Fathers, ¹  do not provoke your children to anger, ²  but raise them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

I want you to know, brothers and sisters, ¹  that my situation has actually turned out to advance the gospel: ² 

The former proclaim Christ from selfish ambition, not sincerely, because they think they can cause trouble for me in my imprisonment. ¹ 

In him you also were circumcised – not, however, ¹  with a circumcision performed by human hands, but by the removal ²  of the fleshly body, ³  that is, ⁴  through the circumcision done by Christ.

Let no one look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in your speech, conduct, love, faithfulness, ¹  and purity.

But do not accept younger widows on the list, ¹  because their passions may lead them away from Christ ²  and they will desire to marry,

So I want younger women to marry, raise children, and manage a household, in order to give the adversary no opportunity to vilify us. ¹ 

and women received back their dead raised to life. ¹  But others were tortured, not accepting release, to obtain resurrection to a better life. ² 

But you have come to Mount Zion, the city ¹  of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, to the assembly

in that he spends the rest of his time ¹  on earth concerned about the will of God and not human desires.

Therefore, brothers and sisters, ¹  make every effort to be sure of your calling and election. ²  For by doing this ³  you will never ⁴  stumble into sin. ⁵ 

for no prophecy was ever borne of human impulse; rather, men ¹  carried along by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.

The Lord will be unwilling to forgive him, and his intense anger ¹  will rage ²  against that man; all the curses ³  written in this scroll will fall upon him ⁴  and the Lord will obliterate his name from memory. ⁵ 

His servants approached and said to him, “O master, ¹  if the prophet had told you to do some difficult task, ²  you would have been willing to do it. ³  It seems you should be happy that he simply said, “Wash and you will be healed.” ⁴ 

As surely as I live, declares the sovereign Lord, my sheep have become prey and have become food for all the wild beasts. There was no shepherd, and my shepherds did not search for my flock, but fed themselves and did not feed my sheep,

If ¹  your hand or your foot causes you to sin, ²  cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than to have ³  two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire.

I wish you all spoke in tongues, but even more that you would prophesy. The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues, unless he interprets so that the church may be strengthened.

But we have rejected ¹  shameful hidden deeds, ²  not behaving ³  with deceptiveness ⁴  or distorting the word of God, but by open proclamation of the truth we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience before God.

Then Rebekah said to Isaac, “I am deeply depressed ¹  because of these daughters of Heth. ²  If Jacob were to marry one of these daughters of Heth who live in this land, I would want to die!” ³ 

But if you are going to deal ¹  with me like this, then kill me immediately. ²  If I have found favor in your sight then do not let me see my trouble.” ³