older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters – with complete purity.

So, brothers and sisters, ¹  I could not speak to you as spiritual people, but instead as people of the flesh, ²  as infants in Christ.

as unknown, and yet well-known; as dying and yet – see! – we continue to live; as those who are scourged ¹  and yet not executed;

as sorrowful, but always rejoicing, as poor, but making many rich, as having nothing, and yet possessing everything.

Live ¹  as free people, not using your freedom as a pretext for evil, but as God’s slaves. ² 

because he taught them like one who had authority, ¹  not like their experts in the law. ² 

So I do not run uncertainly or box like one who hits only air.

Therefore be very careful how you live – not as unwise but as wise,

Yet do not regard him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother. ¹ 

Do not address an older man harshly ¹  but appeal to him as a father. Speak to younger men as brothers, ² 

But let none of you suffer as a murderer or thief or criminal or as a troublemaker. ¹ 

They ¹  had hair like women’s hair, and their teeth were like lions’ teeth.

“I ¹  am sending you out like sheep surrounded by wolves, ²  so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.

those with tears like those not weeping, those who rejoice like those not rejoicing, those who buy like those without possessions,

When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. But when I became an adult, ¹  I set aside childish ways.

For we are not like so many others, hucksters who peddle the word of God for profit, ¹  but we are speaking in Christ before ²  God as persons of sincerity, ³  as persons sent from God.

His ¹  head and hair were as white as wool, even as white as snow, ²  and his eyes were like a fiery ³  flame.

There were about four thousand ¹  who ate. ²  Then he dismissed them. ³ 

Therefore, be ¹  imitators of God as dearly loved children

¹ Wives, submit ²  to your husbands as to the Lord,