Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you? If he is not, then you have failed the test.
Bring the tithes in full into the treasury so that there may be food in my house. Put me thus to the test, says the Lord of hosts, and see if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down blessings upon you without measure.
And yet he is aware of everywhere I go; if he were to test me, I would emerge like pure gold. My footsteps have not strayed from the path he established; I have followed his way and never turned aside.
Blessed is the man who perseveres when he is tempted, for when he has been proven, he will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.
The heart is more deceitful than any other thing, and it is also perverse. Who can uncover its secrets? I, the Lord, search the heart and probe the mind to reward all according to their conduct and as their deeds deserve.
Observe the ordinances of the Lord, your God, walking in his ways and keeping his statutes, his commandments, his ordinances, and what he witnessed in writing in the law of Moses. In this way you will prosper in whatever you do and wherever you go.
As for me, I do not regard my life as of any value, only that I finish the race and complete the mission that I received from the Lord Jesus—to bear witness to the gospel of God’s grace.
But I have had help from God to this very day, and I stand here and testify to both the lowly and the great. I assert nothing more than what the Prophets and Moses said would occur: that the Christ must suffer, and that, by being the first to rise from the dead, he would proclaim light to the people and to the Gentiles.
Are you not aware that wrongdoers will never inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived! Fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, male prostitutes, sodomites, thieves, extortioners, drunkards, slanderers, swindlers—none of these will inherit the kingdom of God.