"Those persons who feel a deep sense of their personal need are blessed because the kingdom of heaven belongs to them.

But go and take to heart the sense of these words, My desire is for mercy, not offerings: for I have come not to get the upright, but sinners.

He answered them, “Because the secrets of the kingdom of heaven have been given for you to know, but it has not been given to them.

For this reason I put things into the form of stories; because they see without seeing, and give ear without hearing, and the sense is not clear to them.

And for them the words of Isaiah have come true, Though you give ear, you will not get knowledge; and seeing, you will see, but the sense will not be clear to you:

For this nation’s heart has grown hard,
And with their ears they hardly hear,
And they have [tightly] closed their eyes,
Otherwise they would see with their eyes,
And hear with their ears,
And understand with their heart, and turn [to Me]
And I would heal them [spiritually].’

When the word of the kingdom comes to anyone, and the sense of it is not clear to him, then the Evil One comes, and quickly takes away that which was put in his heart. He is the seed dropped by the wayside.

And the seed which was put in good earth, this is he who gives ear to the word, and gets the sense of it; who gives fruit, some a hundred, some sixty, some thirty times as much.

And do not call any man on earth 'father,' [i.e., in a religious sense], for the [only] one who is your Father is in heaven.

When Jesus saw their [active] faith [springing from confidence in Him], He said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

He answered them, “The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to those outside, everything comes in parables

So that seeing they may see, and it will not be clear to them; and hearing it, they will not get the sense; for fear that they may be turned again to me and have forgiveness.

acts of greed and covetousness, wickedness, deceit, unrestrained conduct, envy and jealousy, slander and profanity, arrogance and self-righteousness and foolishness (poor judgment).

said, why do you trouble your heads about your having no bread? are you yet so void of sense, and understanding? are your minds so blinded?

Though you have eyes, do you not see? And though you have ears, do you not hear and listen [to what I have said]? And do you not remember,

The disciples were amazed and bewildered by His words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how difficult it is [for those who place their hope and confidence in riches] to enter the kingdom of God!

David himself calls Him ‘Lord’; so in what sense is He his son?” And the large crowd enjoyed listening to Him.

Now the child continued to grow, and greatly improv'd in sense; and was in the desarts till the time, when he was to be manifested to Israel.

Then He looked at His disciples and said, "Those of you who have a [sense of personal] need are blessed, because the kingdom of God belongs to you.

But woe (judgment is coming) to you who are rich [and place your faith in possessions while remaining spiritually impoverished], for you are [already] receiving your comfort in full [and there is nothing left to be awarded to you].

And he said, To you is given knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God; but to the others, they are given in stories, so that seeing, they may not see, and though they give hearing, the sense will not be clear to them.

But this saying was not clear to them and its sense was kept secret from them so that they were not able to see it: and they had fear of questioning him about it.

and he who invited both of you will come and say to you, ‘Give this man your place,’ and then, in disgrace you proceed to take the last place.

“If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life [in the sense of indifference to or relative disregard for them in comparison with his attitude toward God]—he cannot be My disciple.

And his master praised the dishonest manager, because he acted with shrewd business sense, for the men of the world act with more business sense toward their fellows than the men who enjoy spiritual light.

But they did not take in the sense of any of these words, and what he said was not clear to them, and their minds were not able to see it.

But he said to them, "In what sense do they say [that] the Christ is David's son?

They said to one another, “Were not our hearts burning within us while He was talking with us on the road and opening the Scriptures to us?”

who were born, not merely in a genetic sense, nor from lust, nor from man's desire, but from the will of God.

On this account then the Jews were all the more eager to put Him to death--because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also spoke of God as being in a special sense His Father, thus putting Himself on a level with God.

It is the Holy Spirit who [Note: The Greek word here is "that" instead of "who"] gives life [i.e., understanding the spiritual nature of Jesus' teaching can produce spiritual life]; the flesh is of no value [i.e., understanding Jesus' teaching only in a physical sense makes it worthless]. The words I have spoken to you are [from the] Holy Spirit and [they give] life.

And said to him, Go and make yourself clean in the bath of Siloam (the sense of the name is, Sent). So he went away and, after washing, came back able to see.

The crowd answered Him, "We have heard out of the Law that the Christ remains for ever. In what sense do you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is that Son of Man?"

"Master," said Thomas, "we do not know where you are going. In what sense do we know the way?"

