²⁶ So then I am running, not uncertainly; so I am fighting, not as one who gives blows in the air:

¹⁰ For this reason, my brothers, take all the more care to make your selection and approval certain; for if you do these things you will never have a fall:

¹² And for which I undergo these things: but I have no feeling of shame. For I have knowledge of him in whom I have faith, and I am certain that he is able to keep that which I have given into his care till that day.

²⁹ And for this purpose I am working, using all my strength by the help of his power which is working in me strongly.

²¹ For to me life is Christ and death is profit.

¹ Let us then, though we still have God's word that we may come into his rest, go in fear that some of you may be unable to do so.

⁵ And if a man takes part in a competition he does not get the crown if he has not kept the rules.

¹² For our fight is not against flesh and blood, but against authorities and powers, against the world-rulers of this dark night, against the spirits of evil in the heavens.

⁸ We are without fear, desiring to be free from the body, and to be with the Lord.

¹ For we are conscious that if this our tent of flesh is taken down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal, in heaven.

⁹ So if you, in using a strange tongue, say words which have no sense, how will anyone take in what you are saying? for you will be talking to the air.

²⁴ Do your best to go in by the narrow door, for I say to you, A number will make the attempt to go in, but will not be able to do so.

¹² And from the days of John the Baptist till now, the kingdom of heaven is forcing its way in, and men of force take it.

¹ I who am myself one of the rulers of the church, and a witness of the death of Christ, having my part in the coming glory, send this serious request to the chief men among you: