¹⁰ to help you to determine what really matters, so that in the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless,

¹³ And may he so strengthen your hearts in holiness that you may be blameless before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.^[a](A)

² Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of the mind, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.^[a](A)

²³ May the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely, and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound^[a] and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.^(A)

¹⁸ and know his will and determine what really matters because you are instructed in the law,

Testing the Spirits

4 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.^(A)

¹⁰ Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord.

²¹ but test everything; hold fast to what is good;^(A)

⁸ He will also strengthen you to the end, so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

¹² For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic elements of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food,^{(A) 13} for everyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is unskilled in the word of righteousness. ¹⁴ But solid food is for the mature, for those whose faculties have been trained by practice to distinguish good from evil.^(B)