This, then, I say, and I testify in the Lord; ye are no more to walk, as also the other nations walk, in the vanity of their mind,

Who having no more power of feeling, have given themselves up to evil passions, to do all unclean things with overmuch desire.

Let, the stealer, no more, steal, but rather let him be toiling, - working with his hands the thing that is good, that he may have wherewith to be giving away to him that hath need;

But you should not even talk about sexual immorality, or any type of [moral] impurity, or greed. [Note: Possibly "greed" here means "desire for more" of such things]. Such talk is not suitable for saints [i.e., God's holy people].

And, this, I pray - that, your love, may be, yet more and more, pre-eminent in personal knowledge and all perception,

that ye may judge of and approve the things that are more excellent, in order that ye may be pure and without offence for Christ's day,

But I want you to know, brothers, that the things in respect to me have come more for the advancement of the good-news,

And so that , the most of the brethren in the Lord, assured by my bonds, are becoming more abundantly bold to be fearlessly speaking the word of God: -

The one part preacheth Christ of strife, and not purely, supposing to add more adversity to my bonds.

but the former preach Christ [insincerely] out of selfish ambition [just self-promotion], thinking that they are causing me distress in my imprisonment.

What difference then does it make? In one way or another, whether in pretense or in sincerity, Christ is being preached, and that is the thing that makes me glad; yes, more too, I will continue to be glad of it,

For I know that this shall be turned to me for salvation by your prayer, and the furnishing more of the Spirit of Jesus Christ,

But if [continuing] to live in my body means accomplishing more work [for Christ], then I do not know which to choose.

But, to abide still in the flesh, is more needful for your sake;

In order that, your matter of boasting, may be more abundant in Christ Jesus, regarding me, through my own presence again with you.

Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit [through factional motives, or strife], but with [an attitude of] humility [being neither arrogant nor self-righteous], regard others as more important than yourselves.

More than this, after he had shone himself in human form, he humbled himself in his obedience even to death; yes, and to death on a cross.

So then, my dear ones, just as you have always obeyed [my instructions with enthusiasm], not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence, continue to work out your salvation [that is, cultivate it, bring it to full effect, actively pursue spiritual maturity] with awe-inspired fear and trembling [using serious caution and critical self-evaluation to avoid anything that might offend God or discredit the name of Christ].

for there is no one that is so dear to me as he, and no one will more sincerely interest himself in your concerns.

So I hope to send him as soon as I know more about my situation,

So I have sent him all the more eagerly so that when you see him again you may rejoice and I may be less concerned about you.

though I myself might have [some grounds for] confidence in the flesh [if I were pursuing salvation by works]. If anyone else thinks that he has reason to be confident in the flesh [that is, in his own efforts to achieve salvation], I have far more:

But more than that, I count everything as loss compared to the priceless privilege and supreme advantage of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord [and of growing more deeply and thoroughly acquainted with Him—a joy unequaled]. For His sake I have lost everything, and I consider it all garbage, so that I may gain Christ,

And this, so that I may know Him [experientially, becoming more thoroughly acquainted with Him, understanding the remarkable wonders of His Person more completely] and [in that same way experience] the power of His resurrection [which overflows and is active in believers], and [that I may share] the fellowship of His sufferings, by being continually conformed [inwardly into His likeness even] to His death [dying as He did];

Moreover, I greatly rejoiced in the Lord that now once more your care for me blossomed afresh; though indeed you did take thought in this matter, but you lacked the opportunity of expression.

I know what it is even to be kept low, and I know what it is to have more than enough, - in every way, and in all things, have I been let into the secret - both to be well fed, and to be hungering, both to have more than enough, and to be coming short:

for you sent more than once to Thessalonica to supply my occasions.

But I have received everything in full and more; I am amply supplied, having received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent me. They are the fragrant aroma of an offering, an acceptable sacrifice which God welcomes and in which He delights.

Unto God and our father be praise forever more. Amen.

All God's people wish to be remembered to you, but more especially the members of the Emperor's household.

[For my hope is] that their hearts may be encouraged as they are knit together in [unselfish] love, so that they may have all the riches that come from the full assurance of understanding [the joy of salvation], resulting in a true [and more intimate] knowledge of the mystery of God, that is, Christ,

having been deeply rooted [in Him] and now being continually built up in Him and [becoming increasingly more] established in your faith, just as you were taught, and overflowing in it with gratitude.

and have put on the new [spiritual] self who is being continually renewed in true knowledge in the image of Him who created the new self—

And more than all, have love; the only way in which you may be completely joined together.

For it was from you that the Lord's Message resounded throughout Macedonia and Greece; and, more than that, your faith in God has become known far and wide; so that there is no need for us to say another word.

But since we were taken away from you, believers, for a little while—in person, but not in heart—we endeavored, with great longing to see you face to face.

because we wanted to come to you--I, Paul, {on more than one occasion}--and Satan hindered us.

Wherefore no more concealing, we were content to be left among the Athenians alone:

For this I also, no more concealing, sent to know your faith, lest some way he tempting have tempted you, and our labor be in vain.

for now we [really] live, if you [continue to] stand firm in [the service of] the Lord [i.e., Paul could enjoy life much more in knowing that the Thessalonians were living for the Lord faithfully].

whilst night and day we make our ardent requests to him, that we may once more be present with you, that nothing may be wanting to the perfection of your faith?

Finally therefore, brothers, we ask you, and summon in Lord Jesus, that just as ye received from us how ye ought to walk and to please God, that ye may abound more.

For ye are also doing it toward all the brothers in all Macedonia. But we exhort you, brothers, to abound more,

and give you exhortation, that ye have them the more in love: For their work's sake, and be at peace with them.

