They profess to know God, but by their actions they deny Him. They are detestable, disobedient, and unfit for any good deed.

Be sober-minded and alert. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in your faith and in the knowledge that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kinds of suffering. And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself restore you, secure you, strengthen you, and establish you.

In their greed, these false teachers will exploit you with deceptive words. The longstanding verdict against them remains in force, and their destruction does not sleep.

“Woe to the rebellious children,” declares the LORD, “to those who carry out a plan that is not Mine, who form an alliance, but against My will, heaping up sin upon sin. They set out to go down to Egypt without asking My advice, to seek shelter under Pharaoh’s protection and take refuge in Egypt’s shade. But Pharaoh’s protection will become your shame, and the refuge of Egypt’s shade your disgrace. For though their princes are at Zoan and their envoys have arrived in Hanes, everyone will be put to shame because of a people useless to them. They cannot be of help; they are good for nothing but shame and reproach.” . . .

Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial that has come upon you, as though something strange were happening to you.

Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.

Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made the good confession before many witnesses.

That is why, for the sake of Christ, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

my persecutions, and the sufferings that came upon me in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. What persecutions I endured! Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them.

Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith in God, instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And this we will do, if God permits. It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age— . . .

Now the Spirit expressly states that in later times some will abandon the faith to follow deceitful spirits and the teachings of demons, influenced by the hypocrisy of liars, whose consciences are seared with a hot iron. They will prohibit marriage and require abstinence from certain foods that God has created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. For every creation of God is good, and nothing that is received with thanksgiving should be rejected, because it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer. . . .

For the time will come when men will not tolerate sound doctrine, but with itching ears they will gather around themselves teachers to suit their own desires.

Your own evil will discipline you; your own apostasies will reprimand you. Consider and realize how evil and bitter it is for you to forsake the LORD your God and to have no fear of Me,” declares the Lord GOD of Hosts.

If you cease to hear instruction, my son, you will stray from the words of knowledge.

For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that everyone who believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Everyone has heard about your obedience, so I rejoice over you. But I want you to be wise about what is good and innocent about what is evil.

For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in His footsteps:

He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. “By His stripes you are healed.”

For the choirmaster. Of David. In the LORD I take refuge. How then can you say to me: “Flee like a bird to your mountain! For behold, the wicked bend their bows. They set their arrow on the string to shoot from the shadows at the upright in heart. If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?” The LORD is in His holy temple; the LORD is on His heavenly throne. His eyes are watching closely; they examine the sons of men. The LORD tests the righteous and the wicked; His soul hates the lover of violence. . . .

As God’s steward, an overseer must be above reproach—not self-absorbed, not quick-tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not greedy for money.

In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in various trials so that the proven character of your faith—more precious than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen Him, you love Him; and though you do not see Him now, you believe in Him and rejoice with an inexpressible and glorious joy,

if we endure, we will also reign with Him; if we deny Him, He will also deny us;

so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and perverse generation, in which you shine as lights in the world

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

For our light and momentary affliction is producing for us an eternal glory that is far beyond comparison.

The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own authority. My people love it so, but what will you do in the end?

in the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began.

If anyone speaks, he should speak as one conveying the words of God. If anyone serves, he should serve with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen.

and with every wicked deception directed against those who are perishing, because they refused the love of the truth that would have saved them.

To this end I also labor, striving with all His energy working powerfully within me.

And by that will, we have been sanctified through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

Let us hold resolutely to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful.

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you a future and a hope.

For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that everyone who believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.

Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you unblemished in His glorious presence, with great joy—

Therefore, since Christ suffered in His body, arm yourselves with the same resolve, because anyone who has suffered in his body is done with sin.

Additionally, they must first be tested. Then, if they are above reproach, let them serve as deacons.

And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

and to present her to Himself as a glorious church, without stain or wrinkle or any such blemish, but holy and blameless.

For this reason He had to be made like His brothers in every way, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, in order to make atonement for the sins of the people.

We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain,

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for Him,

And I heard a loud voice in heaven saying: “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of His Christ. For the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down—he who accuses them day and night before our God.

trying to determine the time and setting to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow.

But rejoice that you share in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed at the revelation of His glory.

And Saul was there, giving approval to Stephen’s death. On that day a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. God-fearing men buried Stephen and mourned deeply over him. But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off men and women and put them in prison. Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went. Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Christ to them. . . .

But now He has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy, unblemished, and blameless in His presence—

if indeed you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope of the gospel you heard, which has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.

Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions for the sake of His body, which is the church.

But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because He suffered death, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone.

Beloved, although I made every effort to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt it necessary to write and urge you to contend earnestly for the faith entrusted once for all to the saints.

I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to Him in His death,

I testify to everyone who hears the words of prophecy in this book: If anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book.

First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being proclaimed all over the world.

An elder must be blameless, the husband of but one wife, having children who are believers and who are not open to accusation of indiscretion or insubordination.

so that, having been justified by His grace, we would become heirs with the hope of eternal life.

Woe to the city of oppressors, rebellious and defiled! She heeded no voice; she accepted no correction. She does not trust in the LORD; she has not drawn near to her God. Her princes are roaring lions; her judges are evening wolves, leaving nothing for the morning. Her prophets are reckless, faithless men. Her priests profane the sanctuary; they do violence to the law. The LORD within her is righteous; He does no wrong. He applies His justice morning by morning; He does not fail at dawn, yet the unjust know no shame. . . .

Yet when I preach the gospel, I have no reason to boast, because I am obligated to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!