¹² For if you turn back and cling to the remnant of these nations remaining among you ^(A)and make marriages with them, so that you associate with them and they with you,

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

⁹ Whoever says he is in the light and ^(A)hates his brother is still in darkness.

¹⁸ For, ^(A)speaking loud boasts of folly, they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely ^(B)escaping from those who live in error. ¹⁹ They promise them ^(C)freedom, ^(D)but they themselves are slaves^[a] of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved. ²⁰ For if, ^(E)after they have escaped the defilements of the world ^(F)through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, ^(G)the last state has become worse for them than the first. ²¹ For ^(H)it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from ^(I)the holy commandment delivered to them. ²² What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The ^(J)dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.”

³⁹ But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.

The Temple of the Living God

^14 (A)Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For ^(B)what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or ^(C)what fellowship has light with darkness? ^15 (D)What accord has Christ with Belial?^[a] Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? ¹⁶ What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For ^(E)we are the temple of the living God; as God said,

Marks of the True Christian

^9 (A)Let love be genuine. ^(B)Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.

^66 (A)After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.

⁴⁵ Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there, and ^(A)the last state of that person is worse than the first. So also will it be with this ^(B)evil generation.”