Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

Fathers, do not provoke your children, or they will become discouraged.

For I am reminded of your sincere faith, which first dwelt in your grandmother Lois, and your mother Eunice, and I am sure is in you as well.

and how from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

But we were gentle among you, like a mother nursing her little children. Having so fond an affection for you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own lives, because you had become very dear to us. For you remember our labor and toil, brethren; we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, while we preached to you the gospel of God.read more.
You are witnesses, and God also, how holy and righteous and blameless we behaved toward you believers; for you know how, as a father with his own children, we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to live a life worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.

When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord; you know that I love you." He said to him, "Feed my lambs." He said to him again a second time, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord; you know that I love you." He said to him, "Tend my sheep." He said to him the third time, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, "Do you love me?" And he said to him, "Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Feed my sheep.

And when they came to him, he said to them: "You yourselves know how I lived the whole time I was with you, from the first day that I set foot in Asia, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials which came upon me through the plots of the Jews; how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you publicly and from house to house,

I do not write this to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel.

as we night and day keep praying most earnestly that we may see you face to face and supply what is lacking in your faith?

he must hold firm to the sure word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to refute those who contradict it.

So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ and a partaker in the glory that is to be revealed, shepherd the flock of God that is under your care, serving as overseersnot under compulsion, but voluntarily, according to the will of God; and not for sordid gain, but with eagerness; not as lording it over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock.

Likewise urge the young men to be sensible. Show yourself in all respects an example of good deeds, and in your teaching show integrity, seriousness,

I have coveted no one's silver or gold or clothes. You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my own needs and to the men who were with me. In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'"

Therefore I urge you, be imitators of me. For this reason I have sent to you Timothy, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, and he will remind you of my ways which are in Christ, just as I teach everywhere in every church.

Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.

Practice what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.

for our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake. You became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit;

And we urge you, brethren, admonish the idlers, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with everyone. See that none of you repays evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to all.

As for the man who is weak in faith, accept him, but not for disputes over opinions.

But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. For if a man sees you, who have knowledge, at table in an idol's temple, will not his conscience, if he is weak, be encouraged to eat food sacrificed to idols? And so by your knowledge this weak man is destroyed, the brother for whom Christ died.read more.
Thus, sinning against your brethren and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if food causes my brother to fall, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause my brother to fall.

Brethren, even if anyone is caught in a trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted. Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

Therefore encourage one another and build up one another, just as you also are doing.

The older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not to be slanderers or slaves to much wine, but they are to teach what is good, so they can train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be dishonored.

Like newborn babes, long for the pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation,

I gave you milk, not solid food; for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, even now you are not ready,

Brethren, do not be children in your thinking; be infants in evil, but in thinking be mature.

About this we have much to say which is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of God's word. You need milk, not solid food; for every one who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe.read more.
But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their sense trained by practice to distinguish good from evil.

But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.

And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another, for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

But speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into him, who is the head, into Christ,

We ought to give thanks to God always for you, brethren, as is fitting, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing.