You are feared in the council of the holy ones; they all stand in awe of you.

Praise the LORD! With all my heart I will thank the LORD in the assembly of his people.

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.

God put all things under Christ's feet and gave him to the church as supreme Lord over all things.

And so wives must submit themselves completely to their husbands just as the church submits itself to Christ.

He did this to dedicate the church to God by his word, after making it clean by washing it in water,

And now I am happy about my sufferings for you, for by means of my physical sufferings I am helping to complete what still remains of Christ's sufferings on behalf of his body, the church.

For if a man does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of the church of God?

Then you must tell him that I, the LORD, say, 'Israel is my first-born son.

"Dedicate all the first-born males to me, for every first-born male Israelite and every first-born male animal belongs to me."

He is to give a double share of his possessions to his first son, even though he is not the son of his favorite wife. A man must acknowledge his first son and give him the share he is legally entitled to.

I will make him my first-born son, the greatest of all kings.

My people will return weeping, praying as I lead them back. I will guide them to streams of water, on a smooth road where they will not stumble. I am like a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my oldest son."

By his own will he brought us into being through the word of truth, so that we should have first place among all his creatures.

They are the men who have kept themselves pure by not having sexual relations with women; they are virgins. They follow the Lamb wherever he goes. They have been redeemed from the rest of the human race and are the first ones to be offered to God and to the Lamb.

Please forgive their sin; but if you won't, then remove my name from the book in which you have written the names of your people."

May their names be erased from the book of the living; may they not be included in the list of your people.

But don't be glad because the evil spirits obey you; rather be glad because your names are written in heaven."

And you too, my faithful partner, I want you to help these women; for they have worked hard with me to spread the gospel, together with Clement and all my other fellow workers, whose names are in God's book of the living.

All people living on earth will worship it, except those whose names were written before the creation of the world in the book of the living which belongs to the Lamb that was killed.

Those who did not have their name written in the book of the living were thrown into the lake of fire.

God is not unfair. He will not forget the work you did or the love you showed for him in the help you gave and are still giving to other Christians.

We do not want you to become lazy, but to be like those who believe and are patient, and so receive what God has promised.

Everyone must die once, and after that be judged by God.

Surely you won't kill the innocent with the guilty. That's impossible! You can't do that. If you did, the innocent would be punished along with the guilty. That is impossible. The judge of all the earth has to act justly."

He says, "Gather my faithful people to me, those who made a covenant with me by offering a sacrifice."

The heavens proclaim that God is righteous, that he himself is judge.

You are the judge of us all; rise and give the proud what they deserve!

when the LORD comes to rule the earth. He will rule the peoples of the world with justice and fairness.

because he comes to rule the earth. He will rule the peoples of the world with justice and fairness.

"When the Son of Man comes as King and all the angels with him, he will sit on his royal throne,

He will put the righteous people at his right and the others at his left.

And he has given the Son the right to judge, because he is the Son of Man.

All of this proves that God's judgment is just and as a result you will become worthy of his Kingdom, for which you are suffering.

and he will give relief to you who suffer and to us as well. He will do this when the Lord Jesus appears from heaven with his mighty angels,

When he was insulted, he did not answer back with an insult; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but placed his hopes in God, the righteous Judge.

It was faith that made Abel offer to God a better sacrifice than Cain's. Through his faith he won God's approval as a righteous man, because God himself approved of his gifts. By means of his faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead.

because God had decided on an even better plan for us. His purpose was that only in company with us would they be made perfect.

Our bodies will return to the dust of the earth, and the breath of life will go back to God, who gave it to us.

What we see now is like a dim image in a mirror; then we shall see face-to-face. What I know now is only partial; then it will be complete---as complete as God's knowledge of me.

Just as we wear the likeness of the man made of earth, so we will wear the likeness of the Man from heaven.

So when this takes place, and the mortal has been changed into the immortal, then the scripture will come true: "Death is destroyed; victory is complete!"

We are full of courage and would much prefer to leave our home in the body and be at home with the Lord.

For what is life? To me, it is Christ. Death, then, will bring more.

I am pulled in two directions. I want very much to leave this life and be with Christ, which is a far better thing;

I do not claim that I have already succeeded or have already become perfect. I keep striving to win the prize for which Christ Jesus has already won me to himself.

So I run straight toward the goal in order to win the prize, which is God's call through Christ Jesus to the life above.

However that may be, let us go forward according to the same rules we have followed until now.

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.

We, however, are citizens of heaven, and we eagerly wait for our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, to come from heaven.

(SEE 1:11)

"I don't know, sir. You do," I answered. He said to me, "These are the people who have come safely through the terrible persecution. They have washed their robes and made them white with the blood of the Lamb.

Never again will they hunger or thirst; neither sun nor any scorching heat will burn them,