So my dear brothers and sisters: be strong, stand firm, doing everything you can for the Lord's work, since you know that nothing you do in the Lord is wasted.
so that you'll be sincere, innocent of any wrong. Be God's blameless children living in the middle of a dishonest and corrupt people. Shine among them as lights to the world,
In this way may the Lord strengthen you so you may stand with minds that are holy and blameless before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his holy ones.
May the God of peace himself make you completely holy, and may your whole being—body, mind and spirit—be kept blameless for when our Lord Jesus Christ returns.
so too for Christ—having been sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people, he will come again, not to deal with sin, but to save those who wait for him.
In the eyes of our God and Father, religion that's pure and genuine is to visit orphans and widows in their suffering, and to keep yourself from being contaminated by the world.
These prove that your trust in God is genuine, just as fire is used to prove if gold is genuine—even though that too can be destroyed—and your faith is more valuable than gold! In this way your trust in God will be recognized and you will receive praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ appears.
He spoke about these things, though some of what he wrote is certainly hard to understand. Some ignorant and unbalanced people have twisted what he wrote to their own loss—just as they do other scriptures.