Hebrews 13

₁You are believers and that is why you must keep on loving each other. ₂You must keep on being friendly to strangers, because some people who did that have helped angels, but they did not know that they were angels. ₃Remember the prisoners and think about them. You must feel like people who are prisoners yourselves. Also remember those people who suffer. You must feel like you are suffering like they do.

₄Everyone must respect marriage and men and women who are married must belong only to each other, because God will judge people who live immorally or who commit_adultery. ₅Do not want lots of money, but be satisfied with the things that you have, because God said:

₆That is why we must not be afraid or discouraged. We must say:

₇Remember your leaders who told you the message of God. Think how they lived until the end of their lives and believe in God as they believed. ₈Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today. He is always the same. ₉Do not let people teach you many new things and deceive you. It is good when the grace of God makes your faith strong. Because some people tell you what you may eat and what you may not eat, but those things can not make your faith better. The laws that those people have taught you did not help them.

₁₀But we who believe in Christ have an altar and the priests who work in the tent of the old covenant may not eat of the offerings on this altar. ₁₁Because the high-priest took the blood of the animals that he had sacrificed into the most_holy room. This was the offering to pay for the sins of the people. But someone took the bodies of the dead animals that the priest had sacrificed and burnt them outside the camp. ₁₂That is why Jesus also suffered and died outside the city gates so that He could consecrate the people of God with his own blood. Yes, He did this when He died for us. ₁₃That is why we must go to Jesus. He is outside the camp. We must accept it when people humiliate us and are ashamed of us, as they also humiliated Him. ₁₄Here on earth we do not have a city that will always be here, but we want to have the city of God that will come later, so we will wait for it.

₁₅We must continue to sacrifice an offering to God through Jesus. Our offering must be to praise Him so that everyone can see and hear it. ₁₆Do not forget to do a lot of good things and to give some of your money and things to other people. God is pleased when people sacrifice_offerings like that.

₁₇You must listen to your leaders and do what they tell you because they are looking after you to protect you. They will have to explain to God if your lives were good or not. If you listen to them, they will rejoice while they help you and they will not complain about you, because that will not be good for you.

₁₈You must keep on praying for us. We are sure that we have done right in helping you because we always want to do what is good and live in the right way. ₁₉That is why I am asking you again to pray for me so that God will send me back to you even sooner.

₂₀God who gives peace raised our Lord Jesus, the Great Shepherd of the sheep, and made Him live again. God did this because He made his covenant that will be forever, and can never stop. He made this covenant with us when the blood of our Lord Jesus flowed and He died. ₂₁We pray that God will give you everything that is good, so that you can do what He wants. We pray that Jesus Christ will help us do the things that please God. That is why we must always praise God. Amen.

₂₂Friends, I have encouraged you and I ask you to listen carefully to my words again because I have not written you a long letter. ₂₃I want you to know that our friend, Timothy, is no longer in jail. If he comes soon, I will come with him to see you.

₂₄Please give my greetings to all your leaders and all the believers. The believers from Italy send greetings to you. ₂₅I pray that God will be merciful to all of you.