⁴ Have you experienced^[a] so much for nothing? Surely it was not in vain, was it?

⁸ Watch out that you do not lose what we^[a] have worked so hard to achieve. Be diligent so that you receive your full reward.

² It is this Good News that saves you if you continue to believe the message I told you—unless, of course, you believed something that was never true in the first place.^[a]

³² Think back on those early days when you first learned about Christ.^[a] Remember how you remained faithful even though it meant terrible suffering. ³³ Sometimes you were exposed to public ridicule and were beaten, and sometimes you helped others who were suffering the same things. ³⁴ You suffered along with those who were thrown into jail, and when all you owned was taken from you, you accepted it with joy. You knew there were better things waiting for you that will last forever.

³⁵ So do not throw away this confident trust in the Lord. Remember the great reward it brings you! ³⁶ Patient endurance is what you need now, so that you will continue to do God’s will. Then you will receive all that he has promised.

³⁹ But we are not like those who turn away from God to their own destruction. We are the faithful ones, whose souls will be saved.

²⁰ And when people escape from the wickedness of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and then get tangled up and enslaved by sin again, they are worse off than before. ²¹ It would be better if they had never known the way to righteousness than to know it and then reject the command they were given to live a holy life. ²² They prove the truth of this proverb: “A dog returns to its vomit.”^[a] And another says, “A washed pig returns to the mud.”