so that you can decide what is best, and thus be sincere and blameless for the day of Christ,

filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God.

My aim is to know him, ¹  to experience the power of his resurrection, to share in his sufferings, ²  and to be like him in his death,

so that no one would be shaken by these afflictions. For you yourselves know that we are destined for this.

correcting ¹  opponents with gentleness. Perhaps God will grant them repentance and then knowledge of the truth ² 

They profess to know God but with their deeds they deny him, since they are detestable, disobedient, and unfit for any good deed.

I pray ¹  that the faith you share with us may deepen your understanding of every blessing ²  that belongs to you ³  in Christ. ⁴ 

“Therefore, I became provoked at that generation and said, ‘Their hearts are always wandering ¹  and they have not known my ways.’

But solid food is for the mature, whose perceptions are trained by practice to discern both good and evil.

But see how great he must be, if ¹  Abraham the patriarch gave him a tithe ²  of his plunder.

The Holy Spirit is making clear that the way into the holy place had not yet appeared as long as the old tabernacle ¹  was standing.

You know that from your empty way of life inherited from your ancestors you were ransomed – not by perishable things like silver or gold,

The one who says “I have come to know God” ¹  and yet does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in such a person.

But whoever obeys his ¹  word, truly in this person ²  the love of God has been perfected. By this we know that we are in him.

If you know that he is righteous, you also know ¹  that everyone who practices righteousness has been fathered ²  by him.

Everyone who resides ¹  in him does not sin; ²  everyone who sins has neither seen him nor known him.

We have come to know love by this: ¹  that Jesus ²  laid down ³  his life for us; thus we ought to lay down our lives for our fellow Christians.

By this ¹  you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses ²  Jesus as the Christ ³  who has come in the flesh is from God,

Dear friends, let us love one another, because ¹  love is from God, and everyone who loves ²  has been fathered ³  by God and knows God.

By this ¹  we know that we reside in God ²  and he in us: in that he has given us of his Spirit. ³