(Tap footnote to read it. Old Testament quotations are underlined. "Love" with a caret ("^love") is agapé.1"agapé" The Greek words ἀγάπη (agapé, noun), and ἀγαπάω (agapaó; verb) are typically translated "love". However, unlike our English word "love" – which primarily speaks of affection and feelings – agapé centers on choice and behavior. It’s the "love" based on will, choice, behavior, and action; not feelings. (Feelings-based love is the Greek word φιλέω (phileó), which properly means "brotherly love/affection".) Thus, you could hate someone passionately and still treat him with "agapé". Agapé "love" is best understood as the pursuit of what is most beneficial to someone or something, regardless of the cost to yourself or the type of response received from the person or thing. It can also indicate a preference for someone or something over other things. )
Miscellaneous instructions
- Let brotherly love continue.
- Don’t overlook hospitality to strangers, for through this some hosted angels without knowing it.
- Remember the prisoners as if being *bound with them; and the men being oppressed since you yourselves are also being oppressed in body.
- Marriage should be considered1“Marriage should be considered honorable by all” could also be translated “Marriage is honorable in all”. The Greek sentence lacks a verb, so the sense must be supplied by translators. Because Greek often omits verbs and carries them over from previous sentences/verses, and because this verse is in the middle of a long list of commands, imperative force was chosen here. However, a verb of being (“is”) wouldn’t be incorrect either. Either or both senses could’ve been intended. honorable by all, and the bed should be undefiled; for God will judge fornicators and men who have sex with other men’s wives.2“men who have sex with other men’s wives” is one word in Greek, it’s masculine here and thus usually translated “adulterers” in this verse. However, the Greek (and Hebrew) words specifically mean a man (married or unmarried) having sex with another man’s wife (or betrothed). While the English word “adultery” means either spouse having sex with someone else, the Biblical words – both Greek and Hebrew – divide sexual sins into two classes based on the marital status of the woman. A man having sex with another man’s wife (or betrothed) was adultery. A man having sex with an unmarried woman was fornication. Both are very serious sins – see the final clause of this verse – but they are differentiated by the Greek and Hebrew words.
- Your way of life should be without the love of money, being content with what you possess; for He Himself has said: “I definitely won’t desert you, and most definitely won’t3“and most definitely won’t”. In Greek, this is a triple negative (and not, no, not) to add very strong emphasis. While double negatives are occasionally used to add emphasis in Greek, triple negatives are extremely rare and make the statement even more definitively negative. Since English double negatives cancel each other out (instead of adding emphasis) the words “most definitely” were added to keep the very strong emphatic sense of the Greek. forsake you.”4quotation/allusion to Deuteronomy 31:6
- So being confident, we are to say: “The Lord is my helper, I will not fear; what shall man do to me?“5quotation/allusion to Psalm 118:6
- Remember the men leading you – whoever spoke the word of God to you – whose faith you should imitate, carefully observing the outcome of their conduct.
- Jesus the Anointed is the same yesterday, and today, and through the ages.
- Don’t be led astray by various and strange doctrines, for it’s good for the heart to be established by grace, not foods, by which the men walking in them weren’t benefited.
- We have an altar from which the men ministering in the tabernacle don’t have authority to eat.
- For the bodies of the animals whose blood is brought into the Holy of Holies by the high priest as an offering concerning sin, those bodies are burned outside the camp.
- Therefore, Jesus also suffered outside the gate so He might make the people holy through His own blood.
- Accordingly, we should go out to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach.
- For we don’t have an enduring city here, but we seek the coming one.
- Therefore, through Him we should offer a sacrifice of praise to God through everything; that is, the fruit of our lips confessing His name.
- Yet don’t overlook the doing of good and fellowship, for God is well-pleased with such sacrifices.
- Be persuaded6“Be persuaded” is one word in Greek, typically translated “obey” in this verse. It occurs over 50 times in the New Testament and is almost always translated persuade/convince/trust, etc., which is also the word’s primary definition. (It’s also the root of the Greek word translated “faith”.) Thus, “be persuaded” is literal, while the traditional translation of “obey” is interpretive. Further, “obey” cannot be the intended sense here; see Matthew 20:25-26, and notice the future tense with imperative force in verse 26. Further, it’s in the passive voice here, meaning something is being done to the subject (“be persuaded), and not the subject doing something (“obey”). by the men leading you and yield7“yield” this Greek word properly refers to yielding of combatants. A modern analogy might be when a modern wrestler “yields” the fight to his opponent, granting the opponent victory. This word is only used in this verse, and nowhere else in the New Testament. to them (for they keep watch for the sake of your souls as if they will be giving an account) so that they might do this with joy and not internal groaning, for that would be unprofitable for you.
- Pray for us; for we’re persuaded that we have a good conscience, desiring to conduct ourselves nobly in all things.
- And I greatly urge you to do this, so I might be restored to you more quickly.
Closing and benediction
- Now, may the God of peace – the One who brought back from the dead the Great Shepherd of the sheep by the blood of the covenant of ages, our Lord Jesus –
- equip you with everything good in order to do His will; working in us what is pleasing in His sight through Jesus the Anointed, to whom be the glory through the ages of the ages, Amen.
- And I urge you brothers, bear with this word of encouragement for I wrote to you in few words.
- You know that our brother Timothy has been released, with whom I will see you if he comes sooner.
- Greet all the men leading you and all the saints. The men from Italy greet you.
- Grace be with you all, [Amen].
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