Dear friends, I urge you as foreigners and exiles to keep away from fleshly desires that do battle against the soul,

Let no one who delights in humility and the worship of angels pass judgment on you. That person goes on at great lengths ¹  about what he has supposedly seen, but he is puffed up with empty notions by his fleshly mind. ² 

but now he has reconciled you ¹  by his physical body through death to present you holy, without blemish, and blameless before him –

For by speaking high-sounding but empty words ¹  they are able to entice, ²  with fleshly desires and with debauchery, ³  people ⁴  who have just escaped ⁵  from those who reside in error. ⁶ 

For our reason for confidence ¹  is this: the testimony of our conscience, that with pure motives ²  and sincerity which are from God ³  – not by human wisdom ⁴  but by the grace of God – we conducted ourselves in the world, and all the more ⁵  toward you.

for you are still influenced by the flesh. ¹  For since there is still jealousy and dissension among you, are you not influenced by the flesh and behaving like unregenerate people? ² 

Even though they have the appearance of wisdom ¹  with their self-imposed worship and false humility ²  achieved by an ³  unsparing treatment of the body – a wisdom with no true value – they in reality result in fleshly indulgence. ⁴ 

who has become a priest not by a legal regulation about physical descent ¹  but by the power of an indestructible life.

You engaged in prostitution with the Egyptians, your sexually aroused neighbors, ¹  multiplying your promiscuity and provoking me to anger.

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.

They served only for matters of food and drink ¹  and various washings; they are external regulations ²  imposed until the new order came. ³ 

Above all, understand this: ¹  In the last days blatant scoffers ²  will come, being propelled by their own evil urges ³ 

Now it was for this very purpose ¹  that the gospel was preached to those who are now dead, ²  so that though ³  they were judged in the flesh ⁴  by human standards ⁵  they may live spiritually ⁶  by God’s standards. ⁷ 

especially those who indulge their fleshly desires ¹  and who despise authority. Brazen and insolent, ²  they are not afraid to insult ³  the glorious ones, ⁴ 

My dwelling place ¹  is removed and taken away ²  from me like a shepherd’s tent. I rolled up my life like a weaver rolls cloth; ³  from the loom he cuts me off. ⁴  You turn day into night and end my life. ⁵