No one must say, when he is tempted to do evil, "I have a temptation from God to do evil," for God cannot be tempted to do evil, and He never tempts anyone to do so.

In accordance with His will He made us His children by the message of truth, that we might be a kind of first fruits among His creatures.

My brothers, what good is there in a man's saying that he has faith, if he has no good deeds to prove it? Such faith cannot save him, can it?

For every kind of beasts and birds, of reptiles and sea animals, can be, or have been, tamed by man;

A fountain cannot pour from the same opening fresh and brackish water, can it?

A fig tree, my brothers, cannot bear olives, or a grape-vine figs, can it? And a salt spring cannot furnish fresh water.

This is not the kind of wisdom that comes down from above; no, it is earthly, human, demoniacal.

What causes wars and quarrels among you? Is it not your different desires which are ever at war within your bodies? You desire things and cannot have them, and so you commit murder.

You covet things, but cannot acquire them, and so you quarrel and fight. You do not have them, because you do not ask for them.