¹² So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!

¹⁷ Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your secure position.

¹⁵ so that you may become blameless and pure, ‘children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.’^[a] Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky

¹³ and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as figs drop from a fig-tree when shaken by a strong wind.

¹⁰ It grew until it reached the host of the heavens, and it threw some of the starry host down to the earth and trampled on them.

²⁴ They will fall by the sword and will be taken as prisoners to all the nations. Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

This calls for patient endurance and faithfulness on the part of God’s people.

⁸ See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces^[a] of this world rather than on Christ.