Fruitful Growth in the Faith

⁵ But also for this very reason, ^(A)giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue ^(B)knowledge, ⁶ to knowledge self-control, to self-control ^[a]perseverance, to perseverance godliness, ⁷ to godliness brotherly kindness, and ^(C)to brotherly kindness love. ⁸ For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither ^[b]barren ^(D)nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

^24 (A)“Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for ^(B)many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able. ^25 (C)When once the Master of the house has risen up and ^(D)shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door, saying, ^(E)‘Lord, Lord, open for us,’ and He will answer and say to you, ^(F)‘I do not know you, where you are from,’ ²⁶ then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets.’ ^27 (G)But He will say, ‘I tell you I do not know you, where you are from. ^(H)Depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity.’ ^28 (I)There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, ^(J)when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and yourselves thrust out.

¹⁰ For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His.

The Word Discovers Our Condition

^11 (A)Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience.