Take care that no one fails to use the loving help of God, 'that no bitterness is allowed to take root and spring up, and cause trouble,' and so poison the whole community.
Love never fails. But, whether it be the gift of preaching, it will be done with; whether it be the gift of 'tongues,' it will cease; whether it be knowledge, it, too, will be done with.
Put yourselves to the proof, to see whether you are holding to the Faith. Test yourselves. Surely you recognize this fact about yourselves--that Jesus Christ is in you! Unless indeed you cannot stand the test!
Everything is pure to the pure-minded, but to those whose minds are polluted and who are unbelievers nothing is pure. Their minds and consciences are alike polluted.
We must, therefore, be very careful, though there is a promise still standing that we shall enter upon God's Rest, that none of you even appear to have missed it.
But our great desire is that every one of you should be equally earnest to attain to a full conviction that our hope will be fulfilled, and that you should keep that hope to the end.
With boastful and foolish talk, they appeal to the passions of man's lower nature, and, by their profligacy, entice those who are just escaping from the men who live such misguided lives.