Remember your leaders, who spoke God’s message to you; reflect on the outcome of their lives and imitate their faith.

Where do the conflicts and where ¹  do the quarrels among you come from? Is it not from this, ²  from your passions that battle inside you? ³ 

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.

according to the foreknowledge of God the Father by being set apart by the Spirit for obedience and for sprinkling ¹  with Jesus Christ’s blood. May grace and peace be yours in full measure! ² 

Therefore, get your minds ready for action ¹  by being fully sober, and set your hope ²  completely on the grace that will be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed. ³ 

So you who believe see ¹  his value, ²  but for those who do not believe, the stone that the builders rejected has become the ³  cornerstone, ⁴ 

For to this you were called, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving an example for you to follow in his steps.

So as your fellow elder and a witness of Christ’s sufferings and as one who shares in the glory that will be revealed, I urge the elders among you:

For if ¹  these things are really yours ²  and are continually increasing, ³  they will keep you from becoming ⁴  ineffective and unproductive in your pursuit of ⁵  knowing our Lord Jesus Christ more intimately. ⁶ 

For we did not follow cleverly concocted fables when we made known to you the power and return ¹  of our Lord Jesus Christ; ²  no, ³  we were ⁴  eyewitnesses of his ⁵  grandeur. ⁶ 

suffering harm as the wages for their harmful ways. ¹  By considering it a pleasure to carouse in broad daylight, ²  they are stains and blemishes, indulging ³  in their deceitful pleasures when they feast together with you.

And regard the patience of our Lord as salvation, ¹  just as also our dear brother Paul ²  wrote to you, ³  according to the wisdom given to him,

(My little children, ¹  I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. ² ) But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate ³  with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous One, ⁴ 

I have not written to you that ¹  you do not know the truth, but that ²  you do know it, and that ³  no lie is of the truth.

You are from God, little children, and have conquered them, ¹  because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.

I have written these things ¹  to you who believe ²  in the name of the Son of God so that ³  you may know that you have eternal life.

But when he saw many Pharisees ¹  and Sadducees ²  coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You offspring of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?

and don’t think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that God can raise up children for Abraham from these stones!

I ¹  tell you the truth, ²  until heaven and earth pass away not the smallest letter or stroke of a letter ³  will pass from the law until everything takes place.

For I tell you, unless your righteousness goes beyond that of the experts in the law ¹  and the Pharisees, ²  you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.