Acts 19:37

Take heed, therefore, to yourselves, and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the assembly of the Lord and God which he purchased with his own blood.

In the temple they didn’t find me disputing with anyone or stirring up a crowd, either in the synagogues, or in the city.

After three days Paul called together those who were the leaders of the Jews. When they had come together, he said to them, “I, brothers, though I had done nothing against the people or the customs of our fathers, still was delivered prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans,

Therefore let’s not judge one another any more, but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling block in his brother’s way, or an occasion for falling.

Therefore if food causes my brother to stumble, I will eat no meat forever more, that I don’t cause my brother to stumble.

If others partake of this right over you, don’t we yet more? Nevertheless we didn’t use this right, but we bear all things, that we may cause no hindrance to the Good News of Christ.

Abstain from every form of evil.

Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me! But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In tithes and offerings.

But, lest we cause them to stumble, go to the sea, cast a hook, and take up the first fish that comes up. When you have opened its mouth, you will find a stater coin. Take that, and give it to them for me and you.”

He said to the disciples, “It is impossible that no occasions of stumbling should come, but woe to him through whom they come!

You who say a man shouldn’t commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?

What, don’t you have houses to eat and to drink in? Or do you despise God’s assembly and put them to shame who don’t have enough? What shall I tell you? Shall I praise you? In this I don’t praise you.

for the perfecting of the saints, to the work of serving, to the building up of the body of Christ,

(but how could someone who doesn’t know how to rule one’s own house take care of God’s assembly?)

Moreover he must have good testimony from those who are outside, to avoid falling into reproach and the snare of the devil.

but if I wait long, that you may know how men ought to behave themselves in God’s house, which is the assembly of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.

For indeed, I was stolen away out of the land of the Hebrews, and here also I have done nothing that they should put me into the dungeon.”

Joseph said, “Give me your livestock; and I will give you food for your livestock, if your money is gone.”

“ ‘You shall not lie carnally with your neighbor’s wife, and defile yourself with her.

“ ‘You shall not curse the deaf, nor put a stumbling block before the blind; but you shall fear your God. I am Yahweh.

You shall not bring an abomination into your house and become a devoted thing like it. You shall utterly detest it. You shall utterly abhor it; for it is a devoted thing.

She lay at his feet until the morning, then she rose up before one could discern another. For he said, “Let it not be known that the woman came to the threshing floor.”

“How can I pardon you? Your children have forsaken me, and sworn by what are no gods. When I had fed them to the full, they committed adultery, and assembled themselves in troops at the prostitutes’ houses.

Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men; that I might leave my people, and go from them! For they are all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men.

Moreover Jeremiah said to king Zedekiah, “How have I sinned against you, against your servants, or against this people, that you have put me in prison?

One has committed abomination with his neighbor’s wife; and another has lewdly defiled his daughter-in-law. Another in you has humbled his sister, his father’s daughter.

My God has sent his angel, and has shut the lions’ mouths, and they have not hurt me; because as before him innocence was found in me; and also before you, O king, I have done no harm.”

When you offer the blind for sacrifice, isn’t that evil? And when you offer the lame and sick, isn’t that evil? Present it now to your governor! Will he be pleased with you? Or will he accept your person?” says Yahweh of Armies.

“But the deceiver is cursed, who has in his flock a male, and vows, and sacrifices to the Lord a defective thing; for I am a great King,” says Yahweh of Armies, “and my name is awesome among the nations.”

But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, but no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet.

Then the disciples came, and said to him, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?”

An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and there will be no sign given to it, except the sign of the prophet Jonah.” He left them, and departed.

but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble, it would be better for him if a huge millstone were hung around his neck, and that he were sunk in the depths of the sea.

Tell us therefore, what do you think? Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?”

He taught, saying to them, “Isn’t it written, ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all the nations?’ But you have made it a den of robbers!”

They, when they heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning from the oldest, even to the last. Jesus was left alone with the woman where she was, in the middle.

Pilate therefore said to them, “Take him yourselves, and judge him according to your law.” Therefore the Jews said to him, “It is illegal for us to put anyone to death,”

and set up false witnesses who said, “This man never stops speaking blasphemous words against this holy place and the law.

For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place, and will change the customs which Moses delivered to us.”

saying, “This man persuades men to worship God contrary to the law.”

But when they perceived that he was a Jew, all with one voice for a time of about two hours cried out, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”

As they were trying to kill him, news came up to the commanding officer of the regiment that all Jerusalem was in an uproar.

Immediately he took soldiers and centurions and ran down to them. They, when they saw the chief captain and the soldiers, stopped beating Paul.

“Brothers and fathers, listen to the defense which I now make to you.”

Paul, looking steadfastly at the council, said, “Brothers, I have lived before God in all good conscience until today.”

“This man was seized by the Jews, and was about to be killed by them, when I came with the soldiers and rescued him, having learned that he was a Roman.

He even tried to profane the temple, and we arrested him.

In this I also practice always having a conscience void of offense toward God and men.

But Felix, having more exact knowledge concerning the Way, deferred them, saying, “When Lysias, the commanding officer, comes down, I will decide your case.”

while he said in his defense, “Neither against the law of the Jews, nor against the temple, nor against Caesar, have I sinned at all.”

But Paul said, “I am standing before Caesar’s judgment seat, where I ought to be tried. I have done no wrong to the Jews, as you also know very well.

They said to him, “We neither received letters from Judea concerning you, nor did any of the brothers come here and report or speak any evil of you.

But be careful that by no means does this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to the weak.

For if a man sees you who have knowledge sitting in an idol’s temple, won’t his conscience, if he is weak, be emboldened to eat things sacrificed to idols?

To the weak I became as weak, that I might gain the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I may by all means save some.

Conscience, I say, not your own, but the other’s conscience. For why is my liberty judged by another conscience?

Give no occasion for stumbling, whether to Jews, or to Greeks, or to the assembly of God;

even as I also please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit, but the profit of the many, that they may be saved.

God has set some in the assembly: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracle workers, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, and various kinds of languages.

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God, and Timothy our brother, to the assembly of God which is at Corinth, with all the saints who are in the whole of Achaia:

For our boasting is this: the testimony of our conscience, that in holiness and sincerity of God, not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God we behaved ourselves in the world, and more abundantly toward you.

We give no occasion of stumbling in anything, that our service may not be blamed,

We are avoiding this, that any man should blame us concerning this abundance which is administered by us.

so that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense to the day of Christ,

each of you not just looking to his own things, but each of you also to the things of others.

Let as many as are bondservants under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honor, that the name of God and the doctrine not be blasphemed.

You adulterers and adulteresses, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

Whoever will cause one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble, it would be better for him if he were thrown into the sea with a millstone hung around his neck.

As they cried out, threw off their cloaks, and threw dust into the air,