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106 Bible verses that are difficult to explain
I've found that the best way to explain something truly difficult is to have lived it firsthand. Walking the walk every day gives you the tools you need to share a message of salvation that can really reach people. There's just nothing like sharing a life-changing message that's rooted in your own experiences.
But here's the thing: it's so important to remember the role of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit has the full picture and the patience to guide us into a deeper understanding. We can't just rely on our own thinking or even other people's stories, because we might find ourselves at a loss when we try to share something we haven't truly encountered ourselves.
The Holy Spirit is ready and willing to teach us today. It's all about being open to that guidance.
Because Christ also suffered for sins once, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring you to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the Spirit,
in whom he also went and preached to the spirits in prison,
Again, on the day when God’s sons came to present themselves before the LORD, Satan came also amongst them to present himself before the LORD.
Here is wisdom. He who has understanding, let him calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. His number is six hundred and sixty-six.
When men began to multiply on the surface of the ground, and daughters were born to them,
Noah became the father of three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
The earth was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.
God saw the earth, and saw that it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.
God said to Noah, “I will bring an end to all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them and the earth.
Make a ship of gopher wood. You shall make rooms in the ship, and shall seal it inside and outside with pitch.
This is how you shall make it. The length of the ship shall be three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits.
You shall make a roof in the ship, and you shall finish it to a cubit upward. You shall set the door of the ship in its side. You shall make it with lower, second, and third levels.
I, even I, will bring the flood of waters on this earth, to destroy all flesh having the breath of life from under the sky. Everything that is in the earth will die.
But I will establish my covenant with you. You shall come into the ship, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you.
Of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ship, to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female.
God’s sons saw that men’s daughters were beautiful, and they took any that they wanted for themselves as wives.
Of the birds after their kind, of the livestock after their kind, of every creeping thing of the ground after its kind, two of every sort will come to you, to keep them alive.
Take with you some of all food that is eaten, and gather it to yourself; and it will be for food for you, and for them.”
Thus Noah did. He did all that God commanded him.
The LORD said, “My Spirit will not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; so his days will be one hundred and twenty years.”
The Nephilim were in the earth in those days, and also after that, when God’s sons came in to men’s daughters and had children with them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.
The pig, because it has a split hoof, and is cloven-footed, but doesn’t chew the cud, is unclean to you.
But of the cities of these peoples that the LORD your God gives you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes;
but you shall utterly destroy them: the Hittite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, as the LORD your God has commanded you;
Jephthah vowed a vow to the LORD, and said, “If you will indeed deliver the children of Ammon into my hand,
then it shall be, that whatever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, it shall be the LORD’s, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering.”
Again the LORD’s anger burnt against Israel, and he moved David against them, saying, “Go, count Israel and Judah.”
He said to him, “I also am a prophet as you are; and an angel spoke to me by the LORD’s word, saying, ‘Bring him back with you into your house, that he may eat bread and drink water.’” He lied to him.
But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.
Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind,
marked out for it my bound, set bars and doors,
and said, ‘You may come here, but no further. Your proud waves shall be stopped here’?
“Have you commanded the morning in your days, and caused the dawn to know its place,
that it might take hold of the ends of the earth, and shake the wicked out of it?
It is changed as clay under the seal, and presented as a garment.
From the wicked, their light is withheld. The high arm is broken.
“Have you entered into the springs of the sea? Or have you walked in the recesses of the deep?
Have the gates of death been revealed to you? Or have you seen the gates of the shadow of death?
Have you comprehended the earth in its width? Declare, if you know it all.
“What is the way to the dwelling of light? As for darkness, where is its place,
“Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge?
that you should take it to its bound, that you should discern the paths to its house?
Surely you know, for you were born then, and the number of your days is great!
Have you entered the storehouses of the snow, or have you seen the storehouses of the hail,
which I have reserved against the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war?
By what way is the lightning distributed, or the east wind scattered on the earth?
Who has cut a channel for the flood water, or the path for the thunderstorm,
to cause it to rain on a land where there is no man, on the wilderness, in which there is no man,
to satisfy the waste and desolate ground, to cause the tender grass to grow?
Does the rain have a father? Or who fathers the drops of dew?
