Colossians 2:22

But seek first God’s Kingdom, and his righteousness; and all these things will be given to you as well.

He said, “Go, and tell this people, ‘You hear indeed, but don’t understand. You see indeed, but don’t perceive.’

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.

He answered them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

They profess that they know God, but by their deeds they deny him, being abominable, disobedient, and unfit for any good work.

‘These people draw near to me with their mouth, and honor me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.

Timothy, guard that which is committed to you, turning away from the empty chatter and oppositions of what is falsely called knowledge,

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

Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways. As a nation that did righteousness, and didn’t forsake the ordinance of their God, they ask of me righteous judgments. They delight to draw near to God.

If you died with Christ from the elements of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to ordinances,

The Lord said, “Because this people draws near with their mouth and honors me with their lips, but they have removed their heart far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment of men which has been taught;

Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped.

Why do you spend money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which doesn’t satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in richness.

You have planted them. Yes, they have taken root. They grow. Yes, they produce fruit. You are near in their mouth, and far from their heart.

They come to you as the people come, and they sit before you as my people, and they hear your words, but don’t do them; for with their mouth they show much love, but their heart goes after their gain.

the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.

So we also, when we were children, were held in bondage under the elemental principles of the world.

and not to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies, which cause disputes, rather than God’s stewardship, which is in faith—

I will bring the blind by a way that they don’t know. I will lead them in paths that they don’t know. I will make darkness light before them, and crooked places straight. I will do these things, and I will not forsake them.

Yet for all this her treacherous sister, Judah, has not returned to me with her whole heart, but only in pretense,” says Yahweh.

“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves.

He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.

But I am afraid that somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve in his craftiness, so your minds might be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.

I marvel that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ to a different “good news”,

holding a form of godliness, but having denied its power. Turn away from these, also.

and will turn away their ears from the truth, and turn away to fables.

not paying attention to Jewish fables and commandments of men who turn away from the truth.

The great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. Babylon the great was remembered in the sight of God, to give to her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath.

Then he said, “I have sinned; yet please honor me now before the elders of my people, and before Israel, and come back with me, that I may worship Yahweh your God.”

Open my eyes, that I may see wondrous things out of your law.

“Come, eat some of my bread, Drink some of the wine which I have mixed!

Don’t you add to his words, lest he reprove you, and you be found a liar.

What does man gain from all his labor in which he labors under the sun?

“Hear, you deaf, and look, you blind, that you may see.

In praying, don’t use vain repetitions, as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard for their much speaking.

Don’t you understand that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the belly, and then out of the body?

But they worship me in vain, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’

making void the word of God by your tradition, which you have handed down. You do many things like this.”

because it doesn’t go into his heart, but into his stomach, then into the latrine, making all foods clean?”

They were astonished beyond measure, saying, “He has done all things well. He makes even the deaf hear, and the mute speak!”

But seek God’s Kingdom, and all these things will be added to you.

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

And again, “The Lord knows the reasoning of the wise, that it is worthless.”

“Foods for the belly, and the belly for foods,” but God will bring to nothing both it and them. But the body is not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body.

Don’t you know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? May it never be!

Or don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own,

But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, why do you turn back again to the weak and miserable elemental principles, to which you desire to be in bondage all over again?

But sexual immorality, and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be mentioned among you, as becomes saints;

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.

Let no one rob you of your prize by self-abasement and worshiping of the angels, dwelling in the things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,

For bodily exercise has some value, but godliness has value in all things, having the promise of the life which is now, and of that which is to come.

For he received from God the Father honor and glory when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

But false prophets also arose among the people, as false teachers will also be among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, denying even the Master who bought them, bringing on themselves swift destruction.

He carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness. I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet-colored beast, full of blasphemous names, having seven heads and ten horns.

then beware lest you forget Yahweh, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

The hearing ear, and the seeing eye, Yahweh has made even both of them.

Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that plunder the vineyards; for our vineyards are in blossom.

The eyes of those who see will not be dim, and the ears of those who hear will listen.

For Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel says: “Don’t let your prophets who are among you and your diviners deceive you. Don’t listen to your dreams which you cause to be dreamed.

But beware of men: for they will deliver you up to councils, and in their synagogues they will scourge you.

And in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrine rules made by men.’ ”

This is the will of the one who sent me, that everyone who sees the Son, and believes in him, should have eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”

This is the bread which came down out of heaven—not as our fathers ate the manna, and died. He who eats this bread will live forever.”

I give eternal life to them. They will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.

do you say of him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, ‘You blaspheme,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God?’

even Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed him with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.

Therefore don’t let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.

Now I beg you, brothers, look out for those who are causing the divisions and occasions of stumbling, contrary to the doctrine which you learned, and turn away from them.

Don’t you know that you are a temple of God, and that God’s Spirit lives in you?

If to others I am not an apostle, yet at least I am to you; for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.

who also sealed us, and gave us the down payment of the Spirit in our hearts.

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.

For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the assembly, being himself the savior of the body.

Beware of the dogs; beware of the evil workers; beware of the false circumcision.

But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.

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

Don’t be carried away by various and strange teachings, for it is good that the heart be established by grace, not by food, through which those who were so occupied were not benefited.

knowing that you were redeemed, not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, from the useless way of life handed down from your fathers,

You therefore, beloved, knowing these things beforehand, beware, lest being carried away with the error of the wicked, you fall from your own steadfastness.

Watch yourselves, that we don’t lose the things which we have accomplished, but that we receive a full reward.

In that day, the deaf will hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind will see out of obscurity and out of darkness.

He won’t regard the gods of his fathers, or the desire of women, or regard any god; for he will magnify himself above all.

Don’t work for the food which perishes, but for the food which remains to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For God the Father has sealed him.”

These things indeed appear like wisdom in self-imposed worship, humility, and severity to the body; but aren’t of any value against the indulgence of the flesh.

The woman whom you saw is the great city, which reigns over the kings of the earth.”