A fool doing some stupid thing a second time is like a dog going back to its vomit.

He says, "All the leaders, who are supposed to warn my people, are blind! They know nothing. They are like watch dogs that don't bark---they only lie around and dream. How they love to sleep!

They are like greedy dogs that never get enough. These leaders have no understanding. They each do as they please and seek their own advantage.

"Do not give what is holy to dogs---they will only turn and attack you. Do not throw your pearls in front of pigs---they will only trample them underfoot.

"Be on your guard against false prophets; they come to you looking like sheep on the outside, but on the inside they are really like wild wolves.

Many will give up their faith at that time; they will betray one another and hate one another.

But if you act like wild animals, hurting and harming each other, then watch out, or you will completely destroy one another.

Alexander the metalworker did me great harm; the Lord will reward him according to what he has done.

Be on your guard against him yourself, because he was violently opposed to our message.

What happened to them shows that the proverbs are true: "A dog goes back to what it has vomited" and "A pig that has been washed goes back to roll in the mud."

But outside the city are the perverts and those who practice magic, the immoral and the murderers, those who worship idols and those who are liars both in words and deeds.

They are going to end up in hell, because their god is their bodily desires. They are proud of what they should be ashamed of, and they think only of things that belong to this world.

Go away from me, you sinful people. I will obey the commands of my God.

When the Judgment Day comes, many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord! In your name we spoke God's message, by your name we drove out many demons and performed many miracles!'

Then I will say to them, 'I never knew you. Get away from me, you wicked people!'

Those men are not true apostles---they are false apostles, who lie about their work and disguise themselves to look like real apostles of Christ.

As for you, my friends, you were called to be free. But do not let this freedom become an excuse for letting your physical desires control you. Instead, let love make you serve one another.

and keep your faith and a clear conscience. Some people have not listened to their conscience and have made a ruin of their faith.

Remember that there will be difficult times in the last days.

they will be unkind, merciless, slanderers, violent, and fierce; they will hate the good;

they will hold to the outward form of our religion, but reject its real power. Keep away from such people.

The time will come when people will not listen to sound doctrine, but will follow their own desires and will collect for themselves more and more teachers who will tell them what they are itching to hear.

They will turn away from listening to the truth and give their attention to legends.

They claim that they know God, but their actions deny it. They are hateful and disobedient, not fit to do anything good.

They make proud and stupid statements, and use immoral bodily lusts to trap those who are just beginning to escape from among people who live in error.

If people have escaped from the corrupting forces of the world through their knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and then are again caught and conquered by them, such people are in worse condition at the end than they were at the beginning.

For some godless people have slipped in unnoticed among us, persons who distort the message about the grace of our God in order to excuse their immoral ways, and who reject Jesus Christ, our only Master and Lord. Long ago the Scriptures predicted the condemnation they have received.

But these people attack with insults anything they do not understand; and those things that they know by instinct, like wild animals, are the very things that destroy them.

With their shameless carousing they are like dirty spots in your fellowship meals. They take care only of themselves. They are like clouds carried along by the wind, but bringing no rain. They are like trees that bear no fruit, even in autumn, trees that have been pulled up by the roots and are completely dead.

But cowards, traitors, perverts, murderers, the immoral, those who practice magic, those who worship idols, and all liars---the place for them is the lake burning with fire and sulfur, which is the second death."

It is we, not they, who have received the true circumcision, for we worship God by means of his Spirit and rejoice in our life in union with Christ Jesus. We do not put any trust in external ceremonies.

After all, who is a real Jew, truly circumcised? It is not the man who is a Jew on the outside, whose circumcision is a physical thing.

My companion Titus, even though he is Greek, was not forced to be circumcised,

although some wanted it done. Pretending to be believers, these men slipped into our group as spies, in order to find out about the freedom we have through our union with Christ Jesus. They wanted to make slaves of us,

Freedom is what we have---Christ has set us free! Stand, then, as free people, and do not allow yourselves to become slaves again.

Once more I warn any man who allows himself to be circumcised that he is obliged to obey the whole Law.

I know your troubles; I know that you are poor---but really you are rich! I know the evil things said against you by those who claim to be Jews but are not; they are a group that belongs to Satan!

Listen! As for that group that belongs to Satan, those liars who claim that they are Jews but are not, I will make them come and bow down at your feet. They will all know that I love you.