But one after another they all ¹  began to make excuses. ²  The first said to him, ‘I have bought a field, ³  and I must go out and see it. Please excuse me.’ ⁴ 

So he made a whip of cords ¹  and drove them all out of the temple courts, ²  with the sheep and the oxen. He scattered the coins of the money changers ³  and overturned their tables.

The hired hand, ¹  who is not a shepherd and does not own sheep, sees the wolf coming and abandons ²  the sheep and runs away. ³  So the wolf attacks ⁴  the sheep and scatters them.

While he was with them, ¹  he declared, ²  “Do not leave Jerusalem, ³  but wait there ⁴  for what my ⁵  Father promised, ⁶  which you heard about from me. ⁷ 

This same ¹  Moses they had rejected, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and judge?’ ²  God sent as both ruler and deliverer ³  through the hand of the angel ⁴  who appeared to him in the bush.

that this promise ¹  God has fulfilled to us, their children, by raising ²  Jesus, as also it is written in the second psalm, ‘You are my Son; ³  today I have fathered you.’ ⁴ 

yet he did not leave himself without a witness by doing good, ¹  by giving you rain from heaven ²  and fruitful seasons, satisfying you ³  with food and your hearts with joy.” ⁴ 

Since we have heard that some have gone out from among us with no orders from us and have confused ¹  you, upsetting ²  your minds ³  by what they said, ⁴ 

When I was informed ¹  there would be a plot ²  against this man, I sent him to you at once, also ordering his accusers to state their charges ³  against him before you.

to open their eyes so that they turn ¹  from darkness to light and from the power ²  of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a share ³  among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’

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?

For if your brother or sister ¹  is distressed because of what you eat, ²  you are no longer walking in love. ³  Do not destroy by your food someone for whom Christ died.

Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. For although all things are clean, ¹  it is wrong to cause anyone to stumble by what you eat.

to the church of God that is in Corinth, ¹  to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, and called to be saints, with all those in every place who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours. ² 

But if someone says to you, “This is from a sacrifice,” do not eat, because of the one who told you and because of conscience ¹  –

because I know your eagerness to help. ¹  I keep boasting to the Macedonians about this eagerness of yours, ²  that Achaia has been ready to give ³  since last year, and your zeal to participate ⁴  has stirred up most of them. ⁵ 

Therefore I thought it necessary to urge these brothers to go to you in advance and to arrange ahead of time the generous contribution ¹  you had promised, so this may be ready as a generous gift ²  and not as something you feel forced to do. ³ 

And the tongue is a fire! The tongue represents ¹  the world of wrongdoing among the parts of our bodies. It ²  pollutes the entire body and sets fire to the course of human existence – and is set on fire by hell. ³ 

Through Silvanus, ¹  whom I know to be a faithful brother, ²  I have written to you briefly, in order to encourage you and testify ³  that this is the true grace of God. Stand fast in it. ⁴ 

And the Lord smelled the soothing aroma ¹  and said ²  to himself, ³  “I will never again curse ⁴  the ground because of humankind, even though ⁵  the inclination of their minds ⁶  is evil from childhood on. ⁷  I will never again destroy everything that lives, as I have just done.