Your leaders exchange justice for bribes. Your priests teach for a price. Your prophets tell the future for money. But they rely on the Lord when they say, “After all, the Lord is with us. Nothing bad will happen to us.”
On that day you will no longer be ashamed of all your rebellious acts against me. Then I will remove your arrogance and never again will you act proud on my holy mountain.
So, do we have anything to brag about? Bragging has been eliminated. On what basis was it eliminated? On the basis of our own efforts? No, indeed! Rather, it is eliminated on the basis of faith.
Remember that once you were not Jewish physically. Those who called themselves “the circumcised” because of what they had done to their bodies called you “the uncircumcised.”
I know how you are suffering, how poor you are—but you are rich. I also know that those who claim to be Jews slander you. They are the synagogue of Satan.
“To the messenger of the church in Sardis, write: The one who has God’s seven spirits and the seven stars says: I know what you have done. You are known for being alive, but you are dead.
I will make those who are in Satan’s synagogue come and bow at your feet and realize that I have loved you. They claim that they are Jewish, but they are lying.