Whose womb did the ice come out of? Who has given birth to the grey frost of the sky?
Brace yourself like a man, for I will question you, then you answer me!
The waters become hard like stone, when the surface of the deep is frozen.
“Can you bind the cluster of the Pleiades, or loosen the cords of Orion?
Can you lead the constellations out in their season? Or can you guide the Bear with her cubs?
Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you establish its dominion over the earth?
“Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, that abundance of waters may cover you?
Can you send out lightnings, that they may go? Do they report to you, ‘Here we are’?
Who has put wisdom in the inward parts? Or who has given understanding to the mind?
Who can count the clouds by wisdom? Or who can pour out the containers of the sky,
when the dust runs into a mass, and the clods of earth stick together?
“Can you hunt the prey for the lioness, or satisfy the appetite of the young lions,
“Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if you have understanding.
God’s sons saw that men’s daughters were beautiful, and they took any that they wanted for themselves as wives.
that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him,
Haven’t you known? Haven’t you heard? The everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, doesn’t faint. He isn’t weary. His understanding is unsearchable.
Don’t answer a fool according to his folly, lest you also be like him.
Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes.
For that which happens to the sons of men happens to animals. Even one thing happens to them. As the one dies, so the other dies. Yes, they have all one breath; and man has no advantage over the animals, for all is vanity.
a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
All go to one place. All are from the dust, and all turn to dust again.
Who knows the spirit of man, whether it goes upward, and the spirit of the animal, whether it goes downward to the earth?”
I form the light and create darkness. I make peace and create calamity. I am the LORD, who does all these things.
The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead the dough, to make cakes to the queen of the sky, and to pour out drink offerings to other gods, that they may provoke me to anger.
Moreover also I gave them statutes that were not good, and ordinances in which they couldn’t live.
I polluted them in their own gifts, in that they caused all that opens the womb to pass through the fire, that I might make them desolate, to the end that they might know that I am the LORD.”’
“Seventy weeks are decreed on your people and on your holy city, to finish disobedience, to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy.
“Know therefore and discern that from the going out of the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem to the Anointed One, the prince, will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks. It will be built again, with street and moat, even in troubled times.
After the sixty-two weeks the Anointed One will be cut off, and will have nothing. The people of the prince who come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its end will be with a flood, and war will be even to the end. Desolations are determined.
He will make a firm covenant with many for one week. In the middle of the week he will cause the sacrifice and the offering to cease. On the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate; and even to the decreed full end, wrath will be poured out on the desolate.”
If your right eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out and throw it away from you. For it is more profitable for you that one of your members should perish than for your whole body to be cast into Gehenna.
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.
If your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off, and throw it away from you. For it is more profitable for you that one of your members should perish, than for your whole body to be cast into Gehenna.
“Don’t think that I came to send peace on the earth. I didn’t come to send peace, but a sword.
Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men.
Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age, or in that which is to come.
About the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lima sabachthani?” That is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
“If anyone comes to me, and doesn’t disregard his own father, mother, wife, children, brothers, and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he can’t be my disciple.
Jesus therefore said to them, “Most certainly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you don’t have life in yourselves.
They drew lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias; and he was counted with the eleven apostles.
What then? That which Israel seeks for, that he didn’t obtain, but the chosen ones obtained it, and the rest were hardened.
According as it is written, “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear, to this very day.”
Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks the Lord’s cup in a way unworthy of the Lord will be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord.
But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup.
For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy way eats and drinks judgement to himself if he doesn’t discern the Lord’s body.
But I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.
For this cause many amongst you are weak and sickly, and not a few sleep.
Or else what will they do who are baptised for the dead? If the dead aren’t raised at all, why then are they baptised for the dead?
By reason of the exceeding greatness of the revelations, that I should not be exalted excessively, a thorn in the flesh was given to me: a messenger of Satan to torment me, that I should not be exalted excessively.
Concerning this thing, I begged the Lord three times that it might depart from me.
He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Most gladly therefore I will rather glory in my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest on me.
even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and without defect before him in love,
Because it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in him, but also to suffer on his behalf,
For by him all things were created in the heavens and on the earth, visible things and invisible things, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things have been created through him and for him.
