Matthew 25:18

Now faith is assurance of things hoped for, proof of things not seen.

“What are the multitude of your sacrifices to me?”, says Yahweh. “I have had enough of the burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed animals. I don’t delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of male goats.

Be imitators of me, even as I also am of Christ.

For you need endurance so that, having done the will of God, you may receive the promise.

Remember your leaders, men who spoke to you the word of God, and considering the results of their conduct, imitate their faith.

Go to the ant, you sluggard. Consider her ways, and be wise;

He becomes poor who works with a lazy hand, but the hand of the diligent brings wealth.

Whoever robs his father or his mother and says, “It’s not wrong,” is a partner with a destroyer.

Every branch in me that doesn’t bear fruit, he takes away. Every branch that bears fruit, he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your heart to the Lord.

If you do well, won’t it be lifted up? If you don’t do well, sin crouches at the door. Its desire is for you, but you are to rule over it.”

Your rigging is untied. They couldn’t strengthen the foot of their mast. They couldn’t spread the sail. Then the prey of a great plunder was divided. The lame took the prey.

To what purpose does frankincense from Sheba come to me, and the sweet cane from a far country? Your burnt offerings are not acceptable, and your sacrifices are not pleasing to me.”

“But his lord answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant. You knew that I reap where I didn’t sow, and gather where I didn’t scatter.

that you may walk worthily of the Lord, to please him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God,

Let our people also learn to maintain good works for necessary uses, that they may not be unfruitful.

Aaron spoke to Moses, “Behold, today they have offered their sin offering and their burnt offering before Yahweh; and such things as these have happened to me. If I had eaten the sin offering today, would it have been pleasing in Yahweh’s sight?”

When I saw among the plunder a beautiful Babylonian robe, two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold weighing fifty shekels, then I coveted them and took them. Behold, they are hidden in the ground in the middle of my tent, with the silver under it.”

So you may walk in the way of good men, and keep the paths of the righteous.

Bring no more vain offerings. Incense is an abomination to me. New moons, Sabbaths, and convocations: I can’t stand evil assemblies.

Yahweh says, “Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, ‘Where is the good way?’ and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’

Therefore I will give their wives to others and their fields to those who will possess them. For everyone from the least even to the greatest is given to covetousness; from the prophet even to the priest everyone deals falsely.

When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and meal offering, I will not accept them; but I will consume them by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence.”

They feed on the sin of my people, and set their heart on their iniquity.

They will go with their flocks and with their herds to seek Yahweh; but they won’t find him. He has withdrawn himself from them.

Her leaders judge for bribes, and her priests teach for a price, and her prophets of it tell fortunes for money: yet they lean on Yahweh, and say, “Isn’t Yahweh among us? No disaster will come on us.”

By chance a certain priest was going down that way. When he saw him, he passed by on the other side.

to those who by perseverance in well-doing seek for glory, honor, and incorruptibility, eternal life;

Not that I seek for the gift, but I seek for the fruit that increases to your account.

Aren’t they all serving spirits, sent out to do service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation?

About him we have many words to say, and hard to interpret, seeing you have become dull of hearing.

In this way God, being determined to show more abundantly to the heirs of the promise the immutability of his counsel, interposed with an oath,

Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, exercising the oversight, not under compulsion, but voluntarily, not for dishonest gain, but willingly;

Grace to you and peace be multiplied in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord,

and in knowledge, self-control; and in self-control perseverance; and in perseverance godliness;

This is the promise which he promised us, the eternal life.

You have perseverance and have endured for my name’s sake, and have not grown weary.

If anyone is to go into captivity, he will go into captivity. If anyone is to be killed with the sword, he must be killed. Here is the endurance and the faith of the saints.

When these lepers came to the outermost part of the camp, they went into one tent, and ate and drank, and carried away silver, gold, and clothing, and went and hid it. Then they came back, and entered into another tent, and carried things from there also, and went and hid them.

As vinegar to the teeth, and as smoke to the eyes, so is the sluggard to those who send him.

The soul of the sluggard desires, and has nothing, but the desire of the diligent shall be fully satisfied.

He who despises his neighbor sins, but he who has pity on the poor is blessed.

The way of the sluggard is like a thorn patch, but the path of the upright is a highway.

One who is slack in his work is brother to him who is a master of destruction.

As the door turns on its hinges, so does the sluggard on his bed.

If you don’t know, most beautiful among women, follow the tracks of the sheep. Graze your young goats beside the shepherds’ tents.

“Oh that there were one among you who would shut the doors, that you might not kindle fire on my altar in vain! I have no pleasure in you,” says Yahweh of Armies, “neither will I accept an offering at your hand.

What was sown among the thorns, this is he who hears the word, but the cares of this age and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful.

He went out about the third hour, and saw others standing idle in the marketplace.

About the eleventh hour he went out, and found others standing idle. He said to them, ‘Why do you stand here all day idle?’

Those in the good ground, these are those who with an honest and good heart, having heard the word, hold it tightly, and produce fruit with perseverance.

He also said to his disciples, “There was a certain rich man who had a manager. An accusation was made to him that this man was wasting his possessions.

The beggar died, and he was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died, and was buried.

Another came, saying, ‘Lord, behold, your mina, which I kept laid away in a handkerchief,

As he was now getting near, at the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works which they had seen,

But I know you, that you don’t have God’s love in yourselves.

He is the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had in uncircumcision.

But if we hope for that which we don’t see, we wait for it with patience.

not lagging in diligence; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord;

rejoicing in hope; enduring in troubles; continuing steadfastly in prayer;

For those who are such don’t serve our Lord, Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by their smooth and flattering speech, they deceive the hearts of the innocent.

For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward. But if not of my own will, I have a stewardship entrusted to me.

Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the Lord’s work, because you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

while they themselves also, with supplication on your behalf, yearn for you by reason of the exceeding grace of God in you.

Examine your own selves, whether you are in the faith. Test your own selves. Or don’t you know about your own selves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified.

This I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and all discernment,

Have this in your mind, which was also in Christ Jesus,

rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith, even as you were taught, abounding in it in thanksgiving.

remembering without ceasing your work of faith and labor of love and perseverance of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, before our God and Father.

For neither were we at any time found using words of flattery, as you know, nor a cloak of covetousness (God is witness),

May the Lord make you to increase and abound in love toward one another, and toward all men, even as we also do toward you,

Finally then, brothers, we beg and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, that you abound more and more.

We are bound to always give thanks to God for you, brothers, even as it is appropriate, because your faith grows exceedingly, and the love of each and every one of you toward one another abounds,

not a drinker, not violent, not greedy for money, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous;

Besides, they also learn to be idle, going about from house to house. Not only idle, but also gossips and busybodies, saying things which they ought not.

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some have been led astray from the faith in their greed, and have pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

that the fellowship of your faith may become effective in the knowledge of every good thing which is in us in Christ Jesus.

that you won’t be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and perseverance inherited the promises.

Thus, having patiently endured, he obtained the promise.

You had no pleasure in whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin.

But the righteous will live by faith. If he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.”

For if these things are yours and abound, they make you to not be idle or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore, brothers, be more diligent to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never stumble.

In covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words: whose sentence now from of old doesn’t linger, and their destruction will not slumber.