¹⁷ Therefore

Elijah’s Mount Carmel Victory

²⁰ So Ahab sent for all the children of Israel, and ^(A)gathered the prophets together on Mount Carmel.

^41 (A)So these nations feared the Lord, yet served their carved images; also their children and their children’s children have continued doing as their fathers did, even to this day.

¹⁵ And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, ^(A)choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether ^(B)the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of ^[a]the River, or ^(C)the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. ^(D)But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

Greeting

1 Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, ^(A)called to be an apostle, ^(B)separated to the gospel of God

^19 (A)They went out from us, but they were not of us; for ^(B)if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out ^(C)that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us.

The Promise of Rest

4 Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, ^(A)let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. ² For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, ^[a]not being mixed with faith in those who heard it. ³ For we who have believed do enter that rest, as He has said:

although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.

Beware of Personal Favoritism

2 My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, ^(A)the Lord of glory, with ^(B)partiality. ² For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings, in ^[a]fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in ^[b]filthy clothes, ³ and you ^[c]pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him, “You sit here in a good place,” and say to the poor man, “You stand there,” or, “Sit here at my footstool,”