Thematic Bible
Thematic Bible
Affections » False teachers seek to captivate
For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? For if I were still pleasing men, I would not be a servant of Christ.
They zealously seek you, but for no good purpose; they desire to alienate you, that you may be zealous for them.
For of these are those who creep into houses, and take captive gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts,
In covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words: whose sentence now from of old does not linger, and their destruction is not asleep.
For, uttering great swelling words of emptiness, they entice in the lusts of the flesh, by licentiousness, those who barely escape from those who live in error;
But I have a few things against you, because you have there some who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to throw a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality.
But I have this against you, that you tolerate the woman, Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. She teaches and seduces my servants to commit sexual immorality, and to eat things sacrificed to idols.
Religious zeal » Without knowledge
They zealously seek you, but for no good purpose; they desire to alienate you, that you may be zealous for them.
For you have heard of my former way of life in Judaism, how I severely persecuted the church of God, and tried to destroy it. I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my countrymen, being more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of my fathers.
For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For being ignorant of God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God.
They will put you out of the synagogues, but an hour is coming when whoever kills you will think that he is offering a service to God.
They, when they heard it, glorified God. They said to him, "You see, brother, how many thousands there are among the Jews of those who have believed, and they are all zealous for the Law.
Do not be overly righteous, neither make yourself overly wise. Why should you destroy yourself?
Then a scribe came, and said to him, "Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go." And Jesus said to him, "The foxes have holes, and the birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head."
As they went on the way, a certain man said to him, "I want to follow you wherever you go." And Jesus said to him, "The foxes have holes, and the birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head."
Some indeed proclaim Christ even out of envy and strife, and some also out of good will. The former insincerely proclaim Christ from selfish ambition, thinking that they add affliction to my chains; but the latter out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the Good News. read more.
What does it matter? Only that in every way, whether out of false motives or in truth, Christ is proclaimed. I rejoice in this, yes, and will rejoice.
What does it matter? Only that in every way, whether out of false motives or in truth, Christ is proclaimed. I rejoice in this, yes, and will rejoice.