Study Desk

Do