These things happened to them as examples and were written for our instruction, on whom the ends of the ages have come.

It is written in the law: “By people with strange tongues and by the lips of strangers I will speak to this people, yet not even in this way will they listen to me,” ¹  says the Lord.

So also it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living person”; ¹  the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.

Now when this perishable puts on the imperishable, and this mortal puts on immortality, then the saying that is written will happen, “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” ¹ 

For we do not write you anything other than what ¹  you can read and also understand. But I hope that you will understand completely ² 

But since we have the same spirit of faith as that shown in ¹  what has been written, “I believed; therefore I spoke,” ²  we also believe, therefore we also speak.

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming ¹  a curse for us (because it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”) ² 

Finally, my brothers and sisters, ¹  rejoice in the Lord! To write this again is no trouble to me, and it is a safeguard for you.

Now on the topic of brotherly love ¹  you have no need for anyone to write you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another.

I, Paul, have written ¹  this letter ²  with my own hand: ³  I will repay it. I could also mention that you owe ⁴  me your very self.

“Then I said, ‘Here I am: ¹  I have come – it is written of me in the scroll of the book – to do your will, O God.’” ² 

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.

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 now ¹  I ask you, lady (not as if I were ²  writing a new commandment ³  to you, but the one ⁴  we have had from the beginning), ⁵  that ⁶  we love one another.

Blessed is the one who reads the words of this ¹  prophecy aloud, ²  and blessed are ³  those who hear and obey ⁴  the things written in it, because the time is near! ⁵ 

“To ¹  the angel of the church in Smyrna write the following: ²  “This is the solemn pronouncement of ³  the one who is the first and the last, the one who was dead, but ⁴  came to life:

“To ¹  the angel of the church in Pergamum write the following: ²  “This is the solemn pronouncement of ³  the one who has the sharp double-edged sword: ⁴ 

Then ¹  I saw in the right hand of the one who was seated on the throne a scroll written on the front and back ²  and sealed with seven seals. ³