Don't go after false gods; they cannot help you or save you, for they are not real.

You have said, 'It's useless to serve God. What's the use of doing what he says or of trying to show the LORD Almighty that we are sorry for what we have done?

"When you pray, do not use a lot of meaningless words, as the pagans do, who think that their gods will hear them because their prayers are long.

It is no use for them to worship me, because they teach human rules as though they were my laws!' "

and if Christ has not been raised from death, then we have nothing to preach and you have nothing to believe.

So then, my dear friends, stand firm and steady. Keep busy always in your work for the Lord, since you know that nothing you do in the Lord's service is ever useless.

But avoid stupid arguments, long lists of ancestors, quarrels, and fights about the Law. They are useless and worthless.

Do any of you think you are religious? If you do not control your tongue, your religion is worthless and you deceive yourself.

You fool! Do you want to be shown that faith without actions is useless?

"Do everything that I have commanded you; do not add anything to it or take anything from it.

All these refer to things which become useless once they are used; they are only human rules and teachings.

The Spirit says clearly that some people will abandon the faith in later times; they will obey lying spirits and follow the teachings of demons.

Such people teach that it is wrong to marry and to eat certain foods. But God created those foods to be eaten, after a prayer of thanks, by those who are believers and have come to know the truth.

The smoke of the fire that torments them goes up forever and ever. There is no relief day or night for those who worship the beast and its image, for anyone who has the mark of its name."

This calls for endurance on the part of God's people, those who obey God's commandments and are faithful to Jesus.

I, John, solemnly warn everyone who hears the prophetic words of this book: if any add anything to them, God will add to their punishment the plagues described in this book.