“Don’t handle, don’t taste, don’t touch”?

“Therefore, don’t be afraid of them, since there is nothing covered that won’t be uncovered and nothing hidden that won’t be made known.

I was a stranger
and you didn’t take Me in;
I was naked
and you didn’t clothe Me,
sick and in prison
and you didn’t take care of Me.’

Consider the ravens: They don’t sow or reap; they don’t have a storeroom or a barn; yet God feeds them. Aren’t you worth much more than the birds?

Wasn’t it yours while you possessed it? And after it was sold, wasn’t it at your disposal? Why is it that you planned this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God!”

They answered him, “If this man weren’t a criminal, we wouldn’t have handed Him over to you.”

Then the Lord said to Paul in a night vision, “Don’t be afraid, but keep on speaking and don’t be silent.

So the eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” Or again, the head can’t say to the feet, “I don’t need you!”

For who makes you so superior? What do you have that you didn’t receive? If, in fact, you did receive it, why do you boast as if you hadn’t received it?

taking vengeance with flaming fire on those who don’t know God and on those who don’t obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.

Don’t be too quick to appoint anyone as an elder, and don’t share in the sins of others. Keep yourself pure.

Jesus answered, “The light will be with you only a little longer. Walk while you have the light so that darkness doesn’t overtake you. The one who walks in darkness doesn’t know where he’s going.

“But we don’t know how he now sees, and we don’t know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he’s of age. He will speak for himself.”

“I already told you,” he said, “and you didn’t listen. Why do you want to hear it again? You don’t want to become His disciples too, do you?”

“Aren’t there 12 hours in a day?” Jesus answered. “If anyone walks during the day, he doesn’t stumble, because he sees the light of this world.

“This is why I tell you: Don’t worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Isn’t life more than food and the body more than clothing?

Look at the birds of the sky: They don’t sow or reap or gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you worth more than they?

Jesus sent out these 12 after giving them instructions: “Don’t take the road leading to other nations, and don’t enter any Samaritan town.

We played the flute for you,
but you didn’t dance;
we sang a lament,
but you didn’t mourn!

Others fell on rocky ground, where there wasn’t much soil, and they sprang up quickly since the soil wasn’t deep.

For I assure you: Many prophets and righteous people longed to see the things you see yet didn’t see them; to hear the things you hear yet didn’t hear them.

Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t His mother called Mary, and His brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas?

Don’t you understand yet? Don’t you remember the five loaves for the 5,000 and how many baskets you collected?

Why is it you don’t understand that when I told you, ‘Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees,’ it wasn’t about bread?”

For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you didn’t believe him. Tax collectors and prostitutes did believe him, but you, when you saw it, didn’t even change your minds then and believe him.

Therefore do whatever they tell you, and observe it. But don’t do what they do, because they don’t practice what they teach.

“But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You lock up the kingdom of heaven from people. For you don’t go in, and you don’t allow those entering to go in.

“Then the man who had received one talent also approached and said, ‘Master, I know you. You’re a difficult man, reaping where you haven’t sown and gathering where you haven’t scattered seed.

“But his master replied to him, ‘You evil, lazy slave! If you knew that I reap where I haven’t sown and gather where I haven’t scattered,

When Jesus heard this, He told them, “Those who are well don’t need a doctor, but the sick do need one. I didn’t come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Other seed fell on rocky ground where it didn’t have much soil, and it sprang up right away, since it didn’t have deep soil.

You don’t have His word living in you, because you don’t believe the One He sent.

Then the Jews said to one another, “Where does He intend to go so we won’t find Him? He doesn’t intend to go to the Dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks, does He?

“I don’t have a husband,” she answered.

“You have correctly said, ‘I don’t have a husband,’” Jesus said.

Isn’t this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? And aren’t His sisters here with us?” So they were offended by Him.

So when they arrest you and hand you over, don’t worry beforehand what you will say. On the contrary, whatever is given to you in that hour—say it. For it isn’t you speaking, but the Holy Spirit.

“A good tree doesn’t produce bad fruit; on the other hand, a bad tree doesn’t produce good fruit.

They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to each other:

We played the flute for you,
but you didn’t dance;
we sang a lament,
but you didn’t weep!

For nothing is concealed that won’t be revealed, and nothing hidden that won’t be made known and come to light.

Don’t carry a money-bag, traveling bag, or sandals; don’t greet anyone along the road.

For I tell you that many prophets and kings wanted to see the things you see yet didn’t see them; to hear the things you hear yet didn’t hear them.”

Then he will answer from inside and say, ‘Don’t bother me! The door is already locked, and my children and I have gone to bed. I can’t get up to give you anything.’

There is nothing covered that won’t be uncovered, nothing hidden that won’t be made known.

Don’t keep striving for what you should eat and what you should drink, and don’t be anxious.

because I was afraid of you, for you’re a tough man: you collect what you didn’t deposit and reap what you didn’t sow.’

“He told him, ‘I will judge you by what you have said, you evil slave! If you knew I was a tough man, collecting what I didn’t deposit and reaping what I didn’t sow,

When you hear of wars and rebellions, don’t be alarmed. Indeed, these things must take place first, but the end won’t come right away.”

“Didn’t we strictly order you not to teach in this name? And look, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to bring this man’s blood on us!”

He didn’t give him an inheritance in it, not even a foot of ground, but He promised to give it to him as a possession, and to his descendants after him, even though he was childless.

He dealt deceitfully with our race and oppressed our ancestors by making them leave their infants outside, so they wouldn’t survive.

