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159 Controversial Bible Verses
If you ever find yourself needing wisdom, know that you can ask God, and He will generously give it to you, no questions asked. It's easy to get caught up in arguments, you know? Life's full of people with different viewpoints. But understand this: God doesn't want you getting into fights or constantly arguing with those around you.
He wants you to be humble and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal His will to you. Steer clear of arguments and heated discussions. Even if you don't fully grasp God's word right now, you can always ask the Father for wisdom, and He'll lovingly illuminate your understanding.
He'll guide you toward truth, and His peace—that peace that surpasses all understanding—will surround you. Right here, right now, open your heart to Jesus. Don't rely on your own understanding. Remember, it's not your job to convert or convince others. That's the Holy Spirit's work.
So God created humankind in his image, in the likeness of God he created him, male and female he created them.
Then Yahweh God said, “it is not good that the man is alone. I will make for him a helper as his counterpart.”
And they called to Lot and said to him, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we may know them.”
And if there is serious injury, you will give life in place of life,eye in place of eye, tooth in place of tooth, hand in place of hand, foot in place of foot,burn in place of burn, wound in place of wound, bruise in place of bruise.
do not hastily bring out to court, for what will you do at its end, when your neighbor puts you to shame?Argue your argument with your neighbor himself, the secret of another do not disclose,
“ ‘As for the man who lies with a male as lying with a woman, they have committed a detestable thing; they shall surely be put to death—their blood is on them.
And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, began to say to his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
And the Pharisees began to say to him, “Behold, why are they doing what is not permitted on the Sabbath?”And he said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he had need and he and those who were with him were hungry—
Now kill every male among the little children, and kill every woman who has had sexual intercourse with a man.But all the females who have not had sexual intercourse with a man, keep alive for yourselves.
So the Pharisees said to him, “You testify concerning yourself! Your testimony is not true.”
But from the cities of these peoples that Yahweh your God is giving to you as an inheritance, you shall not let anything live that breathes.Rather, you shall utterly destroy them, the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, just as Yahweh your God has commanded you,
And after there was no little strife and debate by Paul and Barnabas against them, they appointed Paul and Barnabas and some others from among them to go up to the apostles and elders in Jerusalem concerning this issue.
“The apparel of a man shall not be put on a woman, and a man shall not wear the clothing of a woman, because everyone who does these things is detestable to Yahweh your God.
“If a man takes a woman and he has sex with her, but he then dislikes her,and he accuses her falsely, and he defames her, and he says ‘This woman I took and I lay with her and I discovered that she was not a virgin,’then in defense the father of the young woman shall take, along with her mother, and together they must bring out the evidence of the virginity of the young woman to display it to the elders of the city at the city gate.And then the father of the young woman shall say to the elders, ‘I gave my daughter to this man as wife, but he now dislikes her,and now look he has accused her falsely, saying, “I did not find your daughter a virgin,” but here is evidence of the virginity of my daughter’; and they shall spread the cloth out before the elders of the city.Then the elders of that city shall take the man, and they shall discipline him.Then they shall fine him a hundred shekels of silver, and they shall give them to the father of the young woman, for he defamed an Israelite young woman, and she shall become his wife; he will not be allowed to divorce her all his days.And if your countryman is not near you or you do not know who he is, then you shall bring it to your household, and it shall be with you until your countryman seeks after it, and you shall return it to him.“But if this charge was true, and the signs of virginity were not found for the young woman,and then they shall bring out the young woman to the doorway of the house of her father, and the men of her city shall stone her with stones, and she shall die, because she did a disgraceful thing in Israel by playing the harlot in the house of her father, and so you shall purge the evil from your midst.
“No man with crushed testicles or whose male organ is cut off may come into the assembly of Yahweh.
“If a man and his brother fight each other and the wife of the one man comes near to rescue her husband from the hand of his attacker and she stretches out her hand and she seizes his genitals,then you shall cut off her hand; your eye shall not take pity.
So then, go and attack Amalek and utterly destroy all that is his! You must not spare him, but kill both man and woman, both child and nursing infant, both ox and sheep, both camel and donkey.’ ”
Thus says Yahweh, ‘Look, I am going to raise up evil against you from within your house, and I will take your women before your eyes, and I will give them to your neighbor, and he shall sleep with your wives in broad daylight.Though you did this in secret, I will do this thing before all of Israel in broad daylight!’ ”Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against Yahweh!” Nathan said to David, “Yahweh has also forgiven your sin; you shall not die.But because you have utterly scorned Yahweh in this matter, the son born for you will certainly die.”
Do not withhold discipline from a child, if you will beat him with the rod, he will not die.As for you, with the rod you shall beat him, and his life you will save from Sheol.
For everything there is an appointed time, a time for every matter under heaven:I have seen the busyness God gives to humans to preoccupy them.He has made everything suitable in its time. He also has put the past in their hearts, yet no one can grasp what God does from the beginning to the end.So I realized that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice and enjoy themselves during their lives.And for anyone to eat and drink, that is, to enjoy the fruit of all his toil, this also is a gift of God.I know everything God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, and nothing can be taken from it, for God so acts that humans might stand in awe before him.What is—it already was, and what will be—it already is, for God will do what he has done.I saw something else under the sun: instead of justice there was evil; instead of righteousness there was wickedness.So I said to myself, “God will surely judge the righteous and the wicked, for he has appointed a time of judgment for every deed and every work.”I said to myself concerning humans, “God sifts them in order to show them that they are like beasts.”For the fate of humans and the fate of the beast is the same. The death of the one is like the death of the other, for both are mortal. Man has no advantage over the beast, for both are fleeting.a time to bear and a time to die; a time to plant and a time to root up what is planted;Both go to one place—both came from dust and both return to dust.For no one knows whether the spirit of a human ascends to heaven and whether the spirit of the beast descends to the ground!So I concluded that there is nothing better for a person than to enjoy the fruit of his labor, for this is his lot in life. For no one knows what will happen in the future.a time to kill and a time to heal; a time to break down and a time to build up;a time to weep and a time to laugh; a time to mourn and a time to dance;a time to throw away stones and a time to gather stones; a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing;a time to seek and a time to lose; a time to keep and a time to throw away;a time to tear and a time to sew; a time to be silent and a time to speak;a time to love and a time to hate; a time for war and a time for peace.
