2 Thessalonians 2 Cross References - Goodspeed

¹ As to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, brothers, and our assembling to meet him, we beg you ² not to let your minds be too easily unsettled or wrought up, by any message of the Spirit or any utterance or letter purporting to be from me, to the effect that the Day of the Lord has already come. ³ You must not let anyone deceive you at all. For that is not until the rebellion takes place and the embodiment of disobedience makes his appearance—he who is doomed to destruction, ⁴ the adversary of every being that is called a god or an object of worship, and so overbearing toward them as to enter God's sanctuary and take his seat there, proclaiming himself to be God— ⁵ do you not remember that when I was with you, I used to tell you this? ⁶ So now you know what it is that is holding him back from making his appearance before the appointed time arrives. ⁷ For disobedience is already secretly at work, but only until he who is now holding it in check is gotten out of the way. ⁸ Then the embodiment of disobedience will make his appearance, and the Lord Jesus will destroy him with the breath of his mouth and annihilate him by his appearance and arrival. ⁹ The other's appearance, by the contrivance of Satan, will be full of power and pretended signs and wonders, ¹⁰ and full of wicked deception for men who are going to destruction, because they refused to love the truth and be saved. ¹¹ This is why God sends upon them a misleading influence, to make them believe what is false, ¹² so that all who have refused to believe the truth but have preferred disobedience may be condemned. ¹³ We always have to thank God for you, brothers whom the Lord so loves, because God chose you from the beginning to be saved through consecration by the Spirit and through faith in the truth, ¹⁴ and called you to it through our preaching of the good news, so that you may share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. ¹⁵ So stand firm, brothers, and hold fast to the instructions you have received from us, whether by letter or by word of mouth. ¹⁶ May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who has loved us and kindly given us unfailing encouragement and a well-founded hope, ¹⁷ encourage you and strengthen you to do and say everything that is right.

¹¹ He answered, "You are permitted to know the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven, but they are not.

¹⁹ When anyone hears the teaching of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and robs him of the seed that has been sown in his mind. That is what was sown along the path.

³⁸ The field is the world. The good seed is the people of the kingdom. The weeds are the wicked.

⁹ Do you not understand yet? Do you not remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many baskets full you gathered up?

⁴ Jesus answered, "Take care that no one misleads you about this. ⁵ For many will come under my name, and say, 'I am the Christ,' and many will be misled by them.

⁵ For many will come under my name, and say, 'I am the Christ,' and many will be misled by them. ⁶ You will hear of wars and rumors of war; do not let yourselves be alarmed. They have to come, but that is not the end.

¹¹ Many false prophets will appear, and many will be misled by them,

²⁴ for false Christs and false prophets will appear, and they will show great signs and wonders to mislead God's chosen people if they can.

³¹ And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet-call, and they will gather his chosen people from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.

²¹ His master said to him, 'Well done, my excellent, faithful slave! you have been faithful about a small amount; I will put a large one into your hands. Come, share your master's enjoyment!'

³² and all the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate them from one another, just as a shepherd separates his sheep from his goats,

¹⁸ When you have eyes can you not see, and when you have ears can you not hear? Do you not remember

⁷ But when you hear of wars and rumors of war, you must not be alarmed. They have to come, but it is not yet the end.

²² For false Christs and false prophets will appear, and they will show signs and wonders to mislead God's chosen people if they can.

²⁷ and then he will send out the angels and gather his chosen people from the four winds, from one end of the world to the other.

¹¹ They were delighted to hear it and promised to pay him for it. So he was watching for an opportunity to betray him to them.

¹⁶ He who believes it and is baptized will be saved, but he who does not believe it will be condemned.

⁷⁵ And should serve him in holiness and uprightness, unafraid, In his own presence all our lives.

²⁵ And Abraham said, 'My child, remember that you received your blessings in your lifetime, and Lazarus had his misfortunes in his; and now he is being comforted here, while you are in anguish.

⁹ But when you hear of wars and outbreaks, do not be alarmed. These have to come first, but the end does not follow immediately."

¹⁹ It is by your endurance that you will win your souls.

⁶ Remember what he told you while he was still in Galilee, ⁷ when he said that the Son of Man must be handed over to wicked men and be crucified and rise again on the third day."

¹ In the beginning the Word existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was divine.

¹⁶ For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that no one who believes in him should be lost, but that they should all have eternal life. ¹⁷ For God did not send his Son into the world to pass judgment upon the world, but that through him the world might be saved.

¹⁹ And the basis of the judgment is this, that the light has come into the world, and yet, because their actions were wicked, men have loved the darkness more than the light. ²⁰ For everyone who does wrong hates the light and will not come to it, for fear his actions will be exposed. ²¹ But everyone who is living the truth will come to the light, to show that his actions have been performed in dependence upon God.

³⁶ Whoever believes in the Son possesses eternal life, but whoever disobeys the Son will not experience life, but will remain under the anger of God.

