The purpose of this order is to arouse the love that comes from a pure heart, a clear conscience, and a genuine faith.

they should hold to the revealed truth of the faith with a clear conscience.

He must hold firmly to the message which can be trusted and which agrees with the doctrine. In this way he will be able to encourage others with the true teaching and also to show the error of those who are opposed to it.

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

But have reverence for Christ in your hearts, and honor him as Lord. Be ready at all times to answer anyone who asks you to explain the hope you have in you,

but do it with gentleness and respect. Keep your conscience clear, so that when you are insulted, those who speak evil of your good conduct as followers of Christ will become ashamed of what they say.

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.

I know what you do; I know that you have a little power; you have followed my teaching and have been faithful to me. I have opened a door in front of you, which no one can close.

Because you have kept my command to endure, I will also keep you safe from the time of trouble which is coming upon the world to test all the people on earth.

I have told you this many times before, and now I repeat it with tears: there are many whose lives make them enemies of Christ's death on the cross.

They are going to end up in hell, because their god is their bodily desires. They are proud of what they should be ashamed of, and they think only of things that belong to this world.

Remember that there will be difficult times in the last days.

they will be unkind, merciless, slanderers, violent, and fierce; they will hate the good;

they will hold to the outward form of our religion, but reject its real power. Keep away from such people.

False prophets appeared in the past among the people, and in the same way false teachers will appear among you. They will bring in destructive, untrue doctrines, and will deny the Master who redeemed them, and so they will bring upon themselves sudden destruction.

In their greed these false teachers will make a profit out of telling you made-up stories. For a long time now their Judge has been ready, and their Destroyer has been wide awake!

But these people act by instinct, like wild animals born to be captured and killed; they attack with insults anything they do not understand. They will be destroyed like wild animals,

They want to look for nothing but the chance to commit adultery; their appetite for sin is never satisfied. They lead weak people into a trap. Their hearts are trained to be greedy. They are under God's curse!

and was rebuked for his sin. His donkey spoke with a human voice and stopped the prophet's insane action.

They make proud and stupid statements, and use immoral bodily lusts to trap those who are just beginning to escape from among people who live in error.

If people have escaped from the corrupting forces of the world through their knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and then are again caught and conquered by them, such people are in worse condition at the end than they were at the beginning.

What happened to them shows that the proverbs are true: "A dog goes back to what it has vomited" and "A pig that has been washed goes back to roll in the mud."

But these people attack with insults anything they do not understand; and those things that they know by instinct, like wild animals, are the very things that destroy them.

With their shameless carousing they are like dirty spots in your fellowship meals. They take care only of themselves. They are like clouds carried along by the wind, but bringing no rain. They are like trees that bear no fruit, even in autumn, trees that have been pulled up by the roots and are completely dead.

The Spirit says clearly that some people will abandon the faith in later times; they will obey lying spirits and follow the teachings of demons.

Such teachings are spread by deceitful liars, whose consciences are dead, as if burnt with a hot iron.

(No doubt there must be divisions among you so that the ones who are in the right may be clearly seen.)

I am surprised at you! In no time at all you are deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ, and are accepting another gospel.

But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel that is different from the one we preached to you, may he be condemned to hell!

Those of you who try to be put right with God by obeying the Law have cut yourselves off from Christ. You are outside God's grace.

They will turn away from listening to the truth and give their attention to legends.

For how can those who abandon their faith be brought back to repent again? They were once in God's light; they tasted heaven's gift and received their share of the Holy Spirit;

And then they abandoned their faith! It is impossible to bring them back to repent again, because they are again crucifying the Son of God and exposing him to public shame.

These people really did not belong to our fellowship, and that is why they left us; if they had belonged to our fellowship, they would have stayed with us. But they left so that it might be clear that none of them really belonged to us.

But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and are caught in the trap of many foolish and harmful desires, which pull them down to ruin and destruction.

Can any of you live a bit longer by worrying about it?