because the time will come when they won’t put up with good teaching. Instead, they’ll try to satisfy their own desires. They’ll gather a large number of teachers around them who will tell them what they want to hear.
In a wealthy home there are things made out of gold and silver as well as things made out of wood and clay. Some are used for special occasions like dinner parties, and others are used for the dirtier jobs.
So here’s my advice. Buy gold from me that has been purified by fire. Then you’ll become rich. Buy white clothes from me that you can wear to cover the shame of your naked bodies. And buy healing lotion from me to put on your eyes so that you’ll be able to see.
These have come to show that your faith is genuine. This will bring praise, honor, and glory to God when Jesus Christ returns. Your faith is worth even more than gold, because gold can be destroyed even after fire has made it pure.
‘But I hold you responsible for a few things. Some of you are following the teaching of Balaam, who showed Balak how to lead the people of Israel into sin. They ate food offered to idols and they committed sexual sins.
Don’t be led astray by all kinds of strange teachings. It’s good for our hearts to be made strong by God’s grace, not by eating foods that the law requires. Those foods don’t do anything for the people who eat them.
Make sure that no one makes you their prisoner through false and deceptive reasoning, through ideas that depend on human teachings and the basic spiritual powers of this world rather than on Christ.
Unlike many people, we aren’t selling God’s word to make money. It’s just the opposite! Because of Christ, we speak honestly before God, as people God has truly sent.
I warn you, brothers and sisters, to watch out for those who cause divisions and who trip you up by teaching you things that are the opposite of what you’ve learned. Stay away from them,
Instead, we refuse to do secret and shameful things. We don’t trick anyone, and we don’t twist God’s word. We do just the opposite! We present the truth plainly so that everyone can judge us in their own conscience before God.
Every person’s work will be recognized for what it is, because the Day of Judgment will expose it. Everyone’s work will be put through fire to test how good it is.