¹⁴ but anyone who drinks the water that I will give him will never be thirsty, but the water that I will give him will become a spring of water within him, bubbling up for eternal life."

⁴⁸ Jesus said to him, "Unless you see signs and marvels you will never believe!"

³⁴ But the testimony that I accept is not from any man; I am only saying this that you may be saved.

⁴¹ You are doing as your father does." They said to him, "We are not illegitimate children. We have one father, God himself."

⁴⁴ The devil is the father you are sprung from, and you want to carry out your father's wishes. He was a murderer from the first, and he has nothing to do with the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he tells a lie, he speaks in his true character, for he is a liar and the father of them.

⁴⁴ The devil is the father you are sprung from, and you want to carry out your father's wishes. He was a murderer from the first, and he has nothing to do with the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he tells a lie, he speaks in his true character, for he is a liar and the father of them. ⁴⁵ But because I tell the truth you will not believe me.

⁴⁵ But because I tell the truth you will not believe me. ⁴⁶ Who among you can prove me guilty of sin? But if I tell you the truth, why do you refuse to believe me?

⁴⁶ Who among you can prove me guilty of sin? But if I tell you the truth, why do you refuse to believe me? ⁴⁷ Whoever is sprung from God listens to God's words. The reason you refuse to listen is that you are not sprung from God."

³⁹ So they could not believe; for Isaiah says again, ⁴⁰ "He has made their eyes blind and their minds dull, To keep them from seeing with their eyes, and understanding with their minds, And turning to me to be cured." ⁴¹ Isaiah said this because he saw his glory; it was of him that he spoke. ⁴² Yet for all that, even among the leading men, many came to believe in him, but on account of the Pharisees they would not acknowledge it, for fear of being excluded from the synagogues, ⁴³ for they cared more for the approval of men than for the approval of God.

¹ Before the Passover Festival began, Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father, but he had loved those who were his own in the world, and he loved them to the last.

¹ "Your minds must not be troubled; you must believe in God, and believe in me. ² There are many rooms in my Father's house; if there were not, I would have told you, for I am going away to make ready a place for you. ³ And if I go and make it ready, I will come back and take you with me, so that you may be where I am.

⁶ Jesus said to him, "I am Way and Truth and Life. No one can come to the Father except through me.

¹⁶ And I will ask the Father and he will give you another Helper to be with you always. ¹⁷ It is the Spirit of Truth. The world cannot obtain that Spirit, because it does not see it or recognize it; you recognize it because it stays with you and is within you. ¹⁸ I am not going to leave you friendless. I am coming back to you.

²⁷ I leave you a blessing; I give you my own blessing. I do not give it to you as the world gives. Your minds must not be troubled or afraid.

⁹ I have loved you just as the Father has loved me. You must retain my love.

¹³ No one can show greater love than by giving up his life for his friends.

⁴ But I have told you about these things in order that when the time comes for them to happen, you may remember that I told you of them. I did not tell you this at first because I was still staying with you.

²² So you, too, are sorrowful now; but I will see you again, and your hearts will be happy, and no one will rob you of your happiness.

¹² As long as I was with them I kept them by your power which you gave me, and I protected them, and not one of them was lost (except the one who was destined to be lost), so that what the Scripture says might come true.

²² I have given them the glory that you gave me, so that they may be one just as we are,

²⁴ Father, I wish to have those whom you have given me with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me, for you loved me before the creation of the world.

⁹ There was a man named Simon in the town, who had been amazing the Samaritan people by practicing magic there, and who made great pretensions. ¹⁰ Everyone there, high and low, made much of him, and said, "He must be what is known as the Great Power of God!" ¹¹ They made much of him because for a long time he had amazed them with his magic.

¹⁰ and said, "You monster of underhandedness and cunning! You son of the devil! You enemy of all that is right! Will you never stop trying to make the Lord's straight paths crooked?

⁴⁸ When the heathen heard this they were delighted, and praised God's message, and all who were destined for eternal life believed,

⁹ making no difference between us and them, but cleansing their hearts by faith.

¹¹ Why, we believe that it is by the mercy of the Lord Jesus that we are saved just as they are."

²⁷ As he wanted to cross to Greece, the brothers wrote to the disciples there, urging them to welcome him. On his arrival there he was of great service to those who through God's favor had become believers,

²³ except that in every town I visit, the holy Spirit warns me that imprisonment and persecution are awaiting me. ²⁴ But my life does not matter, if I can only finish my race and do the service intrusted to me by the Lord Jesus, of declaring the good news of God's favor.

²⁹ I know that after I am gone savage wolves will get in among you and will not spare the flock,

³¹ So you must be on your guard and remember that for three years, night and day, I never stopped warning any of you, even with tears.

⁷ to all those in Rome whom God loves, who are called to be his people; God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ bless you and give you peace.