(Now this man [Judas] paid for [in a sense] a [burial] field with the reward money he had received for his sinful act [of betraying Jesus, See Matt. 27:3-10]. [Then, some time after Judas hanged himself, See Matt. 27:5] he fell down headlong, [his swollen body] bursting so that his intestines gushed out.

A sense of reverence seized everyone, and many wonders and wonder-works were done by the apostles.

And Joseph, who was given by the Apostles the name of Barnabas (the sense of which is, Son of comfort), a Levite and a man of Cyprus by birth,

So, brothers, you must select from your number seven men of good standing, full of the Spirit, and of good practical sense, and we will assign them to this business,

but they could not cope with his good practical sense and the spiritual power with which he usually spoke.

And Philip, running up to him, saw that he was reading Isaiah the prophet, and said to him, Is the sense of what you are reading clear to you?

But Elymas, the wonder-worker (for that is the sense of his name), put himself against them, with the purpose of turning the ruler from the faith.

For you seem to us to say strange things, and we have a desire to get the sense of them.

"And now, impelled by a sense of duty, I am on my way to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there,

But he said, I am not mad, most noble Festus; but speak forth the words of truth and good sense.

But when the fourteenth night came, as we were being driven across the Adriatic Sea, about midnight the sailors began to sense that they were approaching land.

Go to this people and say, Though you give ear, you will not get knowledge; and seeing, you will see, but the sense will not be clear to you:

because what can be known of God is clear to their inner moral sense; for in this way God Himself has shown it to them.

Because, having the knowledge of God, they did not give glory to God as God, and did not give praise, but their minds were full of foolish things, and their hearts, being without sense, were made dark.

As they did not seek the favour of God, by worshipping him, God gave them over to a depraved sense, to act unworthy of human nature;

They were secret backbiters, open slanderers; hateful to God, insolent, haughty, boastful; inventors of new forms of sin, disobedient to parents, destitute of common sense,

they do not have any sense; they do not keep their promises; they fail to show natural affection; and they are merciless.

Because the work of the law is seen in their hearts, their sense of right and wrong giving witness to it, while their minds are at one time judging them and at another giving them approval;

understanding his will, and with a sense of what is vital in religion; if you are instructed by the Law

but it is the Jew, who is so inwardly, and it is the circumcision of the heart, according to the spiritual, not the literal sense, which have the approbation, I do not say of men, but of God.

This is because no human being can be considered right with God by [obeying] the requirements of a law. [Note: It is difficult to determine the exact sense in which "law" is used in these verses. It may be law generally, or the law of Moses specifically. See Bruce, pages 52-58]. For the knowledge of what sin is comes from the law of Moses.

What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, if it had not been for the Law, I would not have recognized sin. For I would not have known [for example] about coveting [what belongs to another, and would have had no sense of guilt] if the Law had not [repeatedly] said, “You shall not covet.”

But sin, finding an opportunity through the commandment [to express itself] produced in me every kind of coveting and selfish desire. For without the Law sin is dead [the recognition of sin is inactive].

And I was [once] alive before being aware of the law [i.e., complacent and without a sense of guilt]; but when [awareness of] the commandment [not to sin] came, sin sprang to life,

Now the mind of the flesh is death [both now and forever—because it pursues sin]; but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace [the spiritual well-being that comes from walking with God—both now and forever];

For you do not have a sense of servitude to fill you with dread again, but the consciousness of adopted sons by which we cry, "Abba," that is, "Father."

if your enemy is hungry, feed him, if he is thirsty, give him drink; for in this way you will make him feel a burning sense of shame.

he that observes a day, and he that obobserves it not, act both from a sense of duty. he that eats, consisiders it as the bounty of his Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that forbeareth to eat, considers his forbearance as enjoined by his Lord, and giveth God thanks for the rest.

May God [who is the source] of steadfastness and encouragement, give you [a sense of] like-mindedness among yourselves, in harmony with [the example of] Christ Jesus,

And I was weak, apprehensive and fearful when I was [there] with you. [Note: This probably refers to Paul's sense of inadequacy in view of the task before him].

We are made fools of, for the sake of Christ, while you are men of sense, through being united with him. We are weak, you are strong. You are distinguished, we are despised.

But the sense of my letter was that if a brother had the name of being one who went after the desires of the flesh, or had the desire for other people's property, or was in the way of using violent language, or being the worse for drink, or took by force what was not his, you might not keep company with such a one, or take food with him.

