Study Desk

Final Warnings and Greetings I am on my way to visit you for the third time. And as the Scriptures say, "Any charges must be proved true by at least two or three witnesses." During my second visit I warned you that I would punish you and anyone else who doesn't stop sinning. I am far away from you now, but I give you the same warning. This should prove to you that I am speaking for Christ. When he corrects you, he won't be weak. He will be powerful! Although he was weak when he was nailed to the cross, he now lives by the power of God. We are weak, just as Christ was. But you will see that we will live by the power of God, just as Christ does. Test yourselves and find out if you really are true to your faith. If you pass the test, you will discover that Christ is living in you. But if Christ isn't living in you, you have failed. I hope you will discover that we have not failed. We pray that you will stop doing evil things. We don't pray like this to make ourselves look good, but to get you to do right, even if we are failures. All we can do is to follow the truth and not fight against it. Even though we are weak, we are glad that you are strong, and we pray that you will do even better. I am writing these things to you before I arrive. This way I won't have to be hard on you when I use the authority that the Lord has given me. I was given this authority, so that I could help you and not destroy you. Good-by, my friends. Do better and pay attention to what I have said. Try to get along and live peacefully with each other. Now I pray that God, who gives love and peace, will be with you. Give each other a warm greeting. All of God's people send their greetings. I pray that the Lord Jesus Christ will bless you and be kind to you! May God bless you with his love, and may the Holy Spirit join all your hearts together.

You can see what big letters I make when I write with my own hand.

God himself knows how much I want to see you. He knows that I care for you in the same way that Christ Jesus does.

but now he is eager to see you. He is worried, because you heard he was sick.

Now I am more eager than ever to send Epaphroditus back again. You will be glad to see him, and I won't have to worry any longer.

Dear friends, I love you and long to see you. Please keep on being faithful to the Lord. You are my pride and joy.

There Christ defeated all powers and forces. He let the whole world see them being led away as prisoners when he celebrated his victory.

My friends, we were kept from coming to you for a while, but we never stopped thinking about you. We were eager to see you and tried our best to visit you in person.

Timothy has come back from his visit with you and has told us about your faith and love. He also said that you always have happy memories of us and that you want to see us as much as we want to see you.

Day and night we sincerely pray that we will see you again and help you to have an even stronger faith.

Church officials must be in control of their own families, and they must see that their children are obedient and always respectful.

Remember these things and think about them, so everyone can see how well you are doing.

Only God lives forever! And he lives in light that no one can come near. No human has ever seen God or ever can see him. God will be honored, and his power will last forever. Amen.

I remember how you cried, and I want to see you, because that will make me truly happy.

Come to see me as soon as you can.

And you have put everything under our power!" God has put everything under our power and has not left anything out of our power. But we still don't see it all under our power.

What we do see is Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels. Because of God's wonderful kindness, Jesus died for everyone. And now that Jesus has suffered and died, he is crowned with glory and honor!

We see that those people did not enter the place of rest because they did not have faith.

Faith makes us sure of what we hope for and gives us proof of what we cannot see.

Every one of those people died. But they still had faith, even though they had not received what they had been promised. They were glad just to see these things from far away, and they agreed that they were only strangers and foreigners on this earth.