Truth, wisdom, learning, and good sense---these are worth paying for, but too valuable for you to sell.

So then, my dear friends, stand firm and steady. Keep busy always in your work for the Lord, since you know that nothing you do in the Lord's service is ever useless.

Be alert, stand firm in the faith, be brave, be strong.

So stand ready, with truth as a belt tight around your waist, with righteousness as your breastplate,

Now, the important thing is that your way of life should be as the gospel of Christ requires, so that, whether or not I am able to go and see you, I will hear that you are standing firm with one common purpose and that with only one desire you are fighting together for the faith of the gospel.

because now we really live if you stand firm in your life in union with the Lord.

So then, our friends, stand firm and hold on to those truths which we taught you, both in our preaching and in our letter.

But Christ is faithful as the Son in charge of God's house. We are his house if we keep up our courage and our confidence in what we hope for.

For we are all partners with Christ if we hold firmly to the end the confidence we had at the beginning.

Let us, then, hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we have a great High Priest who has gone into the very presence of God---Jesus, the Son of God.

Let us hold on firmly to the hope we profess, because we can trust God to keep his promise.

Do not lose your courage, then, because it brings with it a great reward.

For, as the scripture says, "Just a little while longer, and he who is coming will come; he will not delay.

We are not people who turn back and are lost. Instead, we have faith and are saved.

My dear friends, I was doing my best to write to you about the salvation we share in common, when I felt the need of writing at once to encourage you to fight on for the faith which once and for all God has given to his people.

But you, my friends, keep on building yourselves up on your most sacred faith. Pray in the power of the Holy Spirit,

and keep yourselves in the love of God, as you wait for our Lord Jesus Christ in his mercy to give you eternal life.

But until I come, you must hold firmly to what you have.

Remember, then, what you were taught and what you heard; obey it and turn from your sins. If you do not wake up, I will come upon you like a thief, and you will not even know the time when I will come.

As for you, my friends, you were called to be free. But do not let this freedom become an excuse for letting your physical desires control you. Instead, let love make you serve one another.

although some wanted it done. Pretending to be believers, these men slipped into our group as spies, in order to find out about the freedom we have through our union with Christ Jesus. They wanted to make slaves of us,

Now that the time for faith is here, the Law is no longer in charge of us.

But the heavenly Jerusalem is free, and she is our mother.

So then, my friends, we are not the children of a slave woman but of a free woman.

Give me again the joy that comes from your salvation, and make me willing to obey you.

The Sovereign LORD has filled me with his Spirit. He has chosen me and sent me To bring good news to the poor, To heal the broken-hearted, To announce release to captives And freedom to those in prison.

"Come to me, all of you who are tired from carrying heavy loads, and I will give you rest.

For the yoke I will give you is easy, and the load I will put on you is light."

you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

Jesus said to them, "I am telling you the truth: everyone who sins is a slave of sin.

If the Son sets you free, then you will be really free.

Sin must not be your master; for you do not live under law but under God's grace.

You were set free from sin and became the slaves of righteousness.

So then, if she lives with another man while her husband is alive, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is legally a free woman and does not commit adultery if she marries another man.

Now, however, we are free from the Law, because we died to that which once held us prisoners. No longer do we serve in the old way of a written law, but in the new way of the Spirit.

For the law of the Spirit, which brings us life in union with Christ Jesus, has set me free from the law of sin and death.

For a slave who has been called by the Lord is the Lord's free person; in the same way a free person who has been called by Christ is his slave.

Now, "the Lord" in this passage is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is present, there is freedom.

Live as free people; do not, however, use your freedom to cover up any evil, but live as God's slaves.

They promise them freedom while they themselves are slaves of destructive habits---for we are slaves of anything that has conquered us.

although some wanted it done. Pretending to be believers, these men slipped into our group as spies, in order to find out about the freedom we have through our union with Christ Jesus. They wanted to make slaves of us,

But now that you know God---or, I should say, now that God knows you---how is it that you want to turn back to those weak and pitiful ruling spirits? Why do you want to become their slaves all over again?

They tie onto people's backs loads that are heavy and hard to carry, yet they aren't willing even to lift a finger to help them carry those loads.

So then, why do you now want to put God to the test by laying a load on the backs of the believers which neither our ancestors nor we ourselves were able to carry?

So let no one make rules about what you eat or drink or about holy days or the New Moon Festival or the Sabbath.

Do not allow yourselves to be condemned by anyone who claims to be superior because of special visions and who insists on false humility and the worship of angels. For no reason at all, such people are all puffed up by their human way of thinking

You have died with Christ and are set free from the ruling spirits of the universe. Why, then, do you live as though you belonged to this world? Why do you obey such rules as

All these refer to things which become useless once they are used; they are only human rules and teachings.

The Holy Spirit clearly teaches from all these arrangements that the way into the Most Holy Place has not yet been opened as long as the outer tent still stands.

since they have to do only with food, drink, and various purification ceremonies. These are all outward rules, which apply only until the time when God will establish the new order.