Book of Common Prayer

¹³ Brothers, I do not consider myself to have taken hold, but one thing I do: forgetting the things behind and stretching-toward the things ahead, ¹⁴ I am pressing-on toward the goal for the prize of the upward^[a] calling from God in Christ Jesus.

All Who Claim To Be Mature: Think This Same Way. Imitate Me

¹⁵ Therefore, all who are mature— let us be thinking^[b] this. And if you are thinking anything differently, God will reveal this also to you. ¹⁶ Nevertheless, to what thinking we attained, by the same let us be walking-in-line. ¹⁷ Be fellow-imitators of me, brothers, and be watching the ones walking in this manner, just as you have us as a pattern.

For There Are Many Enemies of The Cross. They Focus On Earthly Things

¹⁸ For many walk as to whom I was often saying to you, and now even weeping say, they are the enemies of the cross of Christ— ¹⁹ whose end is destruction, whose god is their stomach and glory is in their shame— the ones thinking^[c] the earthly things.

And Our Citizenship Is In Heaven

²⁰ For our place-of-citizenship is in the heavens, from where also we are eagerly-awaiting the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, ²¹ Who will transform the body of our lowliness^[d] so as to be similar-in-form^[e] to the body of His glory, according-to the working that enables Him also to subject all things to Himself.

So My Beloved, Stand Firm In This Manner

4 So then, my beloved and yearned-for brothers, my joy and crown, be standing-firm in this manner in the Lord, beloved.

Woe To You, Scribes And Pharisees. You Are Blind Guides. How Will You Escape Hell?

¹³ “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you are shutting the kingdom of the heavens in-front-of ^[a] people. For you are not entering, nor are you permitting the ones entering to enter. ^{14 [b] 15} Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you go-around the sea and the dry land to make one proselyte. And when he becomes one, you make him a son of Gehenna^[c] double-more than you. ¹⁶ Woe to you, blind guides— the ones saying, ‘Whoever swears-an-oath by the temple, it is nothing. But whoever swears-an-oath by the gold of the temple, he is obligated’. ¹⁷ Foolish and blind ones! For which is greater, the gold, or the temple having sanctified^[d] the gold? ¹⁸ And, ‘Whoever swears-an-oath by the altar, it is nothing. But whoever swears-an-oath by the gift^[e] on it, he is obligated’. ¹⁹ Blind ones! For which is greater, the gift, or the altar sanctifying the gift? ²⁰ Therefore, the one having sworn by the altar is swearing by it and by all the things on it. ²¹ And the one having sworn by the temple is swearing by it and by the One dwelling-in^[f] it. ²² And the one having sworn by heaven is swearing by the throne of God and by the One sitting on it. ²³ Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you are giving-a-tenth-of the mint and the dill and the cummin, and you neglected^[g] the weightier things of the Law— the justice, and the mercy, and the faithfulness^[h]. But you ought-to-have done these things, and not be neglecting those things. ²⁴ Blind guides— the ones straining-out^[i] the gnat, but swallowing^[j] the camel!