I am, for I am not like most, adulterating the word of God; like a man of sincerity, like a man of God, I speak the word in Christ before the very presence of God.
Such creatures are no servants of Christ our Lord, they are slaves of their own base desires; with their plausible and pious talk they beguile the hearts of unsuspecting people. But surely not of you!
to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the impious of all the impious deeds they have committed, and of all the harsh things said against him by impious sinners.
Still, false prophets did appear among the People, as among you also there will be false teachers, men who will insinuate destructive heresies, even disowning the Lord who ransomed them; they bring rapid destruction on themselves,
For it was no fabricated fables that we followed when we reported to you the power and advent of our Lord Jesus Christ; we were admitted to the spectacle of his sovereignty,
[For a bishop must be above reproach — he is a steward of God's house — he must not be presumptuous or hot-tempered or a drunkard or violent or addicted to pilfering;
just as Sodom and Gomorra and the adjacent cities, which similarly glutted themselves with vice and sensual perversity, are exhibited as a warning of the everlasting fire they are sentenced to suffer.
for certain persons have slipped in by stealth (their doom has been predicted long ago), impious creatures who pervert the grace of our God into immorality and disown our sole liege and Lord, Jesus Christ.
when 'all's well' and 'all is safe' are on the lips of men, then all of a sudden Destruction is upon them, like pangs on a pregnant woman — escape there is none.
So watching their chance they sent spies who pretended to be honest persons, in order to seize on what he said and get him handed over to the authority and jurisdiction of the governor.
For these people are murmurers, grumbling at their lot in life — they fall in with their own passions, their talk is arrogant, they pay court to men to benefit themselves.