Don’t be afraid of what you are about to suffer. Look! The devil is about to throw some of y’all into prison to test y’all, and y’all will have tribulation for ten days. You are to be faithful to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life.
“I know where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is. Yet you hold firmly to my name and didn’t deny my faith in the days of Antipas my witness, my faithful one, who was killed among y’all, where Satan dwells.
They went out from us, but they did not belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. But they left, so that they might reveal that none of them belong to us.
How much more severe a punishment do y’all think someone deserves who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, and has treated as unclean the blood of the covenant through which he was sanctified, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?
However, since that person has no root, they are only temporary. When oppression or persecution arises because of the word, immediately they fall away.
Those who want to make a good impression in the flesh try to compel y’all to be circumcised, but only to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ.