2 Timothy 2:4

⁴But even as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the Good News, so we speak—not as pleasing men, but God, who tests our hearts.

¹⁴What fell among the thorns, these are those who have heard, and as they go on their way they are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life; and they bring no fruit to maturity.

²⁰For if, after they have escaped the defilement of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in it and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first.

²²For he who was called in the Lord being a bondservant is the Lord’s free man. Likewise he who was called being free is Christ’s bondservant. ²³You were bought with a price. Don’t become bondservants of men.

²⁵Every man who strives in the games exercises self-control in all things. Now they do it to receive a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible. ²⁶I therefore run like that, not aimlessly. I fight like that, not beating the air,

⁵⁹He said to another, “Follow me!” But he said, “Lord, allow me first to go and bury my father.”

⁶⁰But Jesus said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead, but you go and announce God’s Kingdom.”

⁶¹Another also said, “I want to follow you, Lord, but first allow me to say good-bye to those who are at my house.”

⁶²But Jesus said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for God’s Kingdom.”

⁹Therefore also we make it our aim, whether at home or absent, to be well pleasing to him.

¹⁰for Demas left me, having loved this present world, and went to Thessalonica; Crescens to Galatia; and Titus to Dalmatia.

⁹But those who are determined to be rich fall into a temptation, a snare, and many foolish and harmful lusts, such as drown men in ruin and destruction. ¹⁰For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some have been led astray from the faith in their greed, and have pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

¹¹But you, man of God, flee these things, and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness. ¹²Fight the good fight of faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you confessed the good confession in the sight of many witnesses.

⁵The officers shall speak to the people, saying, “What man is there who has built a new house, and has not dedicated it? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man dedicate it. ⁶What man is there who has planted a vineyard, and has not used its fruit? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man use its fruit. ⁷What man is there who has pledged to be married to a wife, and has not taken her? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man take her.”