Be careful that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit based on human tradition, based on the elements of the world, rather than Christ.
Let no one condemn you by delighting in ascetic practices and the worship of angels, claiming access to a visionary realm. Such a person is inflated by empty notions of his unspiritual mind.
Therefore, we ourselves boast about you among God’s churches #– #about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and afflictions that you are enduring.
Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also debated with him. Some said, ‘What is this ignorant show-off trying to say? ’ Others replied, ‘He seems to be a preacher of foreign deities’ #– #because he was telling the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.
Remember, then, what you have received and heard; keep it, and repent. If you are not alert, I will come like a thief, and you have no idea at what hour I will come upon you.
We know that the law is not meant for a righteous person, but for the lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinful, for the unholy and irreverent, for those who kill their fathers and mothers, for murderers,