But when the Jews objected, ¹  I was forced to appeal to Caesar ²  – not that I had some charge to bring ³  against my own people. ⁴ 

Pay everyone what is owed: taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due.

Greet Andronicus and Junia, ¹  my compatriots ²  and my fellow prisoners. They are well known ³  to the apostles, ⁴  and they were in Christ before me.

Now we do speak wisdom among the mature, ¹  but not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are perishing.

far above every rule and authority and power and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.

The overseer ¹  then must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, ²  temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, an able teacher,

Do not neglect the spiritual gift you have, ¹  given to you and confirmed by prophetic words ²  when the elders laid hands on you. ³ 

Elders who provide effective leadership ¹  must be counted worthy ²  of double honor, ³  especially those who work hard in speaking ⁴  and teaching.

If someone spreads false teachings ¹  and does not agree with sound words (that is, those of our Lord Jesus Christ) and with the teaching that accords with godliness,

Those who long to be rich, however, stumble into temptation and a trap and many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.

And entrust what you heard me say ¹  in the presence of many others as witnesses ²  to faithful people ³  who will be competent ⁴  to teach others as well.

The reason I left you in Crete was to set in order the remaining matters and to appoint elders in every town, as I directed you.

For the overseer ¹  must be blameless as one entrusted with God’s work, ²  not arrogant, not prone to anger, not a drunkard, not violent, not greedy for gain.

Is anyone among you ill? He should summon the elders of the church, and they should pray for him and anoint ¹  him with oil in the name of the Lord.

like Sarah who obeyed ¹  Abraham, calling him lord. You become her children ²  when you do what is good and have no fear in doing so. ³ 

For they are the spirits of the demons performing signs who go out to the kings of the earth ¹  to bring them together for the battle that will take place on the great day of God, the All-Powerful. ² 

Then ¹  the kings of the earth who committed immoral acts with her and lived in sensual luxury ²  with her will weep and wail for her when they see the smoke from the fire that burns her up. ³ 

Then ¹  I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies assembled to do battle with the one who rode the horse and with his army.

All the people, ¹  rulers, ²  leaders, and judges were standing on either side of the ark, in front of the Levitical priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord. Both resident foreigners and native Israelites were there. ³  Half the people stood in front of Mount Gerizim and the other half in front of Mount Ebal, as Moses the Lord’s servant had previously instructed to them to do for the formal blessing ceremony. ⁴ 

“So now, our God – the great, powerful, and awesome God, who keeps covenant fidelity ¹  – do not regard as inconsequential ²  all the hardship that has befallen us – our kings, our leaders, our priests, our prophets, our ancestors, and all your people – from the days of the kings of Assyria until this very day!