Matters

Did not King Solomon of Israel sin in matters like this? There was not a king like him among many nations, and he was loved by his God, who made him king over all Israel—yet foreign women drew him into sin.

A song of ascents. Of David. My heart is not proud, O LORD, my eyes are not haughty. I do not aspire to great things or matters too lofty for me.

“So I in turn have made you despised and humiliated before all the people, because you have not kept My ways, but have shown partiality in matters of the law.”

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You pay tithes of mint, dill, and cumin. But you have disregarded the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy, and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.

Thus you nullify the word of God by the tradition you have handed down. And you do so in many such matters.”

Since I was at a loss as to how to investigate these matters, I asked if he was willing to go to Jerusalem and be tried there on these charges.

For the king knows about these matters, and I can speak freely to him. I am confident that none of this has escaped his notice, because it was not done in a corner.

Keep your belief about such matters between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who does not condemn himself by what he approves.

So if you need to settle everyday matters, do you appoint as judges those of no standing in the church?

Now for the matters you wrote about: It is good to abstain from sexual relations.

If anyone is hungry, he should eat at home, so that when you come together it will not result in judgment. And when I come, I will give instructions about the remaining matters.

For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. What matters is faith expressing itself through love.

…and to aspire to live quietly, to attend to your own matters, and to work with your own hands, as we instructed you.

Be diligent in these matters and absorbed in them, so that your progress will be evident to all.

Every high priest is appointed from among men to represent them in matters relating to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins.

These men are like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be captured and destroyed. They blaspheme in matters they do not understand, and like such creatures, they too will be destroyed.

He writes this way in all his letters, speaking in them about such matters. Some parts of his letters are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.