[Paul wrote:] "You are our witnesses, and so is God: our conduct toward you who believe was pure, right, and without fault.

   "This is my prayer for you: I pray that your love will keep on growing more and more together with true knowledge and perfect judgment, so that you will be able to choose what is best. Then you will be free from all impurity and blame on the Day of Christ. Your lives will be filled with the truly good qualities which Jesus Christ alone can produce, for the glory and praise of God . . . Keep on imitating me, my brothers. We have set the right example for you, so pay attention to those who follow it. I have told you this many times before, and now I repeat it, with tears: there are many whose lives make them enemies of Christ's death on the cross. They are going to end up in hell, because their god is their bodily desires, they are proud of what they should be ashamed of, and they think only of things that belong to this world. We, however, are citizens of heaven, and we eagerly wait for our Savior to come from heaven, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will change our weak mortal bodies and make them like His own glorious body, using that power by which He is able to bring all things under His rule . . . In conclusion, my brothers, fill your minds with those things that are good and deserve praise: things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and honorable. Put into practice what you learned and received from me, both from my words and from my deeds. And the God Who gives us peace will be with you."

   [Paul wrote to Titus:] "You yourself, in all things, must be an example in good works. Be sincere and serious in your teaching. Use sound words that cannot be criticized, so that your enemies may be put to shame by not having anything bad to say about us.

   "For God has revealed His grace for the salvation of all men. That grace instructs us to give up ungodly living and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this world, as we wait for the blessed Day we hope for, when the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ will appear. He gave Himself for us, to rescue us from all wickedness and make us a pure people who belong to Him alone and are eager to do good."

Taken from I Thess. 2, Phil. 1, 3, 4, Tit. 2, Today's English Version.
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