I form light and I create darkness; I make peace and I create evil; I am Yahweh; I do all these things.
And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons, and the flesh of their daughters, and each one will eat the flesh of his neighbor in the siege and in the distress which their enemies and those who seek their life inflict on them.” ’
And in turn I gave to them rules that were not good and regulations by which they will not live.And I defiled them through their gifts in sacrificing all of the first offspring of the womb, in order that I will cause them to be stunned, so that they will know that I am Yahweh.
Then Nebuchadnezzar was filled with anger and the image of his face was changed toward Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, so he ordered and said to heat up the one furnace seven times what was usual to heat it up.Then Nebuchadnezzar the king sent directions to assemble the satraps, the prefects, and the governors, the counselors, the treasurers, the judges, the magistrates and all of the officials of the provinces to come to the dedication of the statue that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up.And he commanded the strongest men of the guards who were in his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and to throw them into the furnace of blazing fire.Then these men were bound with their garments, their trousers and their turbans and their other clothing, and they were thrown into the midst of the furnace of blazing fire.Therefore because the word of the king was severe and the furnace was exceedingly hot, the flame of the fire killed these men who lifted up Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.But these men, the three of them, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, fell down into the midst of the furnace of blazing fire, and they were bound.Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonished, and he rose up in haste and he asked, saying to his advisers, “Did we not throw three men, bound, into the midst of the fire? They answered, saying to the king, “Certainly, O king!”He answered, saying, “Look, I see four men unbound walking in the midst of the fire and there is no damage to them, and the appearance of the fourth man resembles the son of a god.”Then Nebuchadnezzar approached the door of the furnace of blazing fire, and he called out, saying, “Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out and come here!”And the satraps, the prefects, the governors and the advisors of the king were assembling, and they saw these men, that the fire had no power over their bodies, and the hair of their heads was not singed, and their garments were not harmed, and the smell of fire did not come from them.Nebuchadnezzar responded, saying, “Blessed be their God, the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who sent his angel and rescued his servants who trusted in him, and the command of the king they disobeyed, and they gave their bodies so that they did not serve and did not worship any god except their God.And from me is set forth a decree that any people, nation, or language that may utter criticism against their God—the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego—will be broken into pieces and their house will be made like ruins. For there is not another God who is able to rescue like this God.”Then the satraps, the prefects, the governors, the counselors, the treasurers, the judges, the magistrates, and all the officials of the province were assembled for the dedication of the statue that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up, and were standing before the statue that Nebuchadnezzar had set up.Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the province of Babylon.
Or is a horn blown in a city and people are not afraid? Or does a disaster occur in the city and Yahweh has not done it?
but Esau I have hated. I have made his mountain ranges a desolation, and given his inheritance to the jackals of the desert.”
“Do not think that I have come to destroy the law or the prophets. I have not come to destroy them but to fulfill them.For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one tiny letter or one stroke of a letter will pass away from the law until all takes place.Therefore whoever abolishes one of the least of these commandments and teaches people to do so will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever keeps them and teaches them, this person will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
“Do not judge, so that you will not be judged.Or also if he will ask for a fish, will give him a snake?Therefore if you, although you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him?Therefore in all things, whatever you want that people should do to you, thus also you do to them. For this is the law and the prophets.“Enter through the narrow gate, because broad is the gate and spacious is the road that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it,because narrow is the gate and constricted is the road that leads to life, and there are few who find it!“Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inside are ravenous wolves.You will recognize them by their fruits: they do not gather grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles, do they?In the same way, every good tree produces good fruit, but a bad tree produces bad fruit.A good tree is not able to produce bad fruit, nor a bad tree to produce good fruit.Every tree that does not produce good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.For by what judgment you judge, you will be judged, and by what measure you measure out, it will be measured out to you.As a result, you will recognize them by their fruits.“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter into the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and expel demons in your name, and perform many miracles in your name?’And then I will say to them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness!’“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.And the rain came down and the rivers came and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it did not collapse, because its foundation was laid on the rock.And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.And the rain came down and the rivers came and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it collapsed, and its fall was great.”And it happened when Jesus finished these words the crowds were amazed at his teaching,because he was teaching them like one who had authority, and not like their scribes.And why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the beam of wood in your own eye?Or how will you say to your brother, ‘Allow me to remove the speck from your eye,’ and behold, the beam of wood is in your own eye?Hypocrite! First remove the beam of wood from your own eye and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye!
But he answered and said, “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
Now I say to you that whoever divorces his wife, except on the basis of sexual immorality, and marries another commits adultery, and whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery.”
Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came up and rolled away the stone and sat down on it.teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you, and behold, I am with you all the days until the end of the age.”
But from the beginning of creation ‘he made them male and female.Because of this a man will leave his father and mother and will be joined to his wife,and the two will become one flesh,’ so that they are no longer two but one flesh.Therefore what God has joined together, man must not separate.”
“The law and the prophets were until John; from that time on the kingdom of God has been proclaimed, and everyone is urgently pressed into it.But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one stroke of a letter of the law to become invalid.
The one who believes in the Son has eternal life, but the one who disobeys the Son will not see life—but the wrath of God remains on him.
Then Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life in yourselves!
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias, and he was added to serve with the eleven apostles.
