Brothers and sisters, ¹  I offer an example from everyday life: ²  When a covenant ³  has been ratified, ⁴  even though it is only a human contract, no one can set it aside or add anything to it.

Therefore, be ¹  imitators of God as dearly loved children

and their message will spread its infection ¹  like gangrene. Hymenaeus and Philetus are in this group. ² 

By all these things, ¹  I have shown you that by working in this way we must help ²  the weak, ³  and remember the words of the Lord Jesus that he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’” ⁴ 

He did what the Lord approved, ¹  but not like David his father. He followed the example of his father Joash. ² 

I will set my face against that person and will make him an object lesson and a byword ¹  and will cut him off from among my people. Then you will know that I am the Lord.

Because Joseph, her husband to be, ¹  was a righteous man, and because he did not want to disgrace her, he intended to divorce her ²  privately.

Many are appalled when they see me, ¹  but you are my secure shelter.

They will proclaim the splendor of your kingdom; they will tell about your power,

Do not envy a violent man, ¹  and do not choose to imitate ²  any of his ways;

If, for example, the trumpet makes an unclear sound, who will get ready for battle?

You should have the same attitude toward one another that Christ Jesus had, ¹ 

He did evil in the sight of ¹  the Lord and followed in the footsteps ²  of his father and mother; like Jeroboam son of Nebat, he encouraged Israel to sin. ³ 

The Lord was with Jehoshaphat because he followed in his ancestor ¹  David’s footsteps at the beginning of his reign. ²  He did not seek the Baals,

I will bring such disaster on them that all the kingdoms of the earth will be horrified. I will make them an object of reproach, a proverbial example of disaster. I will make them an object of ridicule, an example to be used in curses. ¹  That is how they will be remembered wherever I banish them. ² 

Ezekiel will be an object lesson for you; you will do all that he has done. When it happens, then you will know that I am the sovereign Lord.’

Therefore pay attention to what they tell you and do it. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they teach. ¹ 

They answered him, ¹  “Abraham is our father!” ²  Jesus replied, ³  “If you are ⁴  Abraham’s children, you would be doing ⁵  the deeds of Abraham.

Disarming ¹  the rulers and authorities, he has made a public disgrace of them, triumphing over them by the cross. ² 

so that you may not be sluggish, ¹  but imitators of those who through faith and perseverance inherit the promises.