⁷ to all those in Rome whom God loves, who are called to be his people; God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ bless you and give you peace. ⁸ First I thank my God through Jesus Christ about you all, because the news of your faith is spreading all over the world.

¹¹ For I long to see you, to convey to you some spiritual gift that will strengthen you;

²¹ for, though they knew God, they have not honored him as God or given thanks to him, but they have indulged in futile speculations, until their stupid minds have become dark. ²² They called themselves wise, but they have turned into fools, ²³ and for the splendor of the immortal God they have substituted images in the form of mortal man, birds, animals, and reptiles. ²⁴ So God abandoned them, with their heart's cravings, to impurity, and let them degrade their own bodies. ²⁵ For they had exchanged the truth of God for what was false, and worshiped and served what he had created, instead of the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen!

²⁸ And just as they refused to recognize God any longer, God has abandoned them to unworthy impulses and indecent conduct.

³² They know God's decree that those who act in this way deserve to die, yet they not only do it, but applaud any who do.

⁷ Those who by persistently doing right strive for glory, honor, and immortality will have eternal life, ⁸ but self-seeking people who are disloyal to the truth and responsive only to what is wrong will experience anger and fury,

⁸ but self-seeking people who are disloyal to the truth and responsive only to what is wrong will experience anger and fury,

¹⁶ on that Day when, as the good news I preach teaches, God through Christ Jesus judges what men have kept secret,

⁴ Now paying a workman is not considered a favor, but an obligation,

¹⁶ That is why it all turns upon faith; it is to make it a matter of God's favor, so that the promise may hold good for all Abraham's descendants, not only those who are adherents of the Law, but also those who share the faith of Abraham. For he is the father of all of us;

² by whom we have been introduced through faith to the favor of God that we now enjoy, and let us glory in our hope of sharing the glory of God. ³ More than that, we ought to glory in our troubles, for we know that trouble produces endurance, ⁴ and endurance, character, and character, hope, ⁵ and hope will not disappoint us. For, through the holy Spirit that has been given us, God's love has flooded our hearts.

⁸ But God proves his love for us by the fact that Christ died for us when we were still sinners.

¹⁷ But, thank God! though you were once slaves of sin, you have become obedient from your hearts to the standard of teaching that you received,

⁷ For to be physically minded means hostility to God, for it refuses to obey God's law, indeed it cannot obey it. ⁸ Those who are physical cannot please God.

¹⁷ and if children, heirs also; heirs of God, and fellow-heirs with Christ, if we really share his sufferings in order to share his glory too.

²⁴ It was in this hope that we were saved. But a hope that can be seen is not a hope, for who hopes for what he sees? ²⁵ But when we hope for something that we do not see, we wait persistently for it.

²⁸ We know that in everything God works with those who love him, whom he has called in accordance with his purpose, to bring about what is good. ²⁹ For those whom he had marked out from the first he predestined to be made like his Son, so that he should be the eldest of many brothers; ³⁰ and those whom he has predestined he calls, and those whom he calls he makes upright, and those whom he makes upright he glorifies.

³³ Who can bring any accusation against those whom God has chosen? God pronounces them upright;

¹¹ For before the children were born or had done anything either good or bad, in order to carry out God's purpose of selection, which depends not on what men do but on his calling them,

¹ Brothers, my heart is full of good will toward them; my prayer to God is that they may be saved.

⁵ So too at the present time there is a remnant selected by God's mercy. ⁶ But if it is by his mercy, it is not for anything they have done. Otherwise, his mercy would not be mercy at all.

¹ I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by this mercy of God, to offer your bodies in a living sacrifice that will be holy and acceptable to God; that is your rational worship.

⁹ Your love must be genuine. You must hate what is wrong, and hold to what is right.

¹³ May God, the source of hope, fill you with perfect happiness and peace in your faith, so that you may have overflowing hope through the power of the holy Spirit.

¹⁷ I beg you, brothers, to be on the watch for those who introduce divisions and difficulties, in opposition to the instruction that you were given, and to avoid them. ¹⁸ Such men are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own base passions, and with their plausible and flattering talk they deceive simple-minded people.

²⁵ To him who can make you strong by the good news I bring and the preaching about Jesus Christ, through the disclosure of the secret kept back for long ages but now revealed,

⁸ and at the Day of our Lord Jesus Christ he will insure your complete vindication.

¹⁸ For to those who are on the way to destruction, the story of the cross is nonsense, but to us who are to be saved, it means all the power of God.

⁹ Do you not know that wrongdoers will not have any share in God's kingdom? Do not let anyone mislead you. People who are immoral or idolaters or adulterers or sensual or given to unnatural vice

⁵ For supposing there are so-called gods in heaven or on earth—and indeed there are plenty of such gods and lords—

² I appreciate your always remembering me, and your standing by the things I passed on to you, just as you received them.

⁵⁸ So my dear brothers, be firm and unmoved, and always devote yourselves to the Lord's work, for you know that through the Lord your labor is not thrown away.

