What was sown among the thorns, this is he who hears the word, but the cares of this age and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful.
Yeshua said to him, *If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.*
*His lord commended the dishonest manager because he had done wisely, for the children of this world are, in their own generation, wiser than the children of the light.
and God chose the lowly things of the world, and the things that are despised, and the things that are not, that he might bring to nothing the things that are:
Which things also we speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual things.
For our boasting is this: the testimony of our conscience, that in holiness and sincerity of God, not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God we behaved ourselves in the world, and more abundantly toward you.
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 Messiah, who is the image of God, should not dawn on them.
in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the powers of the air, the spirit who now works in the children of disobedience;
Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Messiah, salutes you, always striving for you in his prayers, that you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.
Therefore leaving the doctrine of the first principles of Messiah, let us press on to perfection--not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works, of faith toward God,
But may the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory by Messiah Yeshua, after you have suffered a little while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you.