It is similar for lifeless things that make a sound, like a flute or harp. Unless they make a distinction in the notes, how can what is played on the flute or harp be understood?

It is the same for you. If you do not speak clearly with your tongue, how will anyone know what is being said? For you will be speaking into the air.

Otherwise, if you are praising God with your spirit, how can someone without the gift ¹  say “Amen” to your thanksgiving, since he does not know what you are saying?

But now that you have come to know God (or rather to be known by God), how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless ¹  basic forces? ²  Do you want to be enslaved to them all over again? ³ 

Tychicus, my ¹  dear brother and faithful servant in the Lord, will make everything known to you, so that you too may know about my circumstances, ²  how I am doing.

For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you, ¹  and for those in Laodicea, and for those who have not met me face to face. ² 

in case I am delayed, to let you know how people ought to conduct themselves ¹  in the household of God, because it is ²  the church of the living God, the support and bulwark of the truth.

how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our ¹  consciences from dead works to worship the living God.

How much greater punishment do you think that person deserves who has contempt for ¹  the Son of God, and profanes ²  the blood of the covenant that made him holy, ³  and insults the Spirit of grace?

Take care not to refuse the one who is speaking! For if they did not escape when they refused the one who warned them on earth, how much less shall we, if we reject the one who warns from heaven?

So be patient, brothers and sisters, ¹  until the Lord’s return. ²  Think of how the farmer waits ³  for the precious fruit of the ground and is patient ⁴  for it until it receives the early and late rains.

Think of how we regard ¹  as blessed those who have endured. You have heard of Job’s endurance and you have seen the Lord’s purpose, that the Lord is full of compassion and mercy. ² 

But whoever has the world’s possessions ¹  and sees his fellow Christian ²  in need and shuts off his compassion against him, how can the love of God ³  reside ⁴  in such a person? ⁵ 

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, ¹  you who kill the prophets and stone those who are sent to you! ²  How often I have longed ³  to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but ⁴  you would have none of it! ⁵ 

Now as for the dead being raised, ¹  have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, ²  how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the ³  God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? ⁴ 

How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me remove the speck from your eye,’ while you yourself don’t see the beam in your own? You hypocrite! First remove the beam from your own eye, and then you can see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, ¹  you who kill the prophets and stone those who are sent to you! ²  How often I have longed ³  to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but ⁴  you would have none of it! ⁵ 

Then some of the Pharisees began to say, ¹  “This man is not from God, because he does not observe ²  the Sabbath.” ³  But others said, “How can a man who is a sinner perform ⁴  such miraculous signs?” Thus there was a division ⁵  among them.

Before it was sold, ¹  did it not ²  belong to you? And when it was sold, was the money ³  not at your disposal? How have you thought up this deed in your heart? ⁴  You have not lied to people ⁵  but to God!”

He motioned to them ¹  with his hand to be quiet and then related ²  how the Lord had brought ³  him out of the prison. He said, “Tell James and the brothers these things,” and then he left and went to another place. ⁴