Acts 19:35

Don’t be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what is the good, well-pleasing, and perfect will of God.

being darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardening of their hearts.

For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world’s rulers of the darkness of this age, and against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

We also all once lived among them in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.

who are Israelites; whose is the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service, and the promises;

There you shall serve gods, the work of men’s hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell.

Now is the judgment of this world. Now the prince of this world will be cast out.

Some of you were such, but you were washed. But you were sanctified. But you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and in the Spirit of our God.

who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us out of this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father—

Let no one deceive you with empty words. For because of these things, the wrath of God comes on the children of disobedience.

You also once walked in those, when you lived in them;

Don’t love the world or the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, the Father’s love isn’t in him.

There is silver beaten into plates, which is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of the engraver and of the hands of the goldsmith. Their clothing is blue and purple. They are all the work of skillful men.

You are of your father, the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and doesn’t stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks on his own; for he is a liar, and the father of lies.

They took hold of him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is, which you are speaking about?

Being then the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold, or silver, or stone, engraved by art and design of man.

When they had come to him, he said to them, “You yourselves know, from the first day that I set foot in Asia, how I was with you all the time,

Therefore concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that no idol is anything in the world, and that there is no other God but one.

However at that time, not knowing God, you were in bondage to those who by nature are not gods.

They, having become callous, gave themselves up to lust, to work all uncleanness with greediness.

You, being in past times alienated and enemies in your mind in your evil deeds,

We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.

But for the cowardly, unbelieving, sinners, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their part is in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold, whose height was sixty cubits, and its width six cubits. He set it up in the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon.

I will no more speak much with you, for the prince of the world comes, and he has nothing in me.

He reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and persuaded Jews and Greeks.

Now a certain Jew named Apollos, an Alexandrian by race, an eloquent man, came to Ephesus. He was mighty in the Scriptures.

While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul, having passed through the upper country, came to Ephesus and found certain disciples.

For Paul had determined to sail past Ephesus, that he might not have to spend time in Asia; for he was hastening, if it were possible for him, to be in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost.

But I will stay at Ephesus until Pentecost,

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God, to the saints who are at Ephesus, and the faithful in Christ Jesus:

For you were once darkness, but are now light in the Lord. Walk as children of light,

not in the passion of lust, even as the Gentiles who don’t know God,

But we don’t want you to be ignorant, brothers, concerning those who have fallen asleep, so that you don’t grieve like the rest, who have no hope.

As I urged you when I was going into Macedonia, stay at Ephesus that you might command certain men not to teach a different doctrine,

(the Lord grant to him to find the Lord’s mercy in that day); and in how many things he served at Ephesus, you know very well.

Let’s therefore give diligence to enter into that rest, lest anyone fall after the same example of disobedience.

He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. To this end the Son of God was revealed: that he might destroy the works of the devil.

The seventh poured out his bowl into the air. A loud voice came out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, “It is done!”

In that day Yahweh made a covenant with Abram, saying, “I have given this land to your offspring, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates:

Moreover Yahweh’s word came by the prophet Jehu the son of Hanani against Baasha and against his house, both because of all the evil that he did in Yahweh’s sight, to provoke him to anger with the work of his hands, in being like the house of Jeroboam, and because he struck him.

that they may see, know, consider, and understand together, that Yahweh’s hand has done this, and the Holy One of Israel has created it.

Who has fashioned a god, or molds an image that is profitable for nothing?

“You shall say this to them: ‘The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth will perish from the earth, and from under the heavens.’ ”

Yahweh, the hope of Israel, all who forsake you will be disappointed. Those who depart from me will be written in the earth, because they have forsaken Yahweh, the spring of living waters.

Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them. It will be an everlasting covenant with them. I will place them, multiply them, and will set my sanctuary among them forever more.

The enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels.

The devil said to him, “I will give you all this authority, and their glory, for it has been delivered to me; and I give it to whomever I want.

I am the vine. You are the branches. He who remains in me and I in him bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

The Lord’s word was spread abroad throughout all the region.

They called Barnabas “Jupiter”, and Paul “Mercury”, because he was the chief speaker.

“Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men of like passions with you, and bring you good news, that you should turn from these vain things to the living God, who made the sky, the earth, the sea, and all that is in them;

This continued for two years, so that all those who lived in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks.

This became known to all, both Jews and Greeks, who lived at Ephesus. Fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified.

but had certain questions against him about their own religion, and about one Jesus, who was dead, whom Paul affirmed to be alive.

When neither sun nor stars shone on us for many days, and no small storm pressed on us, all hope that we would be saved was now taken away.

For this cause therefore I asked to see you and to speak with you. For because of the hope of Israel I am bound with this chain.”

(for when Gentiles who don’t have the law do by nature the things of the law, these, not having the law, are a law to themselves,

If I fought with animals at Ephesus for human purposes, what does it profit me? If the dead are not raised, then “let’s eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”

in whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that the light of the Good News of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should not dawn on them.

having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of his calling, and what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,

So then you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God,

that you put away, as concerning your former way of life, the old man that grows corrupt after the lusts of deceit,

Therefore putting away falsehood, speak truth each one with his neighbor. For we are members of one another.

Be careful that you don’t let anyone rob you through his philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the elements of the world, and not after Christ.

But I sent Tychicus to Ephesus.

let’s draw near with a true heart in fullness of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and having our body washed with pure water,

as children of obedience, not conforming yourselves according to your former lusts as in your ignorance,

You are of God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world.

For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world: your faith.

saying, “What you see, write in a book and send to the seven assemblies: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and to Laodicea.”

“To the angel of the assembly in Ephesus write: “He who holds the seven stars in his right hand, he who walks among the seven golden lamp stands says these things:

Don’t be afraid of the things which you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested; and you will have oppression for ten days. Be faithful to death, and I will give you the crown of life.

They have over them as king the angel of the abyss. His name in Hebrew is “Abaddon”, but in Greek, he has the name “Apollyon”.

The rest of mankind, who were not killed with these plagues, didn’t repent of the works of their hands, that they wouldn’t worship demons, and the idols of gold, and of silver, and of brass, and of stone, and of wood; which can’t see, hear, or walk.

He seized the dragon, the old serpent, which is the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole inhabited earth, and bound him for a thousand years,

Then Jacob said to his household, and to all who were with him, “Put away the foreign gods that are among you, purify yourselves, change your garments.

When the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron, and said to him, “Come, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we don’t know what has become of him.”

“You shall make no cast idols for yourselves.

He said, “You have taken away my gods which I made, and the priest, and have gone away! What more do I have? How can you ask me, ‘What ails you?’ ”

For all the gods of the peoples are idols, but Yahweh made the heavens.

Who doesn’t know that in all these, Yahweh’s hand has done this,

Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands.

Paul stood in the middle of the Areopagus, and said, “You men of Athens, I perceive that you are very religious in all things.

He came to Ephesus, and he left them there; but he himself entered into the synagogue, and reasoned with the Jews.

He entered into the synagogue and spoke boldly for a period of three months, reasoning and persuading about the things concerning God’s Kingdom.

You see and hear that not at Ephesus alone, but almost throughout all Asia, this Paul has persuaded and turned away many people, saying that they are no gods that are made with hands.

in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the children of disobedience.

that you were at that time separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

through the hypocrisy of men who speak lies, branded in their own conscience as with a hot iron,