who say, "Keep to yourself!' "Don't touch me!' and "I am too holy for you!' "Such people are smoke in my nostrils, a fire that keeps burning all day long.

It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than to know it and turn their backs on the holy commandment that was committed to them.

because I tell you, unless your righteousness greatly exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom from heaven!"

Therefore, let no one judge you in matters of food and drink or with respect to a festival, a New Moon, or Sabbath days.

Do not be overly righteous, nor be overly wise. Why be self-destructive?

You blind men! Which is more important, the gift or the altar that makes the gift holy?

For if anyone thinks he is something when he is really nothing, he is only fooling himself.

Indeed, there is no one holy like the LORD, indeed, there is no one besides you, there is no rock like our God.

who sit among graves, and spend the night in secret places; who eat pigs' meat, with the broth of detestable things in their pots;

One person decides in favor of one day over another, while another person decides that all days are the same. Let each one be fully convinced in his own mind:

If you give special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, "Please take this seat," but you say to the poor man, "Stand over there" or "Sit on the floor at my feet,"

Jesus also told this parable to some people who trusted in themselves, thinking they were righteous, but who looked down on everyone else:

Those of you who are trying to be justified by the Law have been cut off from the Messiah. You have fallen away from grace.

Some people view themselves as pure, but haven't been cleansed from their own filth.

"Stop judging, and you'll never be judged. Stop condemning, and you'll never be condemned. Forgive, and you'll be forgiven.

"How terrible it will be for those who are wise in their own opinion, and clever in their own reckoning!