We are proclaiming Christ crucified!-to the Jews an obstacle, to the Gentiles mere folly,

A material man will not accept what the Spirit of God offers. It seems mere folly to him, and he cannot understand it, because it takes spiritual insight to see its true value.

Brothers, I couldn't talk to you as spiritual people but as worldly people, as mere infants in the Messiah.

You are still worldly [controlled by ordinary impulses, the sinful capacity]. For as long as there is jealousy and strife and discord among you, are you not unspiritual, and are you not walking like ordinary men [unchanged by faith]?

For when one says, "I belong to Paul's party," and another, "I belong to Apollos' party," are you not acting as mere human creatures?

Then what is Apollos? Or what is Paul? Mere servants through whom you came to believe, as the Lord gave each of us his task.

For this world's wisdom is mere nonsense to God. For the Scripture says, "He who catches the wise with their own cunning,"

So then, no more boasting about mere mortals! For everything belongs to you,

We, for Christ's sake, are labeled as "foolish"; you, as Christians, are men of shrewd intelligence. We are mere weaklings: you are strong. You are in high repute: we are outcasts.

when slandered, we try to conciliate. We have come to be regarded as the mere dirt and filth of the world--the refuse of the universe, even to this hour.

Now about food sacrificed to idols, we know that we all have knowledge [concerning this]. Knowledge [alone] makes [people self-righteously] arrogant, but love [that unselfishly seeks the best for others] builds up and encourages others to grow [in wisdom].

Now mere food will not bring us any nearer to God; if we abstain we do not lose anything, and if we eat we do not gain anything.

What I am proud of is not the mere preaching of the gospel; that I am constrained to do. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!

Though I speak in the 'tongues' of men, or even of angels, yet have not Love, I have become mere echoing brass, or a clanging cymbal!

If I should dole out everything I have for charity, and give my body up to torture in mere boasting pride, but have no love, I get from it no good at all.

Brothers, do not be children in the sphere of intelligence; in evil be mere infants, but be mature in your intelligence.

and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is a mere delusion; you are still under the penalty of your sins.

Ah, if in this life we have nothing but a mere hope in Christ, we are of all men to be pitied most!

And when you sow, you sow not the body that will be, but a mere grain-perhaps of wheat, or something else.

I do not want to see you right now in a mere stop-over visit, for later I hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord permits me.

Therefore when I was planning to do this, I did not do so without thinking about what I was doing, did I? Or do I make my plans according to mere human standards so that I would be saying both "Yes, yes" and "No, no" at the same time?

But I have this treasure in a mere ear then jar, to show that its amazing power belongs to God and not to me.

For though we walk in the flesh [as mortal men], we are not carrying on our [spiritual] warfare according to the flesh and using the weapons of man.

for the weapons used in my warfare are not mere human ones, but through my God are mighty for demolishing fortresses.

I say that I was weak, and yet for whatever reason any one is bold (I speak in mere folly) I too am bold.

I would remind you, Brothers, that the Good News which I told is no mere human invention.

Do not be deceived, God is not mocked [He will not allow Himself to be ridiculed, nor treated with contempt nor allow His precepts to be scornfully set aside]; for whatever a man sows, this and this only is what he will reap.

Therefore, remember that at one time you Gentiles by birth, who are called “Uncircumcision” by those who called themselves “Circumcision,” [itself a mere mark] which is made in the flesh by human hands—

You are therefore no longer mere foreigners or persons excluded from civil rights. On the contrary you share citizenship with God's people and are members of His family.

and [that you may come] to know [practically, through personal experience] the love of Christ which far surpasses [mere] knowledge [without experience], that you may be filled up [throughout your being] to all the fullness of God [so that you may have the richest experience of God’s presence in your lives, completely filled and flooded with God Himself].

not with mere external service, as though you had only men to please, but like slaves of Christ, carrying out the will of God.

For ours is not a conflict with mere flesh and blood, but with the despotisms, the empires, the forces that control and govern this dark world--the spiritual hosts of evil arrayed against us in the heavenly warfare.

Yes, indeed, I certainly do count everything as loss compared with the priceless privilege of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have lost everything, and value it all as mere refuse, in order to gain Christ

Take care there is not some one who will carry you away by his 'philosophy'--a hollow sham!--following, as it does, mere human traditions, and dealing with puerile questions of this world, and not with Christ.

All that is the mere shadow of what is to be; the substance belongs to Christ.

Stop letting anyone, in gratuitous humility and worship of angels, defraud you as an umpire, for such a one is taking his stand on the mere visions he has seen, and is groundlessly conceited over his sensuous mind.