He is before all things, and in him all things are held together.
For concerning those who were once enlightened and tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit,
and tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come,
and then fell away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance; seeing they crucify the Son of God for themselves again, and put him to open shame.
For if we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remains no more a sacrifice for sins,
but a certain fearful expectation of judgement, and a fierceness of fire which will devour the adversaries.
If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life for those who sin not leading to death. There is sin leading to death. I don’t say that he should make a request concerning this.
He who overcomes will be arrayed in white garments, and I will in no way blot his name out of the book of life, and I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.
I saw a great white throne and him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. There was found no place for them.
I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and they opened books. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged out of the things which were written in the books, according to their works.
The sea gave up the dead who were in it. Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them. They were judged, each one according to his works.
Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.
If anyone was not found written in the book of life, he was cast into the lake of fire.
eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,
burning for burning, wound for wound, and bruise for bruise.
When men strive against each other, and the wife of one draws near to deliver her husband out of the hand of him who strikes him, and puts out her hand, and grabs him by his private parts,
then you shall cut off her hand. Your eye shall have no pity.
She said, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” He awoke out of his sleep, and said, “I will go out as at other times, and shake myself free.” But he didn’t know that the LORD had departed from him.
Now go and strike Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and don’t spare them; but kill both man and woman, infant and nursing baby, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.’”
As they continued on and talked, behold, a chariot of fire and horses of fire separated them; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.
Elisha saw it, and he cried, “My father, my father, the chariots of Israel and its horsemen!” He saw him no more. Then he took hold of his own clothes and tore them in two pieces.
He said, “Naked I came out of my mother’s womb, and naked will I return there. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the LORD’s name.”
For you formed my inmost being. You knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I will give thanks to you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful. My soul knows that very well.
My frame wasn’t hidden from you, when I was made in secret, woven together in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my body. In your book they were all written, the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there were none of them.
Surely he has borne our sickness and carried our suffering; yet we considered him plagued, struck by God, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought our peace was on him; and by his wounds we are healed.
For I know the thoughts that I think towards you,” says the LORD, “thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you hope and a future.
The LORD’s hand was on me, and he brought me out in the LORD’s Spirit, and set me down in the middle of the valley; and it was full of bones.
So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up on their feet, an exceedingly great army.
Then he said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost. We are completely cut off.’
Therefore prophesy, and tell them, ‘The Lord GOD says: “Behold, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, my people; and I will bring you into the land of Israel.
You will know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves and caused you to come up out of your graves, my people.
I will put my Spirit in you, and you will live. Then I will place you in your own land; and you will know that I, the LORD, have spoken it and performed it,” says the LORD.’”
“Enter in by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter in by it.
How narrow is the gate and the way is restricted that leads to life! There are few who find it.
“But when the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory.
Before him all the nations will be gathered, and he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
He will set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.
Then the King will tell those on his right hand, ‘Come, blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world;
for I was hungry and you gave me food to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you took me in.
I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me.’
“Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you a drink?
When did we see you as a stranger and take you in, or naked and clothe you?
When did we see you sick or in prison and come to you?’
but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.
“The King will answer them, ‘Most certainly I tell you, because you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’
Then he will say also to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels;
for I was hungry, and you didn’t give me food to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me no drink;
I was a stranger, and you didn’t take me in; naked, and you didn’t clothe me; sick, and in prison, and you didn’t visit me.’
“Then they will also answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and didn’t help you?’
“Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Most certainly I tell you, because you didn’t do it to one of the least of these, you didn’t do it to me.’
These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
“Now there was a certain rich man, and he was clothed in purple and fine linen, living in luxury every day.
He called him, and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Give an accounting of your management, for you can no longer be manager.’
A certain beggar, named Lazarus, was taken to his gate, full of sores,
and desiring to be fed with the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table. Yes, even the dogs came and licked his sores.
The beggar died, and he was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried.
In Hades, he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far off, and Lazarus at his bosom.
He cried and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue! For I am in anguish in this flame.’
“But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that you, in your lifetime, received your good things, and Lazarus, in the same way, bad things. But here he is now comforted and you are in anguish.
Besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, that those who want to pass from here to you are not able, and that no one may cross over from there to us.’
“He said, ‘I ask you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father’s house—
for I have five brothers—that he may testify to them, so they won’t also come into this place of torment.’
“But Abraham said to him, ‘They have Moses and the prophets. Let them listen to them.’
“The manager said within himself, ‘What will I do, seeing that my lord is taking away the management position from me? I don’t have strength to dig. I am ashamed to beg.
“He said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’
“He said to him, ‘If they don’t listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if one rises from the dead.’”
In my Father’s house are many homes. If it weren’t so, I would have told you. I am going to prepare a place for you.
In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.
One who has my commandments and keeps them, that person is one who loves me. One who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him, and will reveal myself to him.”
Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, what has happened that you are about to reveal yourself to us, and not to the world?”
Jesus answered him, “If a man loves me, he will keep my word. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.
He who doesn’t love me doesn’t keep my words. The word which you hear isn’t mine, but the Father’s who sent me.
“I have said these things to you while still living with you.
But the Counsellor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things, and will remind you of all that I said to you.
Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you; not as the world gives, I give to you. Don’t let your heart be troubled, neither let it be fearful.
You heard how I told you, ‘I am going away, and I will come back to you.’ If you loved me, you would have rejoiced because I said ‘I am going to my Father;’ for the Father is greater than I.
Now I have told you before it happens so that when it happens, you may believe.
If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will receive you to myself; that where I am, you may be there also.
Now when the day of Pentecost had come, they were all with one accord in one place.
Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, the parts of Libya around Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes,
Cretans and Arabians—we hear them speaking in our languages the mighty works of God!”
They were all amazed and were perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?”
Others, mocking, said, “They are filled with new wine.”
But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice and spoke out to them, “You men of Judea and all you who dwell at Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to my words.
For these aren’t drunken, as you suppose, seeing it is only the third hour of the day.
But this is what has been spoken through the prophet Joel:
‘It will be in the last days, says God, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters will prophesy. Your young men will see visions. Your old men will dream dreams.
Yes, and on my servants and on my handmaidens in those days, I will pour out my Spirit, and they will prophesy.
I will show wonders in the sky above, and signs on the earth beneath: blood, and fire, and billows of smoke.
Suddenly there came from the sky a sound like the rushing of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.
The sun will be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and glorious day of the Lord comes.
It will be that whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.’
“Men of Israel, hear these words! Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved by God to you by mighty works and wonders and signs which God did by him amongst you, even as you yourselves know,
him, being delivered up by the determined counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by the hand of lawless men, crucified and killed;
whom God raised up, having freed him from the agony of death, because it was not possible that he should be held by it.
For David says concerning him, ‘I saw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved.
Therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced. Moreover my flesh also will dwell in hope,
because you will not leave my soul in Hades, neither will you allow your Holy One to see decay.
You made known to me the ways of life. You will make me full of gladness with your presence.’
“Brothers, I may tell you freely of the patriarch David, that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day.
Tongues like fire appeared and were distributed to them, and one sat on each of them.
Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, he would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne,
he foreseeing this, spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that his soul wasn’t left in Hades, and his flesh didn’t see decay.
This Jesus God raised up, to which we all are witnesses.
Being therefore exalted by the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this which you now see and hear.
For David didn’t ascend into the heavens, but he says himself, ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit by my right hand
until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.”’
“Let all the house of Israel therefore know certainly that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”
Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”
Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptised, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are far off, even as many as the Lord our God will call to himself.”
They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other languages, as the Spirit gave them the ability to speak.
We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, for those who are called according to his purpose.
If any man’s work is burnt, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, but as through fire.
For we must all be revealed before the judgement seat of Christ that each one may receive the things in the body according to what he has done, whether good or bad.
for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,
not of works, that no one would boast.
For many walk, of whom I told you often, and now tell you even weeping, as the enemies of the cross of Christ,
whose end is destruction, whose god is the belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who think about earthly things.
but she will be saved through her childbearing, if they continue in faith, love, and holiness with sobriety.
Without faith it is impossible to be well pleasing to him, for he who comes to God must believe that he exists, and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him.
Let no man say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God,” for God can’t be tempted by evil, and he himself tempts no one.
