- Little children, keep yourselves from idols.
- You shall not make gods of silver alongside me, nor shall you make for yourselves gods of gold.
- Do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived! Fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, male prostitutes, sodomites, thieves, the greedy, drunkards, revilers, robbers—none of these will inherit the kingdom of God.
- The Lord your God you shall follow, him alone you shall fear, his commandments you shall keep, his voice you shall obey, him you shall serve, and to him you shall hold fast.
- For the customs of the peoples are false:
a tree from the forest is cut down,
and worked with an ax by the hands of an artisan;
people deck it with silver and gold;
they fasten it with hammer and nails
so that it cannot move.
Their idols are like scarecrows in a cucumber field,
and they cannot speak;
they have to be carried,
for they cannot walk.
Do not be afraid of them,
for they cannot do evil,
nor is it in them to do good. - So acknowledge today and take to heart that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other.
- Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to mention what such people do secretly.
- Put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed (which is idolatry).
- Yet I have been the Lord your God
ever since the land of Egypt;
you know no God but me,
and besides me there is no savior. - Now if you are unwilling to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served in the region beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.
- No weapon that is fashioned against you shall prosper,
and you shall confute every tongue that rises against you in judgment.
This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord
and their vindication from me, says the Lord. - Put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
- For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains.
- Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
- The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.
- Depart from evil, and do good;
seek peace, and pursue it. - I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one.
- He said, “Then put away the foreign gods that are among you, and incline your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel.”
- Some take pride in chariots, and some in horses,
but our pride is in the name of the Lord our God. - Because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. For this reason God gave them up to degrading passions. Their women exchanged natural intercourse for unnatural, and in the same way also the men, giving up natural intercourse with women, were consumed with passion for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in their own persons the due penalty for their error. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind and to things that should not be done.
- Now the works of the flesh are obvious: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I am warning you, as I warned you before: those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
- Hence, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that “no idol in the world really exists,” and that “there is no God but one.”
- Let no one deceive you in any way; for that day will not come unless the rebellion comes first and the lawless one is revealed, the one destined for destruction. He opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, declaring himself to be God.
If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.