¹² For if you turn back and join the survivors of these nations left here among you and intermarry with them, so that you marry their women and they yours,^(A)

³ Do not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons,^(A)

²⁴ But when the righteous turn away from their righteousness and commit iniquity and do the same abominable things that the wicked do, shall they live? None of the righteous deeds that they have done shall be remembered, for the treachery of which they are guilty and the sin they have committed, they shall die.^(A)

⁹ Whoever says, “I am in the light,” while hating a brother or sister, is still in the darkness.^(A)

¹⁸ For they speak bombastic nonsense, and with debased^[a] desires of the flesh they entice people who have just^[b] escaped from those who live in error. ¹⁹ They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption, for people are slaves to whatever masters them.^{(A) 20} For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of the^[c] Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overpowered, the last state has become worse for them than the first.^{(B) 21} For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than, after knowing it, to turn back from the holy commandment that was handed on to them.^{(C) 22} It has happened to them according to the true proverb,

and,

³⁹ But we are not among those who shrink back and so are lost but among those who have faith and so preserve our souls.^(B)

The Temple of the Living God

¹⁴ Do not be mismatched with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and lawlessness have in common? Or what partnership is there between light and darkness?^{(A) 15} What agreement does Christ have with Beliar? Or what does a believer share with an unbeliever? ¹⁶ What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we^[a] are the temple of the living God, as God said,

Marks of the True Christian

⁹ Let love be genuine; hate what is evil; hold fast to what is good;