For every creation of God is good and no food ¹  is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving.

For I was afraid of you, because you are a severe ¹  man. You withdraw ²  what you did not deposit ³  and reap what you did not sow.’

But the one who practices the truth comes to the light, so that it may be plainly evident that his deeds have been done in God. ¹ 

How can you believe, if you accept praise ¹  from one another and don’t seek the praise ²  that comes from the only God? ³ 

The one who belongs to ¹  God listens and responds ²  to God’s words. You don’t listen and respond, ³  because you don’t belong to God.” ⁴ 

For if I do this voluntarily, I have a reward. But if I do it unwillingly, I am entrusted with a responsibility.

Therefore I am all the more eager to send him, ¹  so that when you see him again you can rejoice ²  and I can be free from anxiety.

By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac. He had received the promises, ¹  yet he was ready to offer up ²  his only son.

But if anyone is deficient in wisdom, he should ask God, who gives to all generously and without reprimand, and it will be given to him.

Give a shepherd’s care to ¹  God’s flock among you, exercising oversight ²  not merely as a duty ³  but willingly under God’s direction, ⁴  not for shameful profit but eagerly.

Hezekiah welcomed ¹  them and showed them his storehouse with its silver, gold, spices, and high-quality olive oil, as well as his whole armory and everything in his treasuries. Hezekiah showed them everything in his palace and in his whole kingdom. ² 

I am willing to shame and humiliate myself even more than this! ¹  But with the slave girls whom you mentioned let me be distinguished!”

Your people willingly follow you ¹  when you go into battle. ²  On the holy hills ³  at sunrise ⁴  the dew of your youth ⁵  belongs to you. ⁶ 

The king ¹  said to him, ‘I will judge you by your own words, ²  you wicked slave! ³  So you knew, did you, that I was a severe ⁴  man, withdrawing what I didn’t deposit and reaping what I didn’t sow?

Jesus replied, ¹  “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I have come from God and am now here. ²  I ³  have not come on my own initiative, ⁴  but he ⁵  sent me.

But just as Paul was about to speak, ¹  Gallio said to the Jews, “If it were a matter of some crime or serious piece of villainy, ²  I would have been justified in accepting the complaint ³  of you Jews, ⁴ 

When the governor gestured for him to speak, Paul replied, “Because I know ¹  that you have been a judge over this nation for many years, I confidently make my defense. ² 

Indeed, he who ¹  did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all – how will he not also, along with him, freely give us all things?

if it is exhortation, he must exhort; if it is contributing, he must do so with sincerity; if it is leadership, he must do so with diligence; if it is showing mercy, he must do so with cheerfulness.

Where then is your sense of happiness ¹  now? For I testify about you that if it were possible, you would have pulled out your eyes and given them to me!