¹³ Be on the watch. Stand firm in your faith. Act like men. Show yourselves strong.

²² A curse upon anyone who has no love for the Lord. Lord, come quickly!

³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the merciful Father, and the God always ready to comfort! ⁴ He comforts me in all my trouble, so that I can comfort people who are in any trouble with the comfort with which I myself am comforted by God. ⁵ For if I have a liberal share of Christ's sufferings, through Christ I have a liberal share of comfort too. ⁶ If I am in trouble, it is to bring you comfort and salvation, and if I am comforted, it is for the sake of the comfort which you experience when you steadfastly endure such sufferings as I also have to bear.

²¹ But it is God who guarantees us and you to Christ; he has anointed us

¹⁵ Yes, I am the fragrance of Christ to God, diffused among those who are being saved, and those who are perishing alike;

¹⁷ For I am no peddler of God's message, like most men, but like a man of sincerity, commissioned by God and in his presence, in union with Christ I utter his message.

² I disown disgraceful, underhanded ways. I refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's message. It is by the open statement of the truth that I would commend myself to every human conscience in the sight of God. ³ If the meaning of my preaching of the good news is veiled at all, it is so only in the case of those who are on the way to destruction. ⁴ In their case, the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep the light of the good news of the glorious Christ, the likeness of God, from dawning upon them.

¹⁷ For this slight, momentary trouble is piling up for me an eternal blessedness beyond all comparison, ¹⁸ because I keep my eyes not on what is seen but what is unseen. For what is seen is transitory, but what is unseen is eternal.

³ But I am afraid that just as the serpent by his cunning deceived Eve, your thoughts will be led astray from their single-hearted fidelity to Christ.

¹³ Such men are sham apostles, dishonest workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ. ¹⁴ And no wonder, for even Satan himself masquerades as a shining angel. ¹⁵ So it is nothing strange if his servants also masquerade as servants of uprightness. But their doom will fit their actions.

¹ You senseless Galatians! Who has bewitched you, when you had Jesus Christ shown crucified right before your eyes?

²¹ envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like. I warn you as I did before that people who do such things will have no share in the Kingdom of God.

⁴ Through him he chose 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 through Jesus Christ, in fulfilment of his generous purpose,

¹⁰ and in arranging, when the time should have fully come, that everything in heaven and on earth should be unified in Christ—

¹⁸ enlightening the eyes of your mind so that you may know what the hope is to which he calls you, and how gloriously rich his inheritance is among God's people,

² in the midst of which you once lived under the control of the present age of the world, and the master-spirit of the air, who is still at work among the disobedient.

⁴ But God is so rich in mercy that because of the great love he had for us, ⁵ he made us, dead as we were through our offenses, live again with the Christ. It is by his mercy that you have been saved.

⁸ For it is by his mercy that you have been saved through faith. It is not by your own action, it is the gift of God.

¹⁴ We must not be babies any longer, blown about and swung around by every wind of doctrine through the trickery of men with their ingenuity in inventing error.

² and lead loving lives, just as Christ loved you and gave himself for you, as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

⁶ Whatever anyone may say in the way of worthless arguments to deceive you, these are the things that are bringing God's anger down upon the disobedient.

²⁵ You who are husbands must love your wives, just as Christ loves the church and gave himself for her,

¹ So, my dear brothers whom I so long to see, my joy and pride, stand firm in the Lord, dear friends.

⁵ and for the hope of what is stored up for you in heaven. You first heard of it long ago when the true message of the gospel

²³ if at least you continue firm and steadfast in the exercise of faith, and never shift from the hope held out in the good news to which you listened, which has been preached all over the world, and for which I, Paul, became a worker.

⁷ You must be rooted and built up in him and made strong in faith, just as you were taught to be, overflowing with it in your gratitude.

¹⁸ No one can put you in the wrong by persisting in studied humility and the worship of angels, being absorbed in the visions he has seen, and groundlessly conceited over his mere human mind. ¹⁹ Such people lose their connection with the head, from which the whole body through its ligaments and sinews must be governed and united if it is to grow in the divine way. ²⁰ If you have died with Christ to material ways of looking at things, why do you act as though you still belonged to the world, and submit to rules like ²¹ "You must not handle," "You must not taste," "You must not touch"— ²² referring to things that are all meant to be used up and destroyed? This is to follow mere human rules and regulations. ²³ Such practices pass for wisdom, with their self-imposed devotions, their self-humiliation, and their ascetic discipline, but they carry with them no real distinction, they are really only a catering to the flesh.

¹² As persons chosen by God, then, consecrated and dearly loved, you must clothe yourselves with tenderness of heart, kindness, humility, gentleness, forbearance.

³ for we can never forget before our God and Father your energetic faith, your loving service, and your unwavering expectation of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁴ For we know, brothers whom God so loves, that he has chosen you, ⁵ for our preaching of the good news did not come to you as mere words but with power and the holy Spirit and full conviction—you know the kind of life we lived among you for your good.

