^4 (A)No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier.

⁴ But as ^(A)we have been approved by God ^(B)to be entrusted with the gospel, even so we speak, ^(C)not as pleasing men, but God ^(D)who tests our hearts.

¹⁴ Now the ones that fell among thorns are those who, when they have heard, go out and are choked with cares, ^(A)riches, and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity.

²⁰ For if, after they ^(A)have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are ^(B)again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning.

²² For he who is called in the Lord while a slave is ^(A)the Lord’s freedman. Likewise he who is called while free is ^(B)Christ’s slave. ^23 (C)You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of men.

²⁵ And everyone who competes for the prize ^[a]is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for ^(A)an imperishable crown. ²⁶ Therefore I run thus: ^(B)not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air.

¹⁰ for ^(A)Demas has forsaken me, ^(B)having loved this present world, and has departed for Thessalonica—Crescens for Galatia, Titus for Dalmatia.

The Judgment Seat of Christ

⁹ Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him.

^59 (A)Then He said to another, “Follow Me.”

But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.”

⁶⁰ Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God.”

⁶¹ And another also said, “Lord, ^(B)I will follow You, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house.”

⁶² But Jesus said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is ^(C)fit for the kingdom of God.”

⁹ But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. ¹⁰ For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.