And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized, each one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
And he made from one man every nation of humanity to live on all the face of the earth, determining their fixed times and the fixed boundaries of their habitation,to search for God, if perhaps indeed they might feel around for him and find him. And indeed he is not far away from each one of us,
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all impiety and unrighteousness of people, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,because what can be known about God is evident among them, for God made it clear to them.which he promised previously through his prophets in the holy scriptures,For from the creation of the world, his invisible attributes, both his eternal power and deity, are discerned clearly, being understood in the things created, so that they are without excuse.For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their reasoning, and their senseless hearts were darkened.Claiming to be wise, they became fools,and exchanged the glory of the immortal God with the likeness of an image of mortal human beings and birds and quadrupeds and reptiles.Therefore God gave them over in the desires of their hearts to immorality, that their bodies would be dishonored among themselves,who exchanged the truth of God with a lie, and worshiped and served the creation rather than the Creator, who is blessed for eternity. Amen.Because of this, God gave them over to degrading passions, for their females exchanged the natural relations for those contrary to nature,and likewise also the males, abandoning the natural relations with the female, were inflamed in their desire toward one another, males with males committing the shameless deed, and receiving in themselves the penalty that was necessary for their error.And just as they did not see fit to recognize God, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do the things that are not proper,being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greediness, malice, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malevolence. They are gossipers,concerning his Son, who was born a descendant of David according to the flesh,slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boasters, contrivers of evil, disobedient to parents,senseless, faithless, unfeeling, unmerciful,who, although they know the requirements of God, that those who do such things are worthy of death, not only do they do the same things, but also they approve of those who do them.
What then shall we say? Is the law sin? May it never be! But I would not have known sin except through the law, for I would not have known covetousness if the law had not said, “Do not covet.”But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin is dead.
Do not take revenge yourselves, dear friends, but give place to God’s wrath, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay,” says the Lord.
I have decided to hand over such a person to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, in order that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.
but every woman who prays or prophesies with uncovered head dishonors her head, for she is one and the same with the one whose head is shaved.For if a woman does not cover herself, let her hair be shorn off. But if it is shameful for a woman to have her head shorn or shaved, let her cover her head.
the women must be silent in the churches, for it is not permitted for them to speak, but they must be in submission, just as the law also says.But if they want to learn something, let them ask their own husbands at home, for it is shameful for a woman to speak in church.
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
—wives to their own husbands as to the Lord,because the husband is the head of the wife, as also Christ is the head of the church (he himself being the Savior of the body).But as the church is subject to Christ, thus also wives should be subject to their husbands in everything.
Therefore my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
Slaves, obey your human masters in everything, not while being watched, as people pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord.Whatever you do, accomplish it from the soul, as to the Lord, and not to people,because you know that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. Serve the Lord Christ.
For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality;that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor,not in lustful passion, just as also the Gentiles who do not know God;
(No longer drink only water, but use a little wine for your stomach and your frequent illnesses.)
For there will be a time when they will not put up with sound teaching, but in accordance with their own desires, they will accumulate for themselves teachers, because they have an insatiable curiosity,and they will turn away from the hearing of the truth, but will turn to myths.
For there are many rebellious people, idle talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision,whom it is necessary to silence, whoever are ruining whole families by teaching things which must not be taught for the sake of dishonest gain.A certain one of them, one of their own prophets, has said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.”This testimony is true, for which reason reprove them severely, in order that they may be sound in the faith,not paying attention to Jewish myths and commandments of people who turn away from the truth.
For it is impossible concerning those who have once been enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and become sharers of the Holy Spirit,and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the coming age,and having fallen away, to renew them again to repentance, because they have crucified again for themselves the Son of God and held him up to contempt.
For if we keep on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,but a certain fearful expectation of judgment and a fury of fire that is about to consume the adversaries.
What is the benefit, my brothers, if someone says that he has faith but does not have works? That faith is not able to save him, is it?If a brother or a sister is poorly clothed and lacking food for the day,and one of you should say to them, “Go in peace, keep warm and eat well,” but does not give them what is necessary for the body, what is the benefit?Thus also faith, if it does not have works, is dead by itself.But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe, and shudder!For if someone enters into your assembly in fine clothing with a gold ring on his finger, and a poor person in filthy clothing also enters,But do you want to know, O foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar?You see that faith was working together with his works, and by the works the faith was perfected.And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “And Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him for righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend.You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.And likewise was not Rahab the prostitute also justified by works when she welcomed the messengers and sent them out by a different route?For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.
In the same way, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some are disobedient to the word, they may be won over without a word by the conduct of their wives,For “The one who wants to love life and see good days must keep his tongue from evil and his lips must not speak deceit.And he must turn away from evil and do good; he must seek peace and pursue it.For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.And who is the one who will harm you if you are a zealous adherent for what is good?But even if you might suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed. And do not be afraid of their intimidation or be disturbed,but set Christ apart as Lord in your hearts, always ready to make a defense to anyone who asks you for an accounting concerning the hope that is in you.But do so with courtesy and respect, having a good conscience, so that in the things in which you are slandered, the ones who malign your good conduct in Christ may be put to shame.For it is better to suffer for doing good, if God wills it, than for doing evil.For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, in order that he could bring you to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit,in which also he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison,when they see your respectful, pure conduct.
For it is the time for the judgment to begin out from the household of God. But if it begins out from us first, what will be the outcome for those who are disobedient to the gospel of God?
Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him,because everything that is in the world—the desire of the flesh and the desire of the eyes and the arrogance of material possessions—is not from the Father, but is from the world.And the world is passing away, and its desire, but the one who does the will of God remains forever.
Everyone who is fathered by God does not practice sin, because his seed resides in him, and he is not able to sin, because he has been fathered by God.
If anyone should see his brother sinning a sin not leading to death, he should ask, and he will grant life to him, to those who sin not leading to death. (There is a sin leading to death; I do not say that he should ask about that.All unrighteousness is sin, and there is a sin not leading to death.)
