Don’t live the way this world lives. Let your way of thinking be completely changed. Then you’ll be able to recognize what God wants for you and agree that what he wants is right. His plan is good and pleasing and perfect.
May he strengthen your hearts so that you’ll be holy and blameless in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones.
May God himself, the God of peace, make you holy and complete. May your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless from now until our Lord Jesus Christ comes.
‘I know what you’ve been doing, how you’ve been working long and hard. I that know you don’t tolerate evil people. You’ve tested those who claim to be apostles but aren’t, and you’ve discovered that they’re fakes.
Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You’re like a rock in my path to trip me. You’re not thinking about what God wants. You’re only thinking about what people want.”
With God’s help, we’ve acted toward everyone, and especially toward you, honorably and honestly. We can say that with pride and a clear conscience. We’ve depended on God’s grace and not on the world’s wisdom.
Brothers and sisters, if I’m preaching that people have to be circumcised, then why am I getting so much resistance? If I were preaching that, then no one would be offended that they had to trust only in what Jesus did for them on the cross.
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.
So if eating food sacrificed to idols would cause my brother or sister to fall into sin, I’ll never eat that food again. That way, I won’t ever cause them to fall.
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,