They told Aaron:

Make us gods who will go before us. As for this Moses who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we don’t know what’s happened to him.

Now Simon Peter was standing and warming himself. They said to him, “You aren’t one of His disciples too, are you?”

He denied it and said, “I am not!”

One of the high priest’s slaves, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, said, “Didn’t I see you with Him in the garden?”

“My kingdom is not of this world,” said Jesus. “If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I wouldn’t be handed over to the Jews. As it is, My kingdom does not have its origin here.”

So Pilate said to Him, “You’re not talking to me? Don’t You know that I have the authority to release You and the authority to crucify You?”

“You would have no authority over Me at all,” Jesus answered him, “if it hadn’t been given you from above. This is why the one who handed Me over to you has the greater sin.”

So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Don’t write, ‘The King of the Jews,’ but that He said, ‘I am the King of the Jews.’”

So she ran to Simon Peter and to the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put Him!”

They said to her, “Woman, why are you crying?”

“Because they’ve taken away my Lord,” she told them, “and I don’t know where they’ve put Him.”

“Don’t cling to Me,” Jesus told her, “for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to My brothers and tell them that I am ascending to My Father and your Father—to My God and your God.”

So the other disciples kept telling him, “We have seen the Lord!”

But he said to them, “If I don’t see the mark of the nails in His hands, put my finger into the mark of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will never believe!”

Then He said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and observe My hands. Reach out your hand and put it into My side. Don’t be an unbeliever, but a believer.”

“Men,” Jesus called to them, “you don’t have any fish, do you?”

“No,” they answered.

“I assure you: When you were young, you would tie your belt and walk wherever you wanted. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will tie you and carry you where you don’t want to go.”

And they were astounded and amazed, saying, “Look, aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans?

But Paul called out in a loud voice, “Don’t harm yourself, because all of us are here!”

Being God’s offspring then, we shouldn’t think that the divine nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image fashioned by human art and imagination.

But if these are questions about words, names, and your own law, see to it yourselves. I don’t want to be a judge of such things.”

and asked them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?”

“No,” they told him, “we haven’t even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”

But all who heard him were astounded and said, “Isn’t this the man who, in Jerusalem, was destroying those who called on this name and then came here for the purpose of taking them as prisoners to the chief priests?”

Since Lydda was near Joppa, the disciples heard that Peter was there and sent two men to him who begged him, “Don’t delay in coming with us.”

Then Peter began to speak: “Now I really understand that God doesn’t show favoritism,

and said, “You son of the Devil, full of all deceit and all fraud, enemy of all righteousness! Won’t you ever stop perverting the straight paths of the Lord?

and said, ‘Don’t be afraid, Paul. You must stand before Caesar. And, look! God has graciously given you all those who are sailing with you.’

Then they said to him, “We haven’t received any letters about you from Judea. None of the brothers has come and reported or spoken anything evil about you.

However, when the city clerk had calmed the crowd down, he said, “Men of Ephesus! What man is there who doesn’t know that the city of the Ephesians is the temple guardian of the great Artemis, and of the image that fell from heaven?

But Paul went down, fell on him, embraced him, and said, “Don’t be alarmed, for his life is in him!”

Aren’t you the Egyptian who raised a rebellion some time ago and led 4,000 Assassins into the wilderness?”

“Since I couldn’t see because of the brightness of that light, I was led by the hand by those who were with me, and came into Damascus.

These men went to the chief priests and elders and said, “We have bound ourselves under a solemn curse that we won’t eat anything until we have killed Paul.

Don’t let them persuade you, because there are more than 40 of them arranging to ambush him, men who have bound themselves under a curse not to eat or drink until they kill him. Now they are ready, waiting for a commitment from you.”

So the commander dismissed the young man and instructed him, “Don’t tell anyone that you have informed me about this.”

They didn’t find me disputing with anyone or causing a disturbance among the crowd, either in the temple complex or in the synagogues or anywhere in the city.

Accept anyone who is weak in faith, but don’t argue about doubtful issues.

I did, in fact, baptize the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I don’t know if I baptized anyone else.

Where is the philosopher? Where is the scholar? Where is the debater of this age? Hasn’t God made the world’s wisdom foolish?

Don’t you have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you look down on the church of God and embarrass those who have nothing? What should I say to you? Should I praise you? I do not praise you for this!

If the foot should say, “Because I’m not a hand, I don’t belong to the body,” in spite of this it still belongs to the body.

And if the ear should say, “Because I’m not an eye, I don’t belong to the body,” in spite of this it still belongs to the body.

Even inanimate things that produce sounds—whether flute or harp—if they don’t make a distinction in the notes, how will what is played on the flute or harp be recognized?

Brothers, don’t be childish in your thinking, but be infants in regard to evil and adult in your thinking.

I don’t want to see you now just in passing, for I hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord allows.

Don’t you yourselves know that you are God’s sanctuary and that the Spirit of God lives in you?

It is of little importance to me that I should be evaluated by you or by any human court. In fact, I don’t even evaluate myself.

Therefore don’t judge anything prematurely, before the Lord comes, who will both bring to light what is hidden in darkness and reveal the intentions of the hearts. And then praise will come to each one from God.

For you can have 10,000 instructors in Christ, but you can’t have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast permeates the whole batch of dough?

Food will not make us acceptable to God. We are not inferior if we don’t eat, and we are not better if we do eat.

For if someone sees you, the one who has this knowledge, dining in an idol’s temple, won’t his weak conscience be encouraged to eat food offered to idols?

Therefore, if food causes my brother to fall, I will never again eat meat, so that I won’t cause my brother to fall.