And I have given her time in order to repent, and she did not want to repent from her sexual immorality.Behold, I am throwing her into a sickbed and those who committed adultery with her into great affliction, unless they repent from her deeds.And I will kill her children with deadly disease, and all the churches will know that I am the one who searches minds and hearts, and I will give to each one of you according to your deeds.
Thus, because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I am about to vomit you out of my mouth!
To the woman he said, “I will greatly increase your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bear children. And to your husband shall be your desire. And he shall rule over you.”
and the pig, because it has a divided hoof and has a split cleft in the hoof but it does not chew cud—it is unclean for you.You must not eat from their meat, and you must not touch their dead body—they are unclean for you.
However, anything devoted that a man has devoted to Yahweh from all that he has, from human or animal, or from the field of his property, may not be sold, and it may not be redeemed; anything devoted is a most holy thing for Yahweh.Anyone devoted who is devoted from human beings cannot be ransomed—he shall surely be put to death.
Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,“Speak to the Israelites and say to them, ‘If any man’s wife goes astray and acts unfaithfully to him,and a man sleeps with her and ejaculates and it is hidden from the eyes of her husband and she is concealed, although she is defiled, and there is no witness against her and she was not caught,if a spirit of jealousy comes over him, and he is jealous of his wife and she is defiled; or if a spirit of jealousy comes over him and he is jealous of his wife but she is not defiled,he will bring his wife to the priest. And he will bring her offering for her, one-tenth of an ephah of flour. He will not pour oil on it, and he will not put frankincense on it because it is a grain offering of jealousy, a grain offering of remembering, a reminding of guilt.“ ‘Then the priest will bring her near and present her before Yahweh;the priest will take holy waters in a clay vessel, and from the dust that is on the floor of the tabernacle, and the priest will put it into the waters.And the priest will present the woman before Yahweh, and he will uncover the head of the woman; he will then put in her hands the grain offering of the remembering—which is the grain offering of jealousy—and in the hand of the priest will be the waters of bitterness that brings a curse.Then the priest will make her swear an oath, and he will say to the woman, “If a man has not slept with you, and if you have not had an impurity affair under your husband, go unpunished from the waters of bitterness that brings this curse.“Command the Israelites: they must send everyone from the camp who is afflicted with a rash, everyone with a fluid discharge, and everyone unclean through contact with a corpse.But if you have had an affair under your husband, and if you are defiled and a man other than your husband had intercourse with you,”the priest will make the woman swear an oath of the sworn oath of the curse, the priest will say to the woman, “May Yahweh give you a curse and a sworn oath in the midst of your people with Yahweh making your hip fall away and your stomach swollen;and these waters that bring a curse will go into your intestines to cause your womb to swell and to make your hip fall away.” And the women will say, “Amen. Amen.”“ ‘And the priests will write these curses on the scroll, and he will wipe them off into the waters of the bitterness.He will make the woman drink the waters of the bitterness that brings a curse, and the waters of bitterness that bring a curse will go into her.The priest will take the grain offering of jealousy from the hand of the woman, and he will wave the grain offering before Yahweh, and he will present it to the altar;the priest will grasp her memorial offering from the grain offering, and he will turn it into smoke on the altar, and afterward he will make the woman drink the waters.When he has made her drink the waters, it will come about, if she has defiled herself and acted unfaithfully to her husband and the waters of bitterness that bring a curse go into her and her stomach swells and her hip falls away, the woman will be as a curse in the midst of her people.And if the woman is not defiled, and she is pure, she will go unpunished and be able to conceive children.“ ‘This is the regulation of jealousy, when a woman has an affair under her husband and she is defiled,You will send away both male and female; you will send them outside the camp. They must not make unclean their camps where I am dwelling in their midst.”or when a spirit of jealousy comes over a man and he is jealous of his wife, he will present the woman before Yahweh,and the priest will do to her all of this law.The man will go unpunished from guilt, and the woman, she will bear her guilt.’ ”
“When brothers dwell together and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the deceased shall not become the wife of a man of another family; her brother-in-law shall have sex with her, and he shall take her to himself as a wife, and he shall perform his duty as a brother-in-law with respect to her.And then the firstborn that she bears shall represent his dead brother, so that his name is not blotted out from Israel.
While they were enjoying themselves, behold, the men of the city, the perverse lot, surrounded the house, pounding on the door. And they said to the old man, the owner of the house, “Bring out the man who came to your house so that we may have sex with him.”So the man, the owner of the house, went out to them and said to them, “No, my brothers, do not act wickedly; since this man has come into my house, do not do this disgraceful thing.Here is my virgin daughter and his concubine. Please, let me bring them out; do violence to them, and do to them whatever you please. Do not do this disgraceful thing to this man.”But the men were not willing to listen to him, and the man seized his concubine and brought her out to them; and they had intercourse with her, and they abused her all night until the morning; they let her go at the approach of dawn.And the woman came as the morning appeared, and she fell at the entrance of the man’s house where her master was, until daylight.In the morning her master got up, and he opened the doors of the house and went out to go on his journey, and behold, his concubine was falling at the entrance of the house, with her hand on the threshold.And he said to her, “Get up, let us go,” but there was no answer. So he put her on the donkey, and the man got up and went to his place.When he entered his house he took a knife, and he grasped his concubine and cut her into twelve pieces; and he sent her throughout the whole territory of Israel.So her husband set out, and he went after her to speak tenderly to her, to bring her back. He took with him his servant and a pair of donkeys. And she brought him to her father’s house, and the father of the young woman saw him and was glad to meet him.All who saw it said, “Nothing like this has ever been since the Israelites went up from the land of Egypt until this day. Take note of it, consider it, and speak up.”