³ For our appeal does not rest on a delusion, nor spring from any impure motive; there is no fraud about it.

¹¹ You know how, like a father with his children, we used to urge, encourage, and implore you ¹² to make your lives worthy of God who invites you into his kingdom and his glory.

¹⁶ try to keep us from speaking to the heathen so that they may be saved, so as always to fill up the measure of their sins. But God's wrath has overtaken them at last!

¹⁹ For what hope or happiness shall we have or what prize to be proud of in the presence of our Lord Jesus when he comes, except you?

² and I sent my brother Timothy, a servant of God in preaching the good news of the Christ, to strengthen you in your faith ³ and encourage you not to be led astray, any of you, in all these troubles. You know yourselves that this is what we must expect,

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

¹³ so that your hearts may be strong and faultlessly pure in the sight of our God and Father, when our Lord Jesus appears with all his saints!

¹⁴ For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, then by means of Jesus God will bring back with him those who have fallen asleep. ¹⁵ For we can assure you, on the Lord's own authority, that those of us who will still be living when the Lord comes will have no advantage over those who have fallen asleep.

¹⁵ For we can assure you, on the Lord's own authority, that those of us who will still be living when the Lord comes will have no advantage over those who have fallen asleep. ¹⁶ For the Lord himself, at the summons, when the archangel calls and God's trumpet sounds, will come down from heaven, and first those who died in union with Christ will rise; ¹⁷ then those of us who are still living will be caught up with them on clouds into the air to meet the Lord, and so we shall be with the Lord forever.

² for you yourselves know perfectly well that the Day of the Lord is to come like a thief in the night.

⁹ For God has not destined us for his wrath, but to gain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,

¹ Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy to the Thessalonian church in union with God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ; ² God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ bless you and give you peace. ³ We always have to thank God for you, brothers, as it is right that we should, because your faith is growing so wonderfully and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing.

⁸ in a blaze of fire, and takes vengeance on the godless who will not listen to the good news of our Lord Jesus. ⁹ They will be punished with eternal ruin and exclusion from the presence of the Lord and his glorious might,

² not to let your minds be too easily unsettled or wrought up, by any message of the Spirit or any utterance or letter purporting to be from me, to the effect that the Day of the Lord has already come. ³ You must not let anyone deceive you at all. For that is not until the rebellion takes place and the embodiment of disobedience makes his appearance—he who is doomed to destruction,

⁸ Then the embodiment of disobedience will make his appearance, and the Lord Jesus will destroy him with the breath of his mouth and annihilate him by his appearance and arrival.

⁸ Then the embodiment of disobedience will make his appearance, and the Lord Jesus will destroy him with the breath of his mouth and annihilate him by his appearance and arrival. ⁹ The other's appearance, by the contrivance of Satan, will be full of power and pretended signs and wonders, ¹⁰ and full of wicked deception for men who are going to destruction, because they refused to love the truth and be saved.

¹⁰ and full of wicked deception for men who are going to destruction, because they refused to love the truth and be saved.

¹² so that all who have refused to believe the truth but have preferred disobedience may be condemned. ¹³ We always have to thank God for you, brothers whom the Lord so loves, because God chose you from the beginning to be saved through consecration by the Spirit and through faith in the truth,

¹⁵ So stand firm, brothers, and hold fast to the instructions you have received from us, whether by letter or by word of mouth. ¹⁶ May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who has loved us and kindly given us unfailing encouragement and a well-founded hope,

³ But the Lord is to be relied on, and he will give you strength and protect you from the evil one.

⁶ We charge you, brothers, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, to keep away from any brother who lives in idleness, instead of following the teaching you received from us.

¹⁰ When I was with you, I gave you this rule: "If anyone refuses to work, give him nothing to eat!"

¹⁴ If anyone refuses to obey what we have said in this letter, mark the man and do not have anything to do with him, to make him feel ashamed.

¹⁷ This greeting is in my own hand, Paul's; it is the mark in every letter of mine. This is the way I write.

⁴ who wants all men to be saved and to come to know the truth.

¹⁶ No one can deny the profundity of the divine truth of our religion! "He was revealed in flesh, He was vindicated by the Spirit, He was seen by the angels, He was proclaimed among the heathen, He was believed in throughout the world, He was taken up into glory."

¹ The Spirit distinctly says that in later times some will turn away from the faith, and devote their attention to deceitful spirits and the things that demons teach

¹ The Spirit distinctly says that in later times some will turn away from the faith, and devote their attention to deceitful spirits and the things that demons teach ² through the pretensions of liars—men with seared consciences ³ who forbid people to marry and insist on abstinence from certain kinds of food that God created for men who believe and understand the truth to enjoy and give thanks for.