Am I saying these things only on the basis of common sense, or does the law not say this as well?

I am speaking to men of sense; do you yourselves judge what I say.

But if anyone says to you, This food has been used as an offering, do not take it, on account of him who said it, and on account of his sense of right and wrong:

Right and wrong, I say, not for you, but for the other man; for the fact that I am free is not dependent on another man's sense of right or wrong.

Does not common sense itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a dishonor to him,

For he who eats and drinks without a proper sense of the Body, eats and drinks to his own condemnation.

And to another the power of working wonders; and to another the prophet's word; and to another the power of testing spirits; to another different sorts of tongues; and to another the power of making clear the sense of the tongues:

If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be?

Are all able to take away disease? have all the power of tongues? are all able to give their sense?

For he who makes use of tongues is not talking to men but to God; because no one has the sense of what he is saying; but in the Spirit he is talking of secret things.

Now though it is my desire for you all to have the power of tongues, it would give me more pleasure to be hearing the prophet's word from you; for this is a greater thing than using tongues, if the sense is not given at the same time, for the good of the church.

So if you, in using a strange tongue, say words which have no sense, how will anyone take in what you are saying? for you will be talking to the air.

There are, it may be, a number of different voices in the world, and no voice is without sense.

But if the sense of the voice is not clear to me, I am like a man from a strange country to him who is talking, and he will be the same to me.

For this reason, let the man who has the power of using tongues make request that he may, at the same time, be able to give the sense.

But in the church it would be better for me to make use of five words of which the sense was clear, so that others might have profit, than ten thousand words in a strange tongue.

My brethren, be not children in sense: but in malice be infants, and in your judgements shew yourselves to be men.

What is it then, my brothers? when you come together everyone has a holy song, or a revelation, or a tongue, or is giving the sense of it. Let everything be done for the common good.

If any man makes use of a tongue, let it not be more than two, or at the most three, and in turn; and let someone give the sense:

But if there is no one to give the sense, let him keep quiet in the church; and let his words be to himself and to God.

Return to your sober sense as you ought, and stop sinning, for some of you are utterly ignorant about God. To your shame I say so.

who also hath enabled me to be a minister of the new covenant, not of the literal sense, but of the spiritual meaning: it is the letter that denounces death, but the spirit gives life.

but as we lay aside the veil, the divine light gradually informs the mind, according as we attend to that spiritual sense, which points out the Lord.

And we have given up the secret things of shame, not walking in false ways, and not making use of the word of God with deceit; but by the revelation of what is true, as before God, we have the approval of every man's sense of right and wrong.

See how the very fact that you were made sorry from a godly motive has produced earnestness in you! [It produced] a desire to vindicate yourselves [i.e., by making amends for your wrongdoing]; an attitude of just anger [i.e., toward the wrongdoers]; a sense of fear [i.e., a fear of God for doing wrong]; an eager desire [i.e., to do the right thing]; a zeal [i.e., to correct problems]; and an attitude of avenging [i.e., that punished the wrongdoer]. You demonstrated in everything [you did] that you were pure [i.e., innocent] in this matter. [Note: This whole description of their conduct appears to be a reference to the incident mentioned in 2:1-11].

Indeed, I do not dare to count or compare myself with certain men who are always recommending themselves. But they do not show good sense, because they do continue measuring themselves with one another and comparing themselves with one another.

Are you so without sense? After beginning with the Spirit, will you now end with the flesh?

Where then is your sense of happiness now? For I testify about you that if it were possible, you would have pulled out your eyes and given them to me!

Which things have a secret sense; because these women are the two agreements; one from the mountain of Sinai, giving birth to servants, which is Hagar.

Brothers, if anyone is caught in any sin, you who are spiritual [that is, you who are responsive to the guidance of the Spirit] are to restore such a person in a spirit of gentleness [not with a sense of superiority or self-righteousness], keeping a watchful eye on yourself, so that you are not tempted as well.

So remember that you were once heathen in a physical sense, called the uncircumcised by those who call themselves the circumcised -- though only in a physical sense, by human hands.

Since they have lost all sense of shame, they have abandoned themselves to sensuality and practice every kind of sexual perversion without restraint.

On this account do not prove yourselves wanting in sense, but try to understand what the Lord's will is.

Even so husbands should and are morally obligated to love their own wives as [being in a sense] their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself.