knowing, as you do, that it was not with a ransom of perishable wealth, such as silver or gold, that you were set free from your frivolous habits of life which had been handed down to you from your forefathers,

Laying

that in future you may spend the rest of your earthly lives, governed not by human passions, but by the will of God.

The night is far advanced, and day is about to dawn. We must therefore lay aside the deeds of darkness, and clothe ourselves with the armour of Light.

to put away, in regard to your former mode of life, your original evil nature which is doomed to perish as befits its misleading impulses,

Therefore put to death your earthward inclinations--fornication, impurity, sensual passion, unholy desire, and all greed, for that is a form of idolatry.

Therefore, surrounded as we are by such a vast cloud of witnesses, let us fling aside every encumbrance and the sin that so readily entangles our feet. And let us run with patient endurance the race that lies before us,

Ridding yourselves, therefore, of all that is vile and of the evil influences which prevail around you, welcome in a humble spirit the Message implanted within you, which is able to save your souls.

Do not cry out in condemnation of one another, brethren, lest you come under judgement. I tell you that the Judge is standing at the door.

Malice

Be free men, and yet do not make your freedom an excuse for base conduct, but be God's bondservants.

Therefore let us keep our festival not with old yeast nor with the yeast of what is evil and mischievous, but with bread free from yeast--the bread of transparent sincerity and of truth.

Brethren, do not prove yourselves to be children in your minds. As regards evil, indeed, be utter babes, but as regards your minds prove yourselves to be men of ripe years.

Let all bitterness and all passionate feeling, all anger and loud insulting language, be unknown among you--and also every kind of malice.

For there was a time when we also were deficient in understanding, obstinate, deluded, the slaves of various cravings and pleasures, spending our lives in malice and envy, hateful ourselves and hating one another.

Guile

He never sinned, and no deceitful language was ever heard from His mouth.

For "He who wishes to be well-satisfied with life and see happy days-- let him restrain his tongue from evil, and his lips from deceitful words;

Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, and said of him, "Look! here is a true Israelite, in whom there is no deceitfulness!"

For our preaching was not grounded on a delusion, nor prompted by mingled motives, nor was there fraud in it.

And no lie has ever been found upon their lips: they are faultless.

Hypocrisies

Hypocrite, first take the beam out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly how to remove the splinter from your brother's eye.

Hypocrites! well did Isaiah prophesy of you,

The same is true of you: outwardly you seem to the human eye to be good and honest men, but, within, you are full of insincerity and disregard of God's Law.

he will treat him with the utmost severity and assign him a place among the hypocrites: there will be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth.

Shall we pay, or shall we refuse to pay?" But He, knowing their hypocrisy, replied, "Why try to ensnare me? Bring me a shilling for me to look at."

How can you say to your brother, 'Brother, let me take that splinter out of your eye,' when all the while you yourself do not see the beam in your own eye? Vain pretender! take the beam out of your own eye first, and then you will see clearly to take the splinter out of your brother's eye.

Alas for you! for you are like the tombs which lie hidden, and the people who walk over them are not aware of their existence."

Meanwhile the people had come streaming towards Him by tens of thousands, so that they were trampling one another under foot. And now He proceeded to say to His disciples first, "Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees, that is to say, beware of hypocrisy.

The wisdom from above is first of all pure, then peaceful, courteous, not self-willed, full of compassion and kind actions, free from favouritism and from all insincerity.

Envies

Their hearts overflowed with all sorts of dishonesty, mischief, greed, malice. They were full of envy and murder, and were quarrelsome, crafty, and spiteful.

Living as we do in broad daylight, let us conduct ourselves becomingly, not indulging in revelry and drunkenness, nor in lust and debauchery, nor in quarrelling and jealousy.

I fed you with milk and not with solid food, since for this you were not yet strong enough. And even now you are not strong enough:

For I am afraid that perhaps when I come I may not find you to be what I desire, and that you may find me to be what you do not desire; that perhaps there may be contention, jealousy, bitter feeling, party spirit, ill-natured talk, backbiting, undue eulogy, unrest;

hard drinking, riotous feasting, and the like. And as to these I forewarn you, as I have already forewarned you, that those who are guilty of such things will have no share in the Kingdom of God.

But if in your hearts you have bitter feelings of envy and rivalry, do not speak boastfully and falsely, in defiance of the truth.

Or do you suppose that it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, "The Spirit which He has caused to dwell in our hearts yearns jealously over us"?

All evil

At this they are astonished--that you do not run into the same excess of profligacy as they do; and they speak abusively of you.

Let all bitterness and all passionate feeling, all anger and loud insulting language, be unknown among you--and also every kind of malice.

But now you must rid yourselves of every kind of sin--angry and passionate outbreaks, ill-will, evil speaking, foul-mouthed abuse--so that these may never soil your lips.

Deaconesses, in the same way, must be sober-minded women, not slanderers, but in every way temperate and trustworthy.

In the same way exhort aged women to let their conduct be such as becomes consecrated persons. They must not be slanderers nor enslaved to wine-drinking. They must be teachers of what is right.

Do not speak evil of one another, brethren. The man who speaks evil of a brother-man or judges his brother-man speaks evil of the Law and judges the Law. But if you judge the Law, you are no longer one who obeys the Law, but one who judges it.

General references

But a stranger they will by no means follow, but will run away from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers."