Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity. Do not rebuke an older man harshly, but exhort him as if he were your father. Treat younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters, with absolute purity. Do not be hasty in the laying on of hands, and do not share in the sins of others. Keep yourself pure.

   Finally, brothers, you learned from us how you should live in order to please God. This is, of course, the way you have been living. And now we beg and urge you, in the name of the Lord Jesus, to do even more. For you know the instructions we gave you, by the authority of the Lord Jesus.

   This is God's will for you: He wants you to be holy and completely free from immorality. Each of you men should know how to take a wife in a holy and honorable way, not with a lustful desire, like the heathen who do not know God. In this matter, then, no man should do wrong to his brother or take advantage of him. We have told you this before, we strongly warned you, that the Lord will punish those who do such wrongs. God did not call us to live in immorality, but in holiness. So then, whoever rejects this teaching is not rejecting man, but God, Who gives you His Holy Spirit.

   But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God's holy people. For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person - such a man is an idolater - has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ - to the glory and praise of God.

Taken from II Tim. 2, I Tim. 4, 5, I Th. 4, Eph. 5, Col. 3, Phil. 1, The New International
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