¹⁹ This is the verdict: Light^(A) has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.^{(B) 20} Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.^(C)

¹⁹ They went out from us,^(A) but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.^(B)

²⁰ If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing^(A) our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ^(B) and are again entangled in it and are overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning.^{(C) 21} It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them.^{(D) 22} Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,”^[a](E) and, “A sow that is washed returns to her wallowing in the mud.”

⁴ It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened,^(A) who have tasted the heavenly gift,^(B) who have shared in the Holy Spirit,^{(C) 5} who have tasted the goodness^(D) of the word of God^(E) and the powers of the coming age ⁶ and who have fallen^[a] away, to be brought back to repentance.^(F) To their loss they are crucifying the Son of God^(G) all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace.

¹⁰ for Demas,^(A) because he loved this world,^(B) has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica.^(C) Crescens has gone to Galatia,^(D) and Titus^(E) to Dalmatia.

⁵ You are all children of the light^(A) and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. ⁶ So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep,^(B) but let us be awake^(C) and sober.^{(D) 7} For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night.^(E)