when we are slandered, we respond graciously. Even now, we are like the world’s garbage, like the dirt everyone scrapes off their sandals.

For I think God has displayed us, the apostles, in last place, like men condemned to die: We have become a spectacle to the world and to angels and to men.

so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God who are faultless in a crooked and perverted generation, among whom you shine like stars in the world.

If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. However, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of it, the world hates you.

I have given them Your word.
The world hated them
because they are not of the world,
as I am not of the world.

Do not love the world or the things that belong to the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in him.

They are from the world. Therefore what they say is from the world, and the world listens to them.

He was in the world,
and the world was created through Him,
yet the world did not recognize Him.

For God did not send His Son into the world that He might condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.

“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.”

Instead, God has chosen what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen what is weak in the world to shame the strong.

I did not mean the immoral people of this world or the greedy and swindlers or idolaters; otherwise you would have to leave the world.

Or don’t you know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest cases?

and those who use the world as though they did not make full use of it. For this world in its current form is passing away.

But as for me, I will never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. The world has been crucified to me through the cross, and I to the world.

If you died with the Messiah to the elemental forces of this world, why do you live as if you still belonged to the world? Why do you submit to regulations:

Now is the judgment of this world. Now the ruler of this world will be cast out.

If anyone hears My words and doesn’t keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world.

Before the Passover Festival, Jesus knew that His hour had come to depart from this world to the Father. Having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.

I came from the Father and have come into the world. Again, I am leaving the world and going to the Father.”

I have told you these things so that in Me you may have peace. You will have suffering in this world. Be courageous! I have conquered the world.”

I am no longer in the world,
but they are in the world,
and I am coming to You.
Holy Father,
protect them by Your name
that You have given Me,
so that they may be one as We are one.

They are not of the world,
as I am not of the world.

As You sent Me into the world,
I also have sent them into the world.

As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

because whatever has been born of God conquers the world. This is the victory that has conquered the world: our faith.

and if He didn’t spare the ancient world, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others, when He brought a flood on the world of the ungodly;

For everything that belongs to the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride in one’s lifestyle—is not from the Father, but is from the world.

Adulteresses! Don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? So whoever wants to be the world’s friend becomes God’s enemy.

“You are from below,” He told them, “I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world.

The first living creature was like a lion; the second living creature was like a calf; the third living creature had a face like a man; and the fourth living creature was like a flying eagle.

When I was a child,
I spoke like a child,
I thought like a child,
I reasoned like a child.
When I became a man,
I put aside childish things.

But when I saw that they were deviating from the truth of the gospel, I told Cephas in front of everyone, “If you, who are a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you compel Gentiles to live like Jews?”

The appearance of the locusts was like horses equipped for battle. Something like gold crowns was on their heads; their faces were like men’s faces;

The beast I saw was like a leopard, his feet were like a bear’s, and his mouth was like a lion’s mouth. The dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great authority.

I heard a sound from heaven like the sound of cascading waters and like the rumbling of loud thunder. The sound I heard was also like harpists playing on their harps.

Then I heard something like the voice of a vast multitude, like the sound of cascading waters, and like the rumbling of loud thunder, saying:

Hallelujah, because our Lord God, the Almighty,
has begun to reign!

The Pharisee took his stand and was praying like this: ‘God, I thank You that I’m not like other people —greedy, unrighteous, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.

But it must not be like that among you. On the contrary, whoever is greatest among you must become like the youngest, and whoever leads, like the one serving.

And just as Isaiah predicted:

If the Lord of Hosts had not left us offspring,
we would have become like Sodom,
and we would have been made like Gomorrah.

Like the man made of dust,
so are those who are made of dust;
like the heavenly man,
so are those who are heavenly.

To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win Jews; to those under the law, like one under the law—though I myself am not under the law—to win those under the law.

Therefore I do not run like one who runs aimlessly or box like one beating the air.

I beg you, brothers: Become like me, for I also became like you. You have not wronged me;

Stand, therefore,

with truth like a belt around your waist,
righteousness like armor on your chest,