"We are only men like yourselves, and we have come with the Good News that you should turn away from these follies to a living God, 'who made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and everything that is in them.'
But, when Silas and Timothy had come down from Macedonia, Paul devoted himself entirely to delivering the Message, earnestly maintaining before the Jews that Jesus was the Christ.
Because, although they learned to know God, yet they did not offer him as God either praise or thanksgiving. Their speculations about him proved futile, and their undiscerning minds were darkened.
My point is this--An agreement already confirmed by God cannot be canceled by the Law, which came four hundred and thirty years later, so as to cause the promise to be set aside.
Do not let any one defraud you of the reality by affecting delight in so-called 'humility' and angel-worship. Such a man busies himself with his visions, and without reason is rendered conceited by his merely human intellect.
None of you over-reaching or taking advantage of his Brother in such matters. 'The Lord takes vengeance' upon all who do such things, as we have already warned you and solemnly declared.
I charge you solemnly, before God and Christ Jesus and the Chosen Angels, to carry out these directions, unswayed by prejudice, never acting with partiality.
I solemnly charge you, in the sight of God and of Christ Jesus, who will one day judge the living and the dead--I charge you by his Appearing and by his Kingdom:--
For you know that it was not by perishable things, such as silver and gold, that you were Ransomed from the aimless way of living which was handed down to you from your ancestors,
With boastful and foolish talk, they appeal to the passions of man's lower nature, and, by their profligacy, entice those who are just escaping from the men who live such misguided lives.