But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own lust and enticed.
according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, that you may obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with his blood: Grace to you and peace be multiplied.
This is how we know that we know him: if we keep his commandments.
One who says, “I know him,” and doesn’t keep his commandments, is a liar, and the truth isn’t in him.
There will in no way enter into it anything profane, or one who causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
If you do well, won’t it be lifted up? If you don’t do well, sin crouches at the door. Its desire is for you, but you are to rule over it.”
for you shall worship no other god; for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.
“‘If a man lies with a male, as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination. They shall surely be put to death. Their blood shall be upon themselves.
You shall not eat of anything that dies of itself. You may give it to the foreigner living amongst you who is within your gates, that he may eat it; or you may sell it to a foreigner; for you are a holy people to the LORD your God. You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.
“This is what the LORD says: ‘Behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house; and I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbour, and he will lie with your wives in the sight of this sun.
For you did this secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun.’”
David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.” Nathan said to David, “The LORD also has put away your sin. You will not die.
However, because by this deed you have given great occasion to the LORD’s enemies to blaspheme, the child also who is born to you will surely die.”
If I ascend up into heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, you are there!
Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and don’t lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not my ways,” says the LORD.
“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
“‘The sentence is by the decree of the watchers and the demand by the word of the holy ones, to the intent that the living may know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomever he will, and sets up over it the lowest of men.’
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you, that you may be no priest to me. Because you have forgotten your God’s law, I will also forget your children.
but Esau I hated, and made his mountains a desolation, and gave his heritage to the jackals of the wilderness.”
He set another parable before them, saying, “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field,
but while people slept, his enemy came and sowed darnel weeds also amongst the wheat, and went away.
But when the blade sprang up and produced grain, then the darnel weeds appeared also.
The servants of the householder came and said to him, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where did these darnel weeds come from?’
“He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ “The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and gather them up?’
“But he said, ‘No, lest perhaps while you gather up the darnel weeds, you root up the wheat with them.
He spoke to them many things in parables, saying, “Behold, a farmer went out to sow.
Let both grow together until the harvest, and in the harvest time I will tell the reapers, “First, gather up the darnel weeds, and bind them in bundles to burn them; but gather the wheat into my barn.”’”
Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye than for a rich man to enter into God’s Kingdom.”
Jesus, looking at them, said, “With men it is impossible, but not with God, for all things are possible with God.”
“Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, will be given to you. For with the same measure you measure it will be measured back to you.”
I can of myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and my judgement is righteous, because I don’t seek my own will, but the will of my Father who sent me.
Now the natural man doesn’t receive the things of God’s Spirit, for they are foolishness to him; and he can’t know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
Even if our Good News is veiled, it is veiled in those who are dying,
in whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that the light of the Good News of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should not dawn on them.
For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, that you may not do the things that you desire.
Have no fellowship with the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but rather even reprove them.
Put on therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, a heart of compassion, kindness, lowliness, humility, and perseverance;
bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, if any man has a complaint against any; even as Christ forgave you, so you also do.
Above all these things, walk in love, which is the bond of perfection.
For this is the will of God: your sanctification, that you abstain from sexual immorality,
that each one of you know how to control his own body in sanctification and honour,
not in the passion of lust, even as the Gentiles who don’t know God,
Every Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness,
that each person who belongs to God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.
who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for good works.
Therefore let’s also, seeing we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let’s run with perseverance the race that is set before us,
For they indeed for a few days disciplined us as seemed good to them, but he for our profit, that we may be partakers of his holiness.
All chastening seems for the present to be not joyous but grievous; yet afterward it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
Therefore lift up the hands that hang down and the feeble knees,
and make straight paths for your feet, so what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed.
Follow after peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no man will see the Lord,
looking carefully lest there be any man who falls short of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you and many be defiled by it,
lest there be any sexually immoral person or profane person, like Esau, who sold his birthright for one meal.
For you know that even when he afterward desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for a change of mind though he sought it diligently with tears.
For you have not come to a mountain that might be touched and that burnt with fire, and to blackness, darkness, storm,
the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which those who heard it begged that not one more word should be spoken to them,
looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising its shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.