We ought to thank God always for you, brothers and sisters, and rightly so, because your faith flourishes more and more and the love of each one of you all for one another is ever greater.

when He comes to be glorified in His saints on that day [that is, glorified through the changed lives of those who have accepted Him as Savior and have been set apart for His purpose], and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed and trusted [and confirmed in your lives].

so that the name of our Lord Jesus will be glorified in you [by what you do], and you in Him, according to the [precious] grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

neither give heed to fables and genealogies, which are endless, and breed doubts, more than Godly edifying which is by faith:

Neverthelater, the grace of our Lord was more abundant, with faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus.

Such are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have given up to Satan, so that they may say no more evil words against God.

but with good deeds, which are [more] appropriate for women who claim to be godly.

These things I write to thee, hoping to come to thee more quickly;

But if any man provide not for his own relations, and especially for those more immediately of his own family, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.

A widow is to be put on the list [to receive regular assistance] only if she is over sixty years of age, [having been] the wife of one man,

I give you orders before God and Christ Jesus and the angels of God's selection, to keep these orders without giving thought to one side more than another.

The sins of some men are notorious, leading as it were to their condemnation; and some more artful they follow after.

And those who have believing masters, let them not disparage them because they are brothers, instead let them serve more because they are believers and beloved--those who are recipients of the benefit. Teach and exhort these things

But when he happened to be in Rome he sought me more diligently and found me

But, the profane pratings, shun; for, unto more ungodliness, will they force themselves on;

treacherous, reckless, conceited, loving pleasure more than God,

But they will not make any more progress, for their folly will be evident to everybody, as theirs was.

I have nothing more to do, but to receive the crown of virtue reserv'd for me, which the Lord, the just judge, will give me in that day: and not only to me, but to those also, who have long'd for his appearance.

or steal from them. Instead, they are to show complete and perfect loyalty, so that in every way they may make the teaching about God our Savior more attractive.

After a first and second warning reject a divisive man [who promotes heresy and causes dissension—ban him from your fellowship and have nothing more to do with him],

on account of the divine love, I the more exhort you, being such as Paul the aged, and now also the prisoner of Jesus Christ.

Once unprofitable to thee, but now more profitable to thee and to me:

not as a slave any longer but more than a slave, a dearly loved brother, especially to me and much more to you, both as a servant and as a Christian.

I write you in perfect confidence in your compliance with my wish, because I am sure that you will do even more than I ask.

Having become so much better than the heavenly agents, as he has inherited a more excellent name than they.

But speaking of the time when He once more brings His Firstborn into the world, He says, "And let all God's angels worship Him."

You have been a lover of righteousness and a hater of evil; and so God, your God, has put the oil of joy on your head more than on the heads of those who are with you.

Because of this we ought to give more earnest heed to the things that were heard, lest we might slip away.

And God was a witness with them, by signs and wonders, and by more than natural powers, and by his distribution of the Holy Spirit at his pleasure.

For this man was considered worthy of more glory than Moses, by so much as he who built it has more esteem than the house.

“Therefore I was angered with this generation,
And I said, ‘They always go astray in their heart,
And they did not know My ways [nor become progressively better and more intimately acquainted with them]’;

For, living, is the word of God, and, energetic, and more cutting than any knife with two edges, and penetrating as far as a dividing asunder of soul and spirit, of joints also, and marrow, and able to judge the impulses and designs of the heart;

For certainly enough time has elapsed so that [by now] you ought to be teachers, [but instead] you are in need of having someone teach you again the basic principles of God's message. You have become people who need "milk" and not "solid food." [Note: The fundamental truths of Christianity are here figuratively spoken of as "milk," while the more advanced teaching, such as Christ's priesthood being like Melchizedek's, is called "solid food"].

Therefore omitting for the present the principles of the christian doctrine, we shall proceed to something more sublime, without mentioning those fundamental articles of repentance from destructive vices, and of divine faith:

And we will do so [i.e., go on to more advanced teaching] if God allows us to. For it is impossible to get people who have [completely] fallen away [from God] to repent again, because they [continue to] crucify for themselves God's Son all over again, and hold Him up to contempt.

But though we speak in this manner, my dear brethren, we expect better things of you, and such as are more suitable to your salvation.

By which God, wanting to demonstrate more abundantly to the heirs of the promise the immutableness of his resolve, confirmed it by an oath.

Now without any dispute the inferior is blessed by the more prominent.

And it is still far more evident, if according to the likeness of Melchizedek, there arises another priest,

so much the more Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant.

And of course those who have become priests are more, because of being prevented to continue by death,

But now hath he obtained a ministry the more excellent, by so much as he is also the mediator of a better covenant, which hath been enacted upon better promises.

And they shall no more teach every man his neighbour, and every one his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me from the mean man of them unto the great among them.

For I will be merciful to their iniquities, And their sins will I remember no more.

But Christ having come a high priest of the good things to come, through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation,

how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish unto God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

It was therefore necessary that what was only a type of the heavenly sanctuary, should be purified by such sacrifices; but the heavenly sanctuary itself, by a more excellent sacrifice.

For the law being only an allusion to a future dispensation that was more excellent, and not an exact imitation of such a state, cannot by the anniversary sacrifices, which are offered, entirely purify those that present themselves.

Else would they not have ceased to be offered? because the worshippers, having been once cleansed, would have had no more consciousness of sins.

And their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.

Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.

And we should consider how we can stir up one another to love [more] and to perform good deeds.

not forsaking our own assembling together, as the custom of some is, but exhorting one another ; and so much the more, as ye see the day drawing nigh.

For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more a sacrifice for sins,

Of how much more severe punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, by which he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite to the Spirit of grace?

for you were passionately affected for those who were in bonds, and were pleas'd at the seizing of your goods, knowing that you have what is more excellent and lasting.