At that time you were without any connection with Christ; you were aliens to the commonwealth of Israel, strangers to the sacred compacts made by God's promise, with no hope, and no God in the world.

No, God has not disowned His people, on whom He set His heart beforehand. Do you know what the Scripture says in Elijah's case, how he pleaded with God against Israel?

So, as to eating things that have been sacrificed to idols, we are sure that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no God but One.

and you see and hear that, not only in Ephesus but all over the province of Asia, this man Paul has led away a vast number of people by persuading them, telling them that gods made by human hands are not gods at all.

For even if there are so-called gods in heaven or on earth -- as there are, indeed, a vast number of gods and lords --

with no father, no mother, no ancestry; no beginning to his days, no end to his life, but, like the Son of God, as priest continues on and on with no successor.

If men to whom God's message came are called gods -- and the Scriptures cannot be made null and void --

But at that former time, as you did not know the true God, you were slaves to gods that do not really exist,

Jesus answered them, "Is it not written in your law, 'I said, "You are gods"'?

and they said to Aaron, 'Make us gods to march in front of us, for as for this Moses, who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him!'

So the crowds, because they saw what Paul had done, shouted in the Lycaonian language, "The gods in human form have come down to us!"

It is not that you have no houses to eat and drink in, is it? Or, are you trying to show your contempt for the church of God and trying to humiliate those who have no houses? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? No, I cannot praise you for this.

This is the way to distinguish God's children from the devil's children. No one who fails to do right is God's child, and no one who fails to love his brother.