So ¹  when I could bear it no longer, I sent to find out about your faith, for fear that the tempter somehow tempted you and our toil had proven useless.

But we ought to thank God always for you, brothers and sisters ¹  loved by the Lord, because God chose you from the beginning ²  for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth.

but now made visible through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus. He ¹  has broken the power of death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel!

You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness. So God, your God, has anointed you over your companions ¹  with the oil of rejoicing.” ² 

according to the foreknowledge of God the Father by being set apart by the Spirit for obedience and for sprinkling ¹  with Jesus Christ’s blood. May grace and peace be yours in full measure! ² 

Through Silvanus, ¹  whom I know to be a faithful brother, ²  I have written to you briefly, in order to encourage you and testify ³  that this is the true grace of God. Stand fast in it. ⁴ 

(My little children, ¹  I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. ² ) But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate ³  with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous One, ⁴ 

Though I have many other ¹  things to write to you, I do not want to do so with ²  paper and ink, ³  but I hope to come visit you and speak face to face, ⁴  so that our joy may be complete. ⁵ 

Now I desire to remind you (even though you have been fully informed of these facts ¹  once for all ² ) that Jesus, ³  having saved the ⁴  people out of the land of Egypt, later ⁵  destroyed those who did not believe.

Furthermore, I will strike her followers ¹  with a deadly disease, ²  and then all the churches will know that I am the one who searches minds and hearts. I will repay ³  each one of you ⁴  what your deeds deserve. ⁵ 

Reuben continued, ¹  “Don’t shed blood! Throw him into this cistern that is here in the wilderness, but don’t lay a hand on him.” ²  (Reuben said this ³  so he could rescue Joseph ⁴  from them ⁵  and take him back to his father.)

One of you must go and get ¹  your brother, while ²  the rest of you remain in prison. ³  In this way your words may be tested to see if ⁴  you are telling the truth. ⁵  If not, then, as surely as Pharaoh lives, you are spies!”

But his father refused and said, “I know, my son, I know. He too will become a nation and he too will become great. In spite of this, his younger brother will be even greater and his descendants will become a multitude ¹  of nations.”

But if her father overrules her when he hears ¹  about it, then none ²  of her vows or her obligations which she has pledged for herself will stand. And the Lord will release ³  her from it, because her father overruled her.

In the presence of the Lord your God you must eat from the tithe of your grain, your new wine, ¹  your olive oil, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks in the place he chooses to locate his name, so that you may learn to revere the Lord your God always.

Suppose he goes with someone else ¹  to the forest to cut wood and when he raises the ax ²  to cut the tree, the ax head flies loose ³  from the handle and strikes ⁴  his fellow worker ⁵  so hard that he dies. The person responsible ⁶  may then flee to one of these cities to save himself. ⁷ 

Then when ¹  many disasters and distresses overcome them ²  this song will testify against them, ³  for their ⁴  descendants will not forget it. ⁵  I know the ⁶  intentions they have in mind ⁷  today, even before I bring them ⁸  to the land I have promised.”

Get up! Ritually consecrate the people and tell them this: ‘Ritually consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, because the Lord God of Israel says, “You are contaminated, ¹  O Israel! You will not be able to stand before your enemies until you remove what is contaminating you.” ² 

Far be it from us to rebel against the Lord by turning back today from following after the Lord by building an altar for burnt offerings, sacrifices, and tokens of peace ¹  aside from the altar of the Lord our God located in front of his dwelling place!” ² 

But his wife said to him, “If the Lord wanted to kill us, he would not have accepted the burnt offering and the grain offering from us. ¹  He would not have shown us all these things, or have spoken to us like this just now.”