but it is in vain they worship Me, while they lay down precepts which are mere human rules.'"

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.

Vain pretenders! You know how to read the aspect of earth and sky. How is it you cannot read this present time?

When daylight came, they tried in vain to recognise the coast. But an inlet with a sandy beach attracted their attention, and now their object was, if possible, to run the ship aground in this inlet.

and if Christ has not risen, your faith is a vain thing--you are still in your sins.

I went up in obedience to a revelation of God's will; and I explained to them the Good News which I proclaim among the Gentiles. To the leaders of the Church this explanation was made in private, lest by any means I should be running, or should already have run, in vain.

I do not nullify the grace of God; for if acquittal from guilt is obtainable through the Law, then Christ has died in vain."

Let us not become vain-glorious, challenging one another, envying one another.

holding out to them a Message of Life. It will then be my glory on the day of Christ that I did not run my race in vain nor toil in vain.

But hold yourself aloof from foolish controversies and pedigrees and discussions and wrangling about the Law, for they are useless and vain.