¹⁴ to keep his command stainless and irreproachable until the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ,

⁹ He saved us and called us to a consecrated life, not for anything we had done, but of his own accord and out of the mercy which he bestowed upon us ages ago through Christ Jesus, ¹⁰ which has now been revealed through the appearance of our Savior Christ Jesus. He has taken away the power of death and brought life and immortality to light through the good news,

¹² If we endure, we will reign with him! If we disown him, he will also disown us!

¹⁵ Do your best to win God's approval as a workman who has nothing to be ashamed of, but rightly shapes the message of truth.

¹⁷ and their teaching spreads like a cancer; men like Hymenaeus and Philetus, ¹⁸ who have missed the truth and say that the resurrection has taken place already, thus undermining people's faith.

¹ Understand this, that in the last days there are going to be hard times. ² People will be selfish, avaricious, boastful, arrogant, abusive, undutiful, ungrateful, irreverent, ³ unfeeling, irreconcilable, slanderous, with no self-control, brutal, with no love for what is good,

⁸ Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, these people in turn oppose the truth; they are men of depraved minds and counterfeit faith.

¹⁵ and how from childhood you have known the Scriptures which can give you the wisdom that through faith in Christ Jesus leads to salvation.

¹ I charge you in the sight of God and Christ Jesus who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom,

³ For a time will come when they will not listen to wholesome instruction, but will overwhelm themselves with teachers to suit their whims and tickle their fancies, ⁴ and they will turn from listening to the truth and wander off after fictions.

⁸ Now the crown of uprightness awaits me, which the Lord, the upright judge, will award me on that Day, and not only me but also all who have loved and hoped for his appearing.

² in the hope of eternal life, which God who never lies promised ages ago,

¹³ while we wait for the fulfilment of our blessed hope in the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Christ Jesus.

⁴ But when the goodness and kindness of God our Savior were revealed, ⁵ he saved us, not for any upright actions we had performed, but from his own mercy, through the bath of regeneration and renewal by the holy Spirit, ⁶ which he has poured out upon us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, ⁷ so that we might be made upright through his mercy and become possessors of eternal life in fulfilment of our hope.

¹⁰ And "You, Lord, in the beginning founded the earth, And the sky is the work of your hands!

¹³ but encourage one another every day, as long as we can still speak of Today, so that no one of you may have his heart hardened by the pleasantness of sin.

¹¹ But we want each of you to exhibit this same earnestness to the very end with regard to your confidence in your hope, ¹² so that you may never grow careless, but may learn to follow the example of those who through their faith and endurance are the possessors of God's promises.

¹⁸ so that by these two unalterable things, which make it impossible for God to break his promise, we who have taken refuge with him may be greatly encouraged to seize upon the hope that is offered to us. ¹⁹ This hope is like an anchor for our souls. It reaches up secure and strong into the sanctuary behind the heavenly curtain,

¹⁹ (for there was nothing final about the Law), and a better hope begins to dawn, through which we may approach God.

²⁷ but only the dreadful prospect of judgment and that blazing indignation which is to devour God's enemies.

⁹ You must not be carried away with strange varieties of teaching. The true way to steadfastness of heart is through God's mercy, not through scruples about food, which have never done their adherents any good.

¹⁶ Do not be misled, my dear brothers. ¹⁷ Every good gift and every perfect present is from heaven, and comes down from the Father of the heavenly lights, about whom there is no variation of changing shadow. ¹⁸ Of his own accord he brought us into being through the message of truth, so that we might be a kind of first-fruits among his creatures.

¹⁸ Of his own accord he brought us into being through the message of truth, so that we might be a kind of first-fruits among his creatures.

²¹ So strip yourselves of everything that soils you, and of every evil growth, and in a humble spirit let the message that has the power to save your souls be planted in your hearts. ²² Obey the message; do not merely listen to it, and deceive yourselves.

² whom God the Father has chosen and predestined by the consecration of the Spirit to be obedient to Jesus Christ, and to be sprinkled with his blood; God bless you and give you perfect peace. ³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has caused us to be born anew to a life of hope through Jesus Christ's resurrection from the dead,

³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has caused us to be born anew to a life of hope through Jesus Christ's resurrection from the dead, ⁴ and to an imperishable, unsullied, and unfading inheritance, which is kept safe for you in heaven,

⁴ and to an imperishable, unsullied, and unfading inheritance, which is kept safe for you in heaven, ⁵ and you by God's power are being protected through faith to receive a salvation that is now ready to be disclosed at the last time.

⁵ and you by God's power are being protected through faith to receive a salvation that is now ready to be disclosed at the last time. ⁶ Rejoice over this, although just now perhaps distressed by various trials; ⁷ they are to show that your faith when tested is found to be more precious than gold, which though it is perishable is tested with fire, and they will bring you praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. ⁸ You must love him, though you have not seen him, but since you believe in him though you do not now see him, rejoice with triumphant, unutterable joy

¹⁰ And God, the giver of all mercy, who through your union with Christ has called you to his eternal glory, after you have suffered a little while will himself make you perfect, steadfast, and strong.

¹⁵ I will also take care that after I am gone you will be able at any time to call these things to mind.

¹ There were false prophets too among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will introduce destructive sects and deny the Master who has bought them, thus bringing on themselves swift destruction. ² Many people will follow their immoral ways, and they will cause the true way to be maligned. ³ In their greed they will exploit you with pretended arguments. From of old their condemnation has not been idle, and their destruction has not slumbered.

³ In their greed they will exploit you with pretended arguments. From of old their condemnation has not been idle, and their destruction has not slumbered.

¹² These men, like unreasoning animals, mere creatures of instinct created to be caught and killed, abuse what they do not understand and will be destroyed like animals, ¹³ suffering wrong as the reward for their wrongdoing. They find pleasure in the indulgence of the moment; they are a stain and a disgrace, and they revel in their deceit while they join in your religious meals. ¹⁴ They have eyes for nobody but adulterous women—eyes insatiable in sin. They lure unsteadfast souls. Their hearts are trained in greed. They are accursed! ¹⁵ They have left the straight path and gone astray. They have followed the path of Balaam, the son of Beor, who set his heart on dishonest gain,

¹⁸ They utter arrogant nonsense and use physical cravings to lure into immorality men who are just escaping from among those who live in error;

⁴ and saying, "Where is his promised coming? For ever since our forefathers fell asleep everything has remained as it was from the beginning of creation!" ⁵ For they wilfully ignore the fact that long ago there existed heavens and an earth which had been formed at God's command out of water and by water, ⁶ by which also that world was destroyed, through being flooded with water. ⁷ But by the same command the present heavens and earth are stored up for fire, and are kept for the day when godless men are to be judged and destroyed. ⁸ But do not overlook this one fact, dear friends, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years are like one day.

¹³ I am writing to you, fathers, because you know him who has existed from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have been victorious over the evil one. I write to you, children, because you know the Father.

¹⁸ Children, it is the last hour. You have heard that Antichrist is coming, and many Antichrists have indeed appeared. So we may be sure that it is the last hour.

² Dear friends, we are God's children now; it has not yet been disclosed what we are to be. We know that if he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. ³ And everyone who possesses this hope in him tries to make himself as pure as he is.

¹² We must not be like Cain who was a child of the evil one, and butchered his brother. And why did he butcher him? Because his own actions were wicked and his brother's upright.

¹⁶ We know what love means from the fact that he laid down his life for us; so we also ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.

¹⁸ Dear children, let us love not with words or lips only but in reality and truth.

¹ Dear friends, do not believe every inspired utterance, but test the utterances to see whether they come from God, for many false prophets have come out into the world. ² You can tell the Spirit of God in this way: all inspiration that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in human form comes from God, ³ and any inspired utterance that does not acknowledge Jesus does not come from God; it is the inspiration of the Antichrist. You have heard that it was coming, and here it is already in the world.

⁹ God's love for us has been revealed in this way—that God has sent his only Son into the world, to let us have life through him. ¹⁰ The love consists not in our having loved God, but in his loving us and sending his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

¹⁰ The love consists not in our having loved God, but in his loving us and sending his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

¹⁹ We love because he loved us first.

¹⁸ We know that no child of God commits sin, but the fact that he is God's child protects him, and the evil one cannot touch him.

¹¹ Dear friend, do not follow bad examples, but good ones. The man who does right is a child of God; the man who does wrong has never seen God.

³ Dear friends, I was just on the point of writing to you about our common salvation, when it became necessary for me to write and appeal to you to come to the defense of the faith that has once for all been intrusted to God's people. ⁴ For some people have sneaked in among us—their doom was foretold long ago—godless persons, who turn the mercy of our God into an excuse for immorality, and disown our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. ⁵ Now I want to remind you, though you know it all already, that he who brought the people safely out of the land of Egypt afterward destroyed the ones who did not believe,

²⁴ Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to make you stand in his presence irreproachable and triumphant—

⁵ and from Jesus Christ the trustworthy witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the sovereign of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and has released us from our sins by his blood

¹⁶ In his right hand he held seven stars; from his mouth came a sharp double-edged sword, and his face shone like the sun at noonday.

¹⁶ So repent, or else I will come to you quickly and make war upon them with the sword that is in my mouth.

⁹ I will make some who belong to that synagogue of Satan and claim to be Jews when they are not so, but are lying—I will make them come and bow down at your feet, and learn that I loved you.

²¹ I will permit him who is victorious to take his seat beside me on my throne, just as I have been victorious and taken my seat beside my Father on his throne.

¹⁶ They will never be hungry or thirsty again, and never again will the sun or any burning heat distress them, ¹⁷ for the Lamb who is in the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe every tear from their eyes."

¹¹ They had over them as king the angel of the abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, but in Greek he is called Apollyon.

⁹ So the great dragon, the ancient serpent who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world, was hurled down to the earth, and his angels were hurled down with him.

¹⁷ So the dragon was enraged at the woman, and he went off to make war on the rest of her children—those who obey God's commands and adhere to the testimony of Jesus.

⁵ It was allowed to utter great boasts and blasphemies, and to exert authority for forty-two months. ⁶ It opened its mouth in blasphemies against God, blaspheming his name and his dwelling-place, that is, those who live in heaven.

⁶ It opened its mouth in blasphemies against God, blaspheming his name and his dwelling-place, that is, those who live in heaven. ⁷ It was allowed to make war on God's people and to conquer them, and it was given authority over every tribe, people, language, and nation.

¹¹ Then I saw another animal come up out of the land. It had two horns like a lamb, but it spoke like a dragon.

¹¹ Then I saw another animal come up out of the land. It had two horns like a lamb, but it spoke like a dragon. ¹² It exercises the full authority of the first animal on its behalf. It makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first animal, whose mortal wound had been healed.

¹² It exercises the full authority of the first animal on its behalf. It makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first animal, whose mortal wound had been healed. ¹³ It performs great wonders, even making fire come down from heaven to earth before men's eyes.

¹³ It performs great wonders, even making fire come down from heaven to earth before men's eyes. ¹⁴ It leads the inhabitants of the earth astray by the wonders it is allowed to do on behalf of the animal, telling the inhabitants of the earth to erect a statue to the animal that bears the mark of the sword-thrust and yet lives.

¹⁴ It leads the inhabitants of the earth astray by the wonders it is allowed to do on behalf of the animal, telling the inhabitants of the earth to erect a statue to the animal that bears the mark of the sword-thrust and yet lives. ¹⁵ It is also allowed to impart life to the animal's statue so that the animal's statue can speak, and to have all who do not worship the animal's statue killed.

¹⁵ It is also allowed to impart life to the animal's statue so that the animal's statue can speak, and to have all who do not worship the animal's statue killed. ¹⁶ And it makes everyone, high and low, rich and poor, freemen and slaves, have a mark stamped on their right hands or on their foreheads, ¹⁷ and permits no one to buy or sell anything unless he bears the mark, that is, the animal's name or the number corresponding to its name. ¹⁸ There is wisdom hidden here! Let everyone of intelligence calculate the animal's number, for it indicates a certain man; its number is 666.

⁵ On her forehead there was written a name that was symbolic: "Mighty Babylon, mother of idolatresses and of earth's abominations."

⁷ but the angel said to me, "Why are you amazed? I will explain to you what the woman and the animal with seven heads and ten horns that carries her symbolize. ⁸ The animal that you saw was, and is no more; it is going to come up out of the abyss, but it is to go to destruction. The inhabitants of the earth, whose names from the foundation of the world have not been written in the book of life, will be amazed when they see that the animal was, and is no more, and yet is to come.

¹¹ So must it be with the animal that was, and is no more. It is also an eighth king, although it is one of the seven, and it is to go to destruction.

⁸ her plagues will overtake her in one day, death, grief, and famine, and she will be burned up with fire; for the Lord God who has judged her is mighty. ⁹ The kings of the earth who have joined in her idolatry and luxury will weep and lament over her when they see the smoke from her burning. ¹⁰ They will stand a long way off for fear of her torture and say, 'Alas! Alas for the great city, for Babylon the mighty city, for in a single hour your judgment has overtaken you!'

²³ no light of any lamp will ever shine in you again; no voice of bride or bridegroom will ever be heard in you again. For your merchants were the great men of the earth; by your magic all the heathen have been led astray,

¹⁵ From his mouth came a sharp sword with which he is to strike down the heathen. He will shepherd them with a staff of iron, and will tread the winepress of the fierce anger of God Almighty.

²⁰ And the animal was captured and with it the false prophet who performed wonders on its behalf by means of which he led astray those who had let the animal's mark be put on them and who worshiped its statue. Both of them were flung alive into the fiery lake of burning brimstone.

²⁰ And the animal was captured and with it the false prophet who performed wonders on its behalf by means of which he led astray those who had let the animal's mark be put on them and who worshiped its statue. Both of them were flung alive into the fiery lake of burning brimstone. ²¹ The rest were killed with the sword that came out of the mouth of him who sat on the horse, and all the birds gorged themselves upon their bodies.

¹⁰ and the devil who led them astray was flung into the fiery, sulphurous lake, where the animal and the false prophet were, there to be tortured day and night forever and ever.

²³ The city does not need the sun nor the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God lighted it, and the Lamb is its lamp.

³ There will no longer be anything that is accursed. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his slaves will worship him; ⁴ they will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. ⁵ There will no longer be any night and they will have no need of lamplight or sunlight, for the Lord God will shine on them, and they will reign forever and ever.

⁵ There will no longer be any night and they will have no need of lamplight or sunlight, for the Lord God will shine on them, and they will reign forever and ever.