Very soon they will say, “We have no king since we did not fear the Lord. But what can a king do for us anyway?”

They drink wine from sacrificial bowls, ¹  and pour the very best oils on themselves. ²  Yet they are not concerned over ³  the ruin ⁴  of Joseph.

Be sure of this! The Lord who commands armies has decreed: The nations’ efforts will go up in smoke; their exhausting work will be for nothing. ¹ 

People ¹  do not light a lamp and put it under a basket ²  but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house.

But I say to you, do not take oaths at all – not by heaven, because it is the throne of God,

But his master answered, ¹  ‘Evil and lazy slave! So you knew that I harvest where I didn’t sow and gather where I didn’t scatter?

He also said to them, “A lamp ¹  isn’t brought to be put under a basket ²  or under a bed, is it? Isn’t it to be placed on a lampstand?

He instructed them to take nothing for the journey except a staff ¹  – no bread, no bag, ²  no money in their belts –

For ¹  a while he refused, but later on ²  he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor have regard for people, ³ 

So they all seized Sosthenes, the president of the synagogue, ¹  and began to beat ²  him in front of the judgment seat. ³  Yet none of these things were of any concern ⁴  to Gallio.

He ordered the centurion ¹  to guard Paul, ²  but to let him have some freedom, ³  and not to prevent any of his friends ⁴  from meeting his needs. ⁵ 

For whenever the Gentiles, ¹  who do not have the law, do by nature ²  the things required by the law, ³  these who do not have the law are a law to themselves.

I know and am convinced in the Lord Jesus that there is nothing unclean in itself; still, it is unclean to the one who considers it unclean.

But I have written more boldly to you on some points so as to remind you, because of the grace given to me by God

So for me, it is a minor matter that I am judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself.

Now food will not bring us close to God. We are no worse if we do not eat and no better if we do.

No, I mean that what the pagans sacrifice ¹  is to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be partners with demons.

Now the one who prepared us for this very purpose ¹  is God, who gave us the Spirit as a down payment. ² 

until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God – a mature person, attaining to ¹  the measure of Christ’s full stature. ² 

Therefore let those of us who are “perfect” embrace this point of view. ¹  If you think otherwise, God will reveal to you the error of your ways. ²