You are looking at outward appearances. ¹  If anyone is confident that he belongs to Christ, he should reflect on this again: Just as he himself belongs to Christ, so too do we.

For if someone comes and proclaims ¹  another Jesus different from the one we proclaimed, ²  or if you receive a different spirit than the one you received, ³  or a different gospel than the one you accepted, ⁴  you put up with it well enough! ⁵ 

Are they servants of Christ? (I am talking like I am out of my mind!) I am even more so: with much greater labors, with far more imprisonments, with more severe beatings, facing death many times.

So ¹  we are no longer to be children, tossed back and forth by waves and carried about by every wind of teaching by the trickery of people who craftily carry out their deceitful schemes. ² 

For though ¹  I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit, rejoicing to see ²  your morale ³  and the firmness of your faith in Christ.

not to be easily ¹  shaken from your composure or disturbed by any kind of spirit or message or letter allegedly from us, ²  to the effect that the day of the Lord is already here.

Compete well ¹  for the faith and lay hold of that eternal life you were called for and made your good confession ²  for ³  in the presence of many witnesses.

This saying ¹  is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on such truths, ²  so that those who have placed their faith in God may be intent on engaging in good works. These things are good and beneficial for all people.

and maintain good conduct ¹  among the non-Christians, ²  so that though ³  they now malign you as wrongdoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God when he appears. ⁴ 

In the same way, wives, be subject to your own husbands. Then, ¹  even if some are disobedient to the word, they will be won over without a word by the way you live, ² 

And this prefigured baptism, which now saves you ¹  – not the washing off of physical dirt ²  but the pledge ³  of a good conscience to God – through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,

For it is time for judgment to begin, starting with the house ¹  of God. And if it starts with us, what will be the fate ²  of those who are disobedient to the gospel of God?

Far be it from you to do such a thing – to kill the godly with the wicked, treating the godly and the wicked alike! Far be it from you! Will not the judge ¹  of the whole earth do what is right?” ² 

Moses said ¹  to God, “If ²  I go to the Israelites and tell them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ ³  – what should I say ⁴  to them?”

I invoke heaven and earth as witnesses against you ¹  today that you will surely and swiftly be removed ²  from the very land you are about to cross the Jordan to possess. You will not last long there because you will surely be ³  annihilated.

You should not consider it difficult to let him go free, for he will have served you for six years, twice ¹  the time of a hired worker; the Lord your God will bless you in everything you do.

David’s men said to him, “This is the day about which the Lord said to you, ‘I will give your enemy into your hand, and you can do to him whatever seems appropriate to you.’” ¹  So David got up and quietly cut off an edge of Saul’s robe.

We will come against him wherever he happens to be found. We will descend on him like the dew falls on the ground. Neither he nor any of the men who are with him will be spared alive – not one of them!

An officer who was the king’s right-hand man ¹  responded to the prophet, ²  “Look, even if the Lord made it rain by opening holes in the sky, could this happen so soon?” ³  Elisha ⁴  said, “Look, you will see it happen with your own eyes, but you will not eat any of the food!” ⁵ 

But the officer replied to the prophet, “Look, even if the Lord made it rain by opening holes in the sky, could this happen so soon?” ¹  Elisha ²  said, “Look, you will see it happen with your own eyes, but you will not eat any of the food!” ³