Finally, brothers, we beg and beseech you in the Lord Jesus to follow our instructions about the way you are to live so as to satisfy God; you are leading that life, but you are to excel in it still further.
He who possesses my commands and obeys them is he who loves me, and he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and appear to him."
but you do not understand him. I know him. Were I to say, 'I do not know him,' I would be a liar like yourselves; but I do know him and I hold to his word.
No one takes it from me, I lay it down of my own accord: I have power to lay it down and also power to take it up again; I have my Father's orders for this.