Display Chapter and Footnotes   

 ⁵ For this very reason, make every effort [the maximum possible],² to add to your faith, virtue [excellence]; and to virtue knowledge; [How do you add to your faith? You sit and wait on God, listening, watching, and then obeying. His spoken words heard impart the life of God into your heart, John 6:63. You grow in faith with each revelation received. By the grace of His revelations Jesus authors your faith and increases your faith in the progression of these verses. From the Word of the Lord within: "I must warn you — you must make every effort to add to your faith and enter the rest."]

 ⁶ And to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance [or patience]; and to perseverance, godliness;

 ⁷ And to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love.³

 ⁸ For if these things are in you and abound, you will neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Display Chapter and Footnotes   

Display Chapter and Footnotes   

 ²⁴  "Strive to enter in at the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter, and will not be able to.³ [Is saying the sinner's prayer, getting dunked in water, and eating bread/drinking grape juice, the narrow, difficult way that many would try to enter and be unable? No, because the instant, presumed salvation of Christendom's deficit sects is a make-believe salvation, fables, lies, deceptions — it is the wide and broad way that leads to destruction. The deficit sects of Christendom have totally lost the narrow, true way that few will find. From the Word of the Lord within: "Narrow, indeed, is the way. Strive to enter through the narrow gate. Few will find it. Men have stopped trying. They have plunged themselves into iniquity."]

 ²⁵ And once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, you will stand outside and knock at the door, saying: 'Lord, Lord, open to us.' But he will answer and say to you, 'I do not know you or where you come from.' [From the Word of the Lord within: "I only know those who have been crucified." He knows everything, but his "knowing" you is for him to become one with you, which occurs after you have been crucified. You can call Him Lord; you can call Him Master; but so did Judas. Calling Jesus Lord does not make Him your Lord. He is your Lord only if He has freed you from all sin, if he has destroyed your carnal mind, if He has purified you, and if He supplies all your words to speak, all your thoughts, and all your actions to be done; Jesus said, "If you are still sinning, you are a slave to sin," John 8:34; and if you are still sinning, Jesus cannot be your Lord because He said, "you cannot serve two masters," Mat 6:24. So, as Jesus said, "Why do you call me, 'Lord, Lord,' and not do what I tell you?" Luke 6:46. From the Word of the Lord within: "If you are still sinning, you belong to sin and not to Me. All men are without excuse; if I were silent, they would have an excuse. All men have heard the call to repent. People must stand the price for their very brazen behavior." Several scriptures identify those who belong to Jesus; and in several other scriptures, Jesus has told us that we must repent, we must sin no more, or else we will be banned from heaven.]

 ²⁶ Then you will say, 'We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.' [This fits very well with those who think communion or the "Eucharist" is eating and drinking in his presence and proves the rituals of communion and the Eucharist are of no value. Jesus denies them ever eating and drinking in his presence. Of course He knows everything, including their continued sinning till death; his denial is a denial of knowing them by their eating and drinking in his presence and him having taught among them, both of which they thought had occurred and entitled them to enter heaven. Those who die still sinning will be banned from heaven. He only knows you if you have been crucified.]

 ²⁷ But he will say, 'I tell you, I do not know you or where you come from; depart from me, all you workers of iniquity [wrongdoers, still sinning]!'⁴ [Every man is judged by their words and works, including those who claim to be Christians; God shows partiality to no man. From the Word of the Lord within: "Remember, every person who sins denies Him as Lord and Master. If you are still sinning, you belong to sin and not to Me. See myself — thus no sin has a place in me. Everyone is expecting Jesus to be their excuse. I've warned them and given them the requirements and preached the exclusions; they should not expect anything else or conclusion." If you haven't seen Him and listened to Him, neither do you know Him. Unless cleansed and purified by the Lord's Spirit that destroys sin within man, every man's heart starts filled with evil, filled with sin, defiled, and disqualified for heaven. From the Word of the Lord within: "I only know those who have been crucified." He knows everything, but his "knowing" you is for him to become one with you, which occurs after you have been crucified.]

 ²⁸ And there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrust out. [The Patriarchs, (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob), exposed themselves to listen to God's teachings and commands; with their obedience, they became holy men. Their descendants, the Jews, (with few exceptions), thought they were chosen people, failing to apply the teachings of Moses and the Prophets to themselves because they had not been listening to the Word of the Lord, the Word of the Lord within. Yet their own Old Testament scriptures had scores of severe warnings and consequences to those who failed to listen to God's voice; so their understanding of the scriptures was superficial and flawed, lacking the Spirit's personal teachings to themselves. So they continued to sin, and when people die still sinning, they are cast into outer darkness, banned from heaven.

Like the Jews who could not really hear Moses and the prophets, therefore failing to repent in their ways, the Christians of today presume that they are excused from all of Jesus's warnings and from all the Bible's stated exclusions, requirements, and qualifying conditions of salvation; — always thinking the warnings and commands apply to bad people, not righteous believing people like themselves; so they do not obey the commands of repentance they hear or read, remaining slaves to sin; and when they die, they also are banned from heaven, cast into outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.]

Display Chapter and Footnotes   

Display Chapter and Footnotes   

 ¹⁰ For he who has entered into his rest, has also ceased from his own works,³ as God did from His. [To cease from your own works, done by your own will, cease your own plans, cease your own decisions, and instead to be directed by God to do His will on earth as in heaven, which works are then to His glory, which works are prompted by and energized by Him.]

 ¹¹ Therefore let us diligently labor with every effort to enter into that rest, lest any man fall from the same kind of unbelief (resulting in disobedience), [The Jews didn't believe they could conquer the giants in the promise land; and the promise of the Christian rest is so fantastic that people are prone to doubt it is even possible to conquer sin, especially those in tribulation and trials. Paul is pleading for everyone to continue with every effort, and in the next verses he describes the power that works in a man to bring him to the rest; which power is the Word of God, Jesus, the power of God and our high priest and mediator, who sees and knows all, feels our infirmities, and is the source of grace and mercy to us. Steven Crisp has an excellent letter: Destroying the Arguments that Sin Cannot Be Conquered in This Life. From the Word of the Lord within: "I must warn you — you must make every effort to add to your faith and enter the rest."]