the name of God and our teaching may not be abused. ² Those who have Christian masters must not pay them less respect because they are brothers; they must serve them all the better, because those who get the benefit of their service are believers and so are dear to them. These are the things that you must continue to teach and urge them to do. ³ If anyone teaches different doctrines and refuses to agree with the wholesome messages of our Lord Jesus Christ, the teaching that is in accordance with true religion, ⁴ he is a conceited ignoramus with a morbid appetite for discussions and controversies which lead to envy, quarreling, abuse, base suspicions, ⁵ and perpetual friction between people who are depraved in mind and deprived of truth, who imagine that religion is only a means of gain. ⁶ Now the fact is, religion with contentment is a means of great gain. ⁷ For we bring nothing into the world and surely we can take nothing out of it. ⁸ If we have food and clothes we will be satisfied. ⁹ But men who keep planning to get rich fall into temptations and snares and many foolish, hurtful desires which plunge people into destruction and ruin. ¹⁰ For the love of money is the root of all sorts of evil, and some men in reaching after riches have wandered from the faith and pierced their hearts with many a pang. ¹¹ But you, as a man of God, must be fleeing always from these things; you must constantly strive for uprightness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. ¹² Keep up the good fight for the faith. Keep your hold on eternal life, to which God called you, when before many witnesses you made the good profession of faith. ¹³ Before God who preserves the life of all His creatures and before Christ Jesus who in testifying before Pontius Pilate made His good profession, I solemnly charge you ¹⁴ to keep His command stainless and irreproachable until the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ, ¹⁵ which will be brought about in His own time by the blessed, only Sovereign, the King of kings, the Lord of lords, ¹⁶ who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has ever seen or can see. To Him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen. ¹⁷ Continue charging the rich of this world to stop being haughty and not to fix their hope on a thing so uncertain as riches, but on God who richly and ceaselessly provides us with everything for our enjoyment; ¹⁸ charge them to continue doing good and being rich in good deeds, open-handed and generous hearted, ¹⁹ in this way amassing for themselves the riches that forever endure in the life to come, so that at last they may grasp the life that is life indeed. ²⁰ Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you; continue to turn away from the worldly, futile phrases and contradictions of what is falsely called "knowledge," ²¹ by professing which some individuals have failed in the faith. Spiritual blessing be with you all.