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,

Laying

and so will live the rest of his earthly life guided, not by human passions, but by the will of God.

The night is almost gone; the day is near. Therefore let us have done with the deeds of Darkness, and arm ourselves with the weapons of Light.

For you learned with regard to your former way of living that you must cast off your old nature, which, yielding to deluding passions, grows corrupt;

Therefore destroy all that is earthly in you--immorality, uncleanness, passions, evil desires, and that greed which is idolatry.

Seeing, therefore, that there is on every side of us such a throng of witnesses, let us also lay aside everything that hinders us, and the sin that clings about us, and run with patient endurance the race that lies before us,

Therefore, have done with all filthiness and whatever wickedness still remains, and in a humble spirit receive that Message which has been planted in your hearts and is able to save your souls.

Do not make complaints against one another, Brothers, or judgment will be passed upon you. The Judge is already standing at the door!

Malice

Act as free men, yet not using your freedom as those do who make it a cloak for wickedness, but as Servants of God.

Therefore let us keep our festival, not with the leaven of former days, nor with the leaven of vice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

Brothers, do not show yourselves children in understanding. In wickedness be infants, but in understanding show yourselves men.

Let all bitterness, passion, anger, brawling, and abusive language be banished from among you, as well as all malice.

There was, you remember, a time when we ourselves were foolish, disobedient, misled, slaves to all kinds of passions and vices, living in a spirit of malice and envy, detested ourselves and hating one another.

Guile

He 'never sinned, nor was anything deceitful ever heard from his lips.'

'He who would enjoy life And see happy days-- let him keep his tongue from evil And his lips from deceitful words,

When Jesus saw Nathanael coming towards him, he said: "Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is no deceit!"

Our appeal to you was not based on a delusion, nor was it made from unworthy motives, or with any intention of misleading you.

'No lie was ever heard upon their lips.' They are beyond reach of blame.

Hypocrisies

Hypocrite! Take out the beam from your own eye first, and then you will see clearly how to take out the straw from your brother's.

Hypocrites! It was well said by Isaiah when he prophesied about you--

It is the same with you. Outwardly, and to others, you have the look of religious men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and sin.

And will flog him severely, and assign him his place among the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth.

Should we pay, or should we not pay?" Knowing their hypocrisy, Jesus said to them: "Why are you testing me? Bring me a florin to look at."

How can you say to your brother 'Brother, let me take out the straw in your eye,' while you yourself do not see the beam in your own? Hypocrite! Take out the beam from your own eye first, and then you will see clearly how to take out the straw in your brother's.

Alas for you! You are like unsuspected graves, over which men walk unawares."

Meanwhile the people had gathered in thousands, so that they trod upon one another, when Jesus, addressing himself to his disciples, began by saying to them: "Be on your guard against the leaven--that is, the hypocrisy--of the Pharisees.

But the wisdom from above is, before every thing else, pure; then peace-loving, gentle, open to conviction, rich in compassion and good deeds, and free from partiality and insincerity.

Envies

They reveled in every form of wickedness, evil, greed, vice. Their lives were full of envy, murder, quarreling, treachery, malice.

Being in the light of Day, let us live becomingly, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lust and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy.

I fed you with milk, not with solid food, for you were not then able to take it. No, and even now you are not able; you are still worldly.

For I am afraid that perhaps, when I come, I may find that you are not what I want you to be, and, on the other hand, that you may find that I am what you do not want me to be. I am afraid that I may find quarreling, jealousy, ill-feeling, rivalry, slandering, back-biting, self-assertion, and disorder.

Feelings of envy, drunkenness, revelry, and the like. And I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who indulge in such things will have no place in the Kingdom of God.

But, while you harbor envy and bitterness and a spirit of rivalry in your hearts, do not boast or lie to the detriment of the Truth.

Do you suppose there is no meaning in the passage of Scripture which asks--'Is envy to result from the longings of the Spirit which God has implanted within you?'

All evil

And, because you do not run to the same extremes of profligacy as others, they are astonished, and malign you.

Let all bitterness, passion, anger, brawling, and abusive language be banished from among you, as well as all malice.

You, however, must now lay aside all such things--anger, passion, malice, slander, abuse.

It should be the same with the women. They should be serious, not gossips, sober, and trustworthy in all respects.

So, too, that the older women should be reverent in their demeanor, and that they should avoid scandal, and beware of becoming slaves to drink;

Do not disparage one another, Brothers. He who disparages his Brother, or passes judgment on his Brother, disparages the Law and passes judgment on the Law. But, if you pass judgment on the Law, you are not obeying it, but judging it.

General references

They will not follow a stranger, but will run away from him; because they do not know a stranger's voice."