"You must not handle," "You must not taste," "You must not touch"??22 referring to things that are all meant to be used up and destroyed? This is to follow mere human rules and regulations.

For all the things referred to in them cease to exist when used. You are following mere human directions and instructions.

You who are slaves must always obey your earthly masters, not with mere external service, as though you had only men to please, but with sincerity of heart, because you fear the Lord.

for our preaching of the good news did not come to you as mere words but with power and the holy Spirit and full conviction??ou know the kind of life we lived among you for your good.

nor did we seek glory either from you or from any other mere men, although we might have stood on our dignity as Christ's Apostles.

And we also thank God continually for this, that when you received the word of God [concerning salvation] which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of [mere] men, but as it truly is, the word of God, which is effectually at work in you who believe [exercising its inherent, supernatural power in those of faith].

And not for the mere gratification of his passions, like the Gentiles who know nothing of God;

But we are informed that some among you are living as shirkers, mere busybodies, instead of busy at work.

nor to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies, which give rise to mere speculation rather than furthering the administration of God which is by faith.

But have nothing to do with irreverent folklore and silly myths. On the other hand, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness [keeping yourself spiritually fit].

Bring all this to men's remembrances, solemnly charging them in the presence of God not to waste time in wrangling about mere words, a course which is altogether unprofitable and tends only to the ruin of the hearers.

For there are many insubordinate people, mere talkers with nothing to say, but deceivers of their own minds, especially those of the circumcision party,

not paying attention to Jewish myths and the commandments and rules of men who turn their backs on the truth.

no longer a mere slave but something more than a slave ??a beloved brother; especially dear to me but how much more to you as a man and as a Christian!

For everyone who lives on milk is [doctrinally inexperienced and] unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a spiritual infant.

Such persons are mere babes. But solid food is for adults--that is, for those who through constant practice have their spiritual faculties carefully trained to distinguish good from evil.

Now were he on earth, he would not even be a priest, since there are here those who present the gifts according to the Law??5 those priests who serve a mere outline and shadow of the heavenly reality, just as Moses was divinely instructed when he was about to build the Tabernacle. "See", he says, "that you make everything on the pattern showed you on the mountain."

and yet they officiate in a sanctuary that is a mere copy and shadow of the heavenly one, as Moses, when he was about to make the tent of worship, was warned, for, said He, "See to it that you make it all just like the pattern shown you on the mountain."

And all this looked toward the present time and was symbolic of the fact that the mere offering of material gifts and sacrifices cannot inwardly qualify the worshiper to approach God,

since they deal only with food and drink and various washings, that is, with mere material regulations which are in force only until the time of setting things straight.

For if the sprinkling of [ceremonially] defiled persons with the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a [burnt] heifer is sufficient for the cleansing of the body,

how much more surely will the blood of Christ, who with an eternal Spirit gave Himself a spotless offering to God, purify your consciences from works that mean mere death, to serve the ever living God?

For it was not into a Sanctuary made by hands, a mere type of the reality, that Christ entered, but he entered into heaven itself, now to appear in the very presence of God on our behalf.

For as the Law has a mere shadow of the bliss that is to be, instead of representing the reality of that bliss, it never can perfect those who draw near with the same annual sacrifices that are perpetually offered.

By faith we understand that the worlds were created, beautifully coordinated, and now exist, at God's command; so the things that we see did not develop out of mere matter.

But prove yourselves obedient to the Message, and do not be mere hearers of it, imposing a delusion upon yourselves.

In the same way the tongue is an insignificant part of the body, but it is immensely boastful. Remember how a mere spark may set a vast forest in flames.

But, as the case stands, it is in mere self-confidence that you boast: all such boasting is evil.

The antitype to which baptism now saveth us (not the mere removal of filth from the flesh, but the engagement of a good conscience to God), by the resurrection of Jesus Christ:

For it was not mere stories of fancy that we followed when we told you of the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we had been eyewitnesses of His majesty.

for no prophetic teaching ever came in the old days at the mere wish of man, but men, moved by the Holy Spirit, spoke direct from God.

But these, as creatures without reason, born mere animals to be taken and destroyed, railing in matters whereof they are ignorant, shall in their destroying surely be destroyed,

These men are dried-up springs, mere clouds driven by a storm. Gloomy darkness is reserved for them.

My children, do not let our love be mere words, or end in talk; let it be true and show itself in acts.

But these, whatever things they know not, they speak railingly against; but what even, as the irrational animals, they understand by mere nature, in these things they corrupt themselves.

These are men who cause divisions; mere animals, destitute of any spiritual nature,

I know your distress and your poverty (but you are rich!): I know how you are being slandered by those who style themselves Jews (no Jews are they, but a mere synagogue of Satan!).