Thus says Yahweh of hosts: ‘I have observed what Amalek did to Israel, how he opposed him when he went up from Egypt.Then Saul said to Samuel, “I have listened to the voice of Yahweh, and I have gone on the way that Yahweh sent me! I brought Agag the king of Amalek, and the Amalekites I have utterly destroyed.The troops took from the plunder, sheep and cattle, the best of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to Yahweh your God at Gilgal.”Then Samuel said, “Is there as much delight for Yahweh in burnt offerings and sacrifices as there is in obeying Yahweh? Look! To obey is better than sacrifice; to give heed than the fat of rams.For rebellion is like the sin of divination; arrogance is like iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of Yahweh, he has rejected you from being king!”Then Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned because I have transgressed the commandment of Yahweh and your words, for I feared the troops and I listened to their voice.So then, please pardon my sin and return with me so that I can worship Yahweh.”But Samuel said to Saul, “I will not return with you, for you have rejected the word of Yahweh, and he has rejected you from being king over Israel!”As Samuel turned around to go, he caught hold of the hem of his robe, and it tore.Then Samuel said to him, “Yahweh has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today and has given it to your neighbor who is better than you.Moreover, the Glory of Israel will not break faith and will not regret, for he is not a human that he should regret.”So then, go and attack Amalek and utterly destroy all that is his! You must not spare him, but kill both man and woman, both child and nursing infant, both ox and sheep, both camel and donkey.’ ”
So Ahab sent word among the Israelites, and he assembled the prophets to Mount Carmel.Elijah approached to all the people and said, “How long will you go limping over two opinions? If Yahweh is God, go after him; but if Baal, go after him.” But the people did not answer him a word.Then Elijah said to the people, “I alone am left a prophet of Yahweh, but the prophets of Baal are four hundred and fifty men.Let them give us two bulls, and let them choose for themselves one bull, cut him in pieces, and put it on the wood, but don’t let them start a fire on it. I will prepare the other bull and set it on the wood, but I will put no fire on it.Then you call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of Yahweh, and it shall be that the god who answers by fire, he is God.” Then all the people answered and said, “The word is good!”Then Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “Choose for yourselves one bull and prepare it first, for you are the majority, and call on the name of your god, but don’t set fire under it.”So they took the bull that he allowed to them, prepared it, and called upon the name of Baal from morning until noon, saying, “O Baal, answer us!” But there was no voice and there was no answer, so they limped about the altar which they had made.It happened at noon that Elijah mocked them and said, “Call out with a loud voice, for he is a god! Perhaps he is meditating, or is using the bathroom, or is on a journey. Perhaps he is asleep and must wake up!”So they called out with a loud voice, and they cut themselves with swords and with spears as was their custom, until the blood poured out over them.It happened as noon passed, they raged until the time of the evening offering, but there was no voice, there was no answer, and no one paid attention.Ahab summoned Obadiah who was over the house. (Now Obadiah was fearing Yahweh greatly.Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come near to me,” so all the people came closer to him. He repaired the altar of Yahweh that had been destroyed.Elijah took twelve stones according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of God came, saying, “Israel shall be your name.”With them, he built an altar in the name of Yahweh, and he made a trench which would have held about two seahs of seed, all around the altar.And he arranged the wood, cut the bull into pieces, and placed it on the wood. Then he said, “Fill four jars with water, and pour it on the burnt offering and on the wood.”He said, “Do it again!” They did it again. He said, “Do it a third time!” So they did it a third time.The water went all around the altar, and the trench also was filled with water.It happened at the offering of the evening oblation, Elijah the prophet went near, and he said, “O Yahweh, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel; let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and that I have done all of these things by your words.Answer me, O Yahweh, answer me; that this people may know that you, O Yahweh, are God and that you have turned their hearts back again.”Then the fire of Yahweh fell, and it consumed the burnt offering, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust; and the water which was in the trench it licked up!When all the people saw, they fell on their faces and said, “Yahweh, he is God! Yahweh, he is God!”It had happened that when Jezebel killed the prophets of Yahweh, Obadiah took a hundred prophets and hid them by fifties in the cave and sustained them with food and water.)Then Elijah said to them, “Seize the prophets of Baal; don’t let any man of them escape!” So they seized them, and Elijah brought them down to the wadi of Kishon and killed them there.
Then he went up from there to Bethel; as he was going up along the way, young boys came out from the city and mocked at him and said to him, “Go up, baldhead; go up, baldhead!”When he turned around and saw them, he cursed them in the name of Yahweh. Then two bears came out of the forest and mauled forty-two boys among them.
but all who will not seek Yahweh the God of Israel should be killed, from young to old, from men to women.And they took an oath to Yahweh with a great voice, with shouting, with trumpets, and with horns.And all Judah rejoiced over the oath, for they swore with all their heart. And they sought him with their whole desire, and he was found by them, and Yahweh gave rest to them all around.
Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and let them not be recorded with the righteous.
Do I not hate those who hate you, O Yahweh? And do I not loathe those who rise up against you?I hate them with a complete hatred; they have become my enemies.
There are six things Yahweh hates, and seven things are abominations of his soul:haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,a devising heart, plans of deception, feet that hurry to run to evil,a false witness who breathes lies and sends out discord between brothers.
A good name is better than precious ointment, and the day of death is better than the day of one’s birth.Do not say, “Why were the former days better than these?” For it is not from wisdom that you ask this.Wisdom is good with an inheritance; it benefits the living.For wisdom offers protection like money offers protection. But knowledge has an advantage—wisdom restores life to its possessor.Consider the work of God. For who is able to make straight what he made crooked?In the day of prosperity, rejoice! But in the day of adversity, consider! For God made one in place of another so that mortals cannot find out what will happen in the future.I have seen all these things in my vain life: Sometimes a righteous man perishes in spite of his righteousness, and sometimes a wicked man lives a long life in spite of his evil.Do not be excessively righteous, and do not act excessively wise, lest you destroy yourself.Do not act excessively wicked, and do not be a fool, lest you die before your time.It is good to take hold of the one and also must not let go of the other; for whoever fears God will hold both of them secure.Wisdom gives more strength to the wise than ten rulers who are in the city.Better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for death is the end of every person, and the living should take it to his heart.Surely there is no one righteous on the earth who continually does good and never sins.Do not pay attention to everything people say, lest you hear your own servant curse you.For your heart knows that you also have cursed others many times.All this I have tested with wisdom. I said, “I will be wise!” but it was beyond my grasp.Whatever is—it is far beyond comprehension. Who can discover it?I set my mind to try to seek wisdom and the plan, and to know that wickedness is foolishness and that folly is delusion.I myself found that more bitter than death is the woman who is a trap, whose heart is a snare, and whose hands are bonds. The one who pleases God escapes from her, but the sinner is caught by her.“Look! I found this,” said the Teacher, “while trying to find how the plan fits together.What my heart sought, I did not find. Although I found one righteous man among one thousand, I did not find one upright woman among all these.Look! This alone I found: God made mankind upright, but they have devised many schemes.”Sorrow is better than laughter, for by sadness of countenance the heart is made good.The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.
