⁵ They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.”

⁵ They are from the world; therefore what they say is from the world, and the world listens to them. ⁶ We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us, and whoever is not from God does not listen to us. From this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.^(A)

Fullness of Life in Christ

⁶ As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to walk in him, ⁷ rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.^(A)

⁸ Watch out that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental principles^[a] of the world, and not according to Christ.^{(B) 9} For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, ¹⁰ and you have come to fullness in him, who is the head of every ruler and authority.^(C)

² “I know your works, your toil and your endurance. I know that you cannot tolerate evildoers; you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not and have found them to be false.^(A)

¹¹ He himself granted that some are apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers^{(A) 12} to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,^{(B) 13} until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity,^[a] to the measure of the full stature of Christ.^{(C) 14} We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming;^{(D) 15} but speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,^(E)

²⁴ And he said to them, “Pay attention to what you hear; the measure you give will be the measure you get, and it will be added to you.^(A)

²¹ I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and you know that no lie comes from the truth.

⁷ But Jehoshaphat said, “Is there no other prophet of the Lord here of whom we may inquire?”^(A)

¹⁹ They went out from us, but they did not belong to us, for if they had belonged to us they would have remained^[a] with us. But by going out they made it plain that none of them belongs to us.^(A)