You must realize that the LORD has chosen you to build his holy Temple. Now do it---and do it with determination."

and instructed them: "Be careful in pronouncing judgment; you are not acting on human authority, but on the authority of the LORD, and he is with you when you pass sentence.

"You yourselves must watch out. You will be arrested and taken to court. You will be beaten in the synagogues; you will stand before rulers and kings for my sake to tell them the Good News.

"Be careful not to let yourselves become occupied with too much feasting and drinking and with the worries of this life, or that Day may suddenly catch you

So keep watch over yourselves and over all the flock which the Holy Spirit has placed in your care. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he made his own through the blood of his Son.

Using the gift that God gave me, I did the work of an expert builder and laid the foundation, and someone else is building on it. But each of you must be careful how you build.

For God has already placed Jesus Christ as the one and only foundation, and no other foundation can be laid.

And tell Archippus, "Be sure to finish the task you were given in the Lord's service."

to preach the message, to insist upon proclaiming it (whether the time is right or not), to convince, reproach, and encourage, as you teach with all patience.

In all things you yourself must be an example of good behavior. Be sincere and serious in your teaching.

Teach these things and use your full authority as you encourage and rebuke your hearers. Let none of them look down on you.

Guard against turning back from the grace of God. Let no one become like a bitter plant that grows up and causes many troubles with its poison.

Be on your guard, then, so that you will not lose what we have worked for, but will receive your reward in full.

If you give these instructions to the believers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, as you feed yourself spiritually on the words of faith and of the true teaching which you have followed.

I want you to stay in Ephesus, just as I urged you when I was on my way to Macedonia. Some people there are teaching false doctrines, and you must order them to stop.

I urge you, my friends: watch out for those who cause divisions and upset people's faith and go against the teaching which you have received. Keep away from them!

Then we shall no longer be children, carried by the waves and blown about by every shifting wind of the teaching of deceitful people, who lead others into error by the tricks they invent.

In all things you yourself must be an example of good behavior. Be sincere and serious in your teaching.

Do not let all kinds of strange teachings lead you from the right way. It is good to receive inner strength from God's grace, and not by obeying rules about foods; those who obey these rules have not been helped by them.

Anyone who does not stay with the teaching of Christ, but goes beyond it, does not have God. Whoever does stay with the teaching has both the Father and the Son.

We ourselves, then, will give our full time to prayer and the work of preaching."

But to this very day I have been helped by God, and so I stand here giving my witness to all, to small and great alike. What I say is the very same thing which the prophets and Moses said was going to happen:

Some people keep on doing good, and seek glory, honor, and immortal life; to them God will give eternal life.

But as for you, continue in the truths that you were taught and firmly believe. You know who your teachers were,

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.

If you do warn an evil man and he doesn't stop sinning, he will die, still a sinner, but your life will be spared.

If you do warn a good man not to sin and he listens to you and doesn't sin, he will stay alive, and your life will also be spared."

"Now, mortal man, I am making you a lookout for the nation of Israel. You must pass on to them the warnings I give you.

If you do warn an evil person and he doesn't stop sinning, he will die, still a sinner, but your life will be spared."

So I solemnly declare to you this very day: if any of you should be lost, I am not responsible.

For I have not held back from announcing to you the whole purpose of God.

I harden my body with blows and bring it under complete control, to keep myself from being disqualified after having called others to the contest.

So also will be the word that I speak--- it will not fail to do what I plan for it; it will do everything I send it to do.

If they had known my secret thoughts, then they could have proclaimed my message to my people and could have made them give up the evil lives they live and the wicked things they do.

For it is by our faith that we are put right with God; it is by our confession that we are saved.

This includes everyone, because there is no difference between Jews and Gentiles; God is the same Lord of all and richly blesses all who call to him.

But how can they call to him for help if they have not believed? And how can they believe if they have not heard the message? And how can they hear if the message is not proclaimed?

Perhaps I can make the people of my own race jealous, and so be able to save some of them.

Among the weak in faith I become weak like one of them, in order to win them. So I become all things to all people, that I may save some of them by whatever means are possible.

They even tried to stop us from preaching to the Gentiles the message that would bring them salvation. In this way they have brought to completion all the sins they have always committed. And now God's anger has at last come down on them!

After all, it is you---you, no less than others!---who are our hope, our joy, and our reason for boasting of our victory in the presence of our Lord Jesus when he comes.

Indeed, you are our pride and our joy!

and so I endure everything for the sake of God's chosen people, in order that they too may obtain the salvation that comes through Christ Jesus and brings eternal glory.

Here, I will write this with my own hand: I, Paul, will pay you back. (I should not have to remind you, of course, that you owe your very self to me.)

remember this: whoever turns a sinner back from the wrong way will save that sinner's soul from death and bring about the forgiveness of many sins.