Ah! Those who decree decrees of evil, and writers who have written harm,As my hand has reached to the kingdoms of the idols —and their images were greater than those of Jerusalem and Samaria—shall I not do to Jerusalem and its idols what I have done to Samaria and her idols?”And this shall happen: when the Lord has finished all his work against Mount Zion and Jerusalem, “I will punish the arrogance of the king of Assyria and his haughtiness.”For he says, “I have done it by the strength of my hand and by my wisdom, for I have understanding, and I have removed the boundaries of peoples, and I have plundered their stores, and like a bull I have brought down the inhabitants.And my hand has found, like a nest, the wealth of the peoples, and like the gathering of forsaken eggs, I myself have gathered all the earth. And there was no fluttering wing or open mouth or chirp.”Does the ax boast against the one who cuts with it, or the saw magnify itself against the one who moves it to and fro? As if a rod should move the one who lifts it! As if a staff should lift up that which is not wood!Therefore the Lord, Yahweh of hosts, will send leanness among his sturdy warriors, and a burning like the burning of fire will burn under his glory.And the light of Israel will become like a fire, and his holy one like a flame, and it will burn and devour his thorns and briers in one day.And he will destroy the glory of his forest and orchard completely, and it will be like the wasting away of one who is sick.And the rest of the trees of his forest will be a small number, and a boy can write them down.to guide the needy away from legal claims, and to rob the justice from the poor of my people, to make widows their spoil; and they plunder orphans.
And the Lord said, “Because this people draw near with its mouth, and with its lips it honors me, and its heart is far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment of men that has been taught,
Yet Yahweh was pleased to crush him; he made him sick. If she places his life a guilt offering, he will see offspring. He will prolong days, and the will of Yahweh will succeed in his hand.
Can a Cushite change his skin, or a leopard his spots? Then you also will be able to do good, who are accustomed to doing evil.
Have I delight by any means in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord Yahweh, and not at his turning from his way, so that he lives?
“I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your assemblies.Yes, even if you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them, and I will not look at the fellowship offerings of your fattened animals.Remove from me the noise of your songs, and I do not want to hear the melody of your harps!
“Then I will approach you for judgment, and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers and against the adulterers, and against those who swear falsely, and against the oppressors of the hired worker with his wages, the widow and the orphan, and the abusers of the alien, and yet do not fear me,” says Yahweh of hosts.
But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and consuming insect destroy and where thieves break in and steal,Therefore whenever you practice charitable giving, do not sound a trumpet in front of you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, in order that they may be praised by people. Truly I say to you, they have received their reward in full!but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor consuming insect destroy and where thieves do not break in or steal.For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter into the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and expel demons in your name, and perform many miracles in your name?’And then I will say to them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness!’
But whoever denies me before people, I also will deny him before my Father who is in heaven.
Do you think that I have come to grant peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division!For from now on there will be five in one household, divided three against two and two against three.They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”
You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father! That one was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand firm in the truth, because truth is not in him. Whenever he speaks the lie, he speaks from his own nature, because he is a liar and the father of lies.
And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven that is given among people by which we must be saved.”
What therefore shall we say? Shall we continue in sin, in order that grace may increase?For that death he died, he died to sin once and never again, but that life he lives, he lives to God.So also you, consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, so that you obey its desires,and do not present your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who are alive from the dead, and your members to God as instruments of righteousness.For sin will not be master over you, because you are not under law, but under grace.What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be!Do you not know that to whomever you present yourselves as slaves for obedience, you are slaves to whomever you obey, whether sin, leading to death, or obedience, leading to righteousness?But thanks be to God that you were slaves of sin, but you have obeyed from the heart the pattern of teaching to which you were entrusted,and having been set free from sin, you became enslaved to righteousness.(I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh.) For just as you presented your members as slaves to immorality and lawlessness, leading to lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, leading to sanctification.May it never be! How can we who died to sin still live in it?
For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
the work of each one will become evident. For the day will reveal it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the work of each one, of what sort it is.
Therefore, the one who thinks that he stands must watch out lest he fall.Temptation has not come upon you except what is common to humanity. But God is faithful, who will not permit you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but will also make a way out together with the temptation, so that you may be able to endure it.
Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are sexual immorality, impurity, licentiousness,Look! I, Paul, tell you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing!idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, factions,envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, things which I am telling you in advance, just as I said before, that the ones who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
But sexual immorality, and all uncleanness, or greediness, must not even be named among you (as is fitting for saints),because we are members of his body.“For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”(This mystery is great, but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church.)Only you also, each one of you, must thus love his own wife as himself, and the wife must respect her husband.and obscenity, and foolish talk, or coarse jesting (which are not proper), but rather thanksgiving.For this you know for certain, that every sexually immoral person, or unclean person, or greedy person (who is an idolater), does not have an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.
For many live, of whom I spoke about to you many times, but now speak about even weeping, as the enemies of the cross of Christ,whose end is destruction, whose God is the stomach, and whose glory is in their shame, the ones who think on earthly things.
If you have died with Christ to the elemental spirits of the world, why do you submit to them as if living in the world?“Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch,”which things are all meant for destruction by consuming according to human commandments and teachings,which things although they have, to be sure, an appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and humility and unsparing treatment of the body, do not have any value against the indulgence of the flesh.
Whenever they say “Peace and security,” then sudden destruction will overtake them like the birth pains of a pregnant woman, and they will not possibly escape.But you, brothers, are not in the darkness, so that the day should catch you like a thief,for you are all sons of light and sons of day. We are not of the night nor of darkness.
Now the Spirit explicitly says that in the last times some will depart from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons,For to this end we labor and suffer reproach, because we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of believers.Command these things and teach them.Let no one look down on your youth, but be an example for the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.Until I come, pay attention to the public reading, to exhortation, to teaching.Do not neglect the gift that is in you, that was granted to you through prophecy with the laying on of hands by the council of elders.Practice these things. Be diligent in these things, in order that your progress may be evident to everyone.Fix your attention on yourself and on your teaching. Continue in them, for by doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you.by the hypocrisy of liars, who are seared in their own conscience,
But know this, that in the last days difficult times will come,But you have faithfully followed my teaching, way of life, purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance,persecutions, and sufferings that happened to me in Antioch, in Iconium, and in Lystra, what sort of persecutions I endured, and the Lord delivered me from all of them.And indeed, all those who want to live in a godly manner in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.But evil people and imposters will progress to the worse, deceiving and being deceived.But you continue in the things which you have learned and are convinced of, because you know from whom you learned them,and that from childhood you have known the holy writings that are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness,in order that the person of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.for people will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, arrogant, slanderers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy,hardhearted, irreconcilable, slanderous, without self-control, savage, with no interest for what is good,traitors, reckless, conceited, loving pleasure rather than loving God,maintaining a form of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid these people.
They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny him, because they are detestable and disobedient, and unfit for every good deed.
that no one be a sexually immoral or totally worldly person like Esau, who for one meal traded his own birthright.For you know that also afterwards, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, because he did not find an occasion for repentance, although he sought it with tears.
But be doers of the message and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves,because if anyone is a hearer of the message and not a doer, this one is like someone staring at his own face in a mirror,for he looks at himself and goes away and immediately forgets what sort of person he was.But the one who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues to do it, not being a forgetful hearer but a doer who acts, this one will be blessed in what he does.
Not many should become teachers, my brothers, because you know that we will receive a greater judgment.From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so!A spring does not pour forth from the same opening fresh and bitter water, does it?A fig tree is not able, my brothers, to produce olives, or a grapevine figs. Neither can a saltwater spring produce fresh water.Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by his good behavior his works, with the humility of wisdom.But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and tell lies against the truth.This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic.For where there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there is disorder and every evil practice.But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceful, gentle, obedient, full of mercy and good fruits, nonjudgmental, without hypocrisy,And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace among those who make peace.For we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect individual, able to hold in check his whole body also.
with respect to which they are surprised when you do not run with them into the same flood of dissipation, and so they revile you.
Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to determine if they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
Therefore I exhort you, brothers, through the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, which is your reasonable service.being devoted to one another in brotherly love, esteeming one another more highly in honor,not lagging in diligence, being enthusiastic in spirit, serving the Lord,rejoicing in hope, enduring in affliction, being devoted to prayer,contributing to the needs of the saints, pursuing hospitality.Bless those who persecute, bless and do not curse them.Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep.Think the same thing toward one another; do not think arrogantly, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own sight.Pay back no one evil for evil. Take thought for what is good in the sight of all people.If it is possible on your part, be at peace with all people.Do not take revenge yourselves, dear friends, but give place to God’s wrath, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay,” says the Lord.And do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, so that you may approve what is the good and well-pleasing and perfect will of God.
Do not be deceived: God is not to be mocked, for whatever a person sows, this he will also reap,because the one who sows to his own flesh will reap corruption from the flesh, but the one who sows to the Spirit will reap eternal life from the Spirit.
This therefore I say and testify in the Lord, that you no longer walk as the Gentiles walk: in the futility of their mind,being darkened in understanding, alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart,who, becoming callous, gave themselves over to licentiousness, for the pursuit of all uncleanness in greediness.
Only lead your lives in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent I hear your circumstances, that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one soul contending side by side for the faith of the gospel,
Therefore, if you have been raised together with Christ, seek the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.and have put on the new man that is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of the one who created him,where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave, or free, but Christ is all, and in all.Therefore, as the chosen of God, holy and dearly loved, put on affection, compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience,putting up with one another and forgiving one another. If anyone should have a complaint against anyone, just as also the Lord forgave you, thus also you do the same.And to all these things add love, which is the bond of perfection.And the peace of Christ must rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body, and be thankful.Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another with all wisdom, with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God,and everything whatever you do in word or in deed, giving thanks for all things in the name of the Lord Jesus to God the Father through him.Wives, be subject to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.Husbands, love your wives and do not be embittered against them.Set your mind on the things above, not on the things on earth.
Children, it is the last hour, and just as you have heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have arisen, by which we know that it is the last hour.They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us. But they went out, in order that it might be shown that all of them are not of us.
“But take care for yourselves, lest your hearts are weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of daily life, and that day come upon you suddenlylike a trap. For it will come upon all who reside on the face of the whole earth.But be alert at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to happen, and to stand before the Son of Man.”
And this is the judgment: that the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light, because their deeds were evil.This man came to him at night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one is able to perform these signs that you are performing unless God were with him.”For everyone who practices evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds be exposed.But the one who practices the truth comes to the light, in order that his deeds may be revealed, that they are done in God.
