⁹ I pray that your love will overflow more and more, and that you will keep on growing in knowledge and understanding.

¹² And may the Lord make your love for one another and for all people grow and overflow, just as our love for you overflows.

⁹ So we have not stopped praying for you since we first heard about you. We ask God to give you complete knowledge of his will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding.

⁵ In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, ⁶ and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness,

⁶ And I am praying that you will put into action the generosity that comes from your faith as you understand and experience all the good things we have in Christ.

¹⁰ Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him.

²² You were cleansed from your sins when you obeyed the truth, so now you must show sincere love to each other as brothers and sisters.^[a] Love each other deeply with all your heart.^[b]

⁹ But we don’t need to write to you about the importance of loving each other,^[a] for God himself has taught you to love one another. ¹⁰ Indeed, you already show your love for all the believers^[b] throughout Macedonia. Even so, dear brothers and sisters, we urge you to love them even more.

⁷ Since you excel in so many ways—in your faith, your gifted speakers, your knowledge, your enthusiasm, and your love from us^[a]—I want you to excel also in this gracious act of giving.

²⁰ Dear brothers and sisters, don’t be childish in your understanding of these things. Be innocent as babies when it comes to evil, but be mature in understanding matters of this kind.