It causes trouble all the time between people whose minds are twisted by sin. They once knew the truth, but it has been taken away from them. They think they can get rich by being godly.
These teachers will be so greedy that they’ll make up stories to take advantage of you. But they’ve been under a sentence of death for a long time. Their destruction has not been sleeping.
Those people need to be stopped. They’re disrupting entire families by teaching things they shouldn’t, and they’re doing it just to try to cheat people.
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees! You hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You don’t enter yourselves, but you won’t let in other people who are trying to enter.
All the nations have drunk the strong wine of her terrible sins. The kings of the earth took part in the wrong things she did, and the traders of the world grew rich from her great wealth.”
Woe to them! They’ve followed the way of Cain. Because they love money, they’ve rushed into the same mistake Balaam made. They’ve rebelled just like Korah, and they’re going to be destroyed just as he was.
In the same way, deacons must be worthy of respect. They must be honest. they must not drink too much wine, and they must not try to get money by cheating other people.
Brothers and sisters, we command you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to keep away from every believer who’s lazy and disruptive and who doesn’t follow the teaching you received from us.
cinnamon, spices, incense, myrrh, and frankincense; wine, olive oil, fine flour, and wheat; cattle, sheep, horses, wagons, and human beings sold as slaves.