If the world hates you, you know that it has hated me before it hated you.If you were of the world, the world would love its own. But because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, for this reason the world hates you.
but to those who act from selfish ambition and who disobey the truth, but who obey unrighteousness, wrath and anger.There will be affliction and distress for every human being who does evil, of the Jew first and of the Greek,
Do you not know that those who run in the stadium all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win.And everyone who competes exercises self-control in all things. Thus those do so in order that they may receive a perishable crown, but we an imperishable one.Therefore I run in this way, not as running aimlessly; I box in this way, not as beating the air.But I discipline my body and subjugate it, lest somehow after preaching to others, I myself should become disqualified.
But I am afraid lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds may be led astray from the sincerity and the purity of devotion to Christ.If it is necessary to boast, I will boast about the things related to my weakness.The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, who is blessed forever, knows that I am not lying.In Damascus, the governor under King Aretas was guarding the city of the Damascenes in order to take me into custody,and I was lowered through a window through the wall in a rope-basket, and I escaped his hands.For if the one who comes proclaims another Jesus whom we have not proclaimed, or you receive a different spirit which you did not receive, or a different gospel which you did not accept, you put up with it well enough!
I am astonished that you are turning away so quickly from the one who called you by the grace of Christ to a different gospel,not that there is a different gospel, except there are some who are disturbing you and wanting to distort the gospel of Christ.But even if we or an angel from heaven should proclaim a gospel to you contrary to what we proclaimed to you, let him be accursed!As we said before, and now I say again, if anyone is proclaiming a gospel to you contrary to what you have received, let him be accursed!
Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the mutilation.For our commonwealth exists in heaven, from which also we eagerly await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,who will transform our humble body to be conformed to his glorious body, in accordance with the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.For we are the circumcision, the ones who worship by the Spirit of God and boast in Christ Jesus and do not put confidence in the flesh,
And although you were formerly alienated and enemies in attitude, because of your evil deeds,but now you have been reconciled by his physical body through death, to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him,if indeed you remain in the faith, established and steadfast and not shifted away from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.
Watch out, brothers, lest there be in some of you an evil, unbelieving heart, with the result that you fall away from the living God.But encourage one another day by day, as long as it is called “today,” so that none of you become hardened by the deception of sin.
Blessed is the person who endures testing, because when he is approved he will receive the crown of life that he has promised to those who love him.
But even if you might suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed. And do not be afraid of their intimidation or be disturbed,but set Christ apart as Lord in your hearts, always ready to make a defense to anyone who asks you for an accounting concerning the hope that is in you.
Be sober; be on the alert. Your adversary the devil walks around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.Resist him, steadfast in your faith, because you know the same kinds of sufferings are being accomplished by your community of believers in the world.
Remember therefore from where you have fallen, and repent and do the works you did at first. But if you do not, I am coming to you, and I will remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.
“And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: “This is what the one who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars says: ‘I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, and you are dead.Because you have kept the word of my patient endurance, I also will keep you from the hour of testing that is about to come upon the whole inhabited world, to put to the test those who live on the earth.I am coming quickly! Hold fast to what you have, so that no one may take away your crown.The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God, and he will never go outside again, and I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem that comes down from heaven from my God, and my new name.The one who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’“And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: “This is what the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the originator of God’s creation, says:‘I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were cold or hot!Thus, because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I am about to vomit you out of my mouth!Because you are saying, “I am rich, and have become rich, and I have need of nothing,” and you do not know that you are wretched and pitiable and poor and blind and naked,I advise you to buy from me gold refined by fire, in order that you may become rich, and white clothing, in order that you may be clothed and the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed, and eye salve to smear on your eyes, in order that you may see.As many as I love, I reprove and discipline. Be zealous, therefore, and repent!Be on the alert and strengthen the remaining things that are about to die, for I have not found your works completed before my God.Behold, I stand at the door and knock! If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, indeed I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with me.The one who conquers, I will grant to him to sit down with me on my throne, as I also have conquered and have sat down with my Father on his throne.The one who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’ ”Therefore remember how you have received and heard, and observe it, and repent. If therefore you are not on the alert, I will come like a thief, and you will never know at what hour I will come against you.
I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues written in this book.And if anyone takes away from the words of this book of prophecy, God will take away his share of the tree of life and from the holy city that are written in this book.
And Yahweh saw that the evil of humankind was great upon the earth, and every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was always only evil.
“As for the one shedding the blood of humankind, by humankind his blood shall be shed, for God made humankind in his own image.
keeping loyal love to the thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and he does not leave utterly unpunished, punishing the guilt of fathers on sons and on sons of sons on third and fourth generations.”
“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’But I say to you, do not resist the evildoer, but whoever strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other to him also.Blessed are the ones who mourn, because they will be comforted.And the one who wants to go to court with you and take your tunic, let him have your outer garment also.And whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him two.Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.
Let every person be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except by God, and those that exist are put in place by God.Love does not commit evil against a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.And do this because you know the time, that it is already the hour for you to wake up from sleep. For our salvation is nearer now than when we believed.The night is far gone, and the day has drawn near. Therefore let us throw off the deeds of darkness and put on the weapons of light.Let us live decently, as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and licentiousness, not in strife and jealousy.But put on the Lord Jesus Christ and do not make provision for the desires of the flesh.So then, the one who resists authority resists the ordinance which is from God, and those who resist will receive condemnation on themselves.For rulers are not a cause of terror for a good deed, but for bad conduct. So do you want not to be afraid of authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from it,for it is God’s servant to you for what is good. But if you do what is bad, be afraid, because it does not bear the sword to no purpose. For it is God’s servant, the one who avenges for punishment on the one who does what is bad.Therefore it is necessary to be in subjection, not only because of wrath but also because of conscience.
The one who believes and is baptized will be saved, but the one who refuses to believe will be condemned.
“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, and furthermore, even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.
“Do not think that I have come to bring peace on the earth! I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.For I have come to turn a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.And the enemies of a man will be the members of his household.
because narrow is the gate and constricted is the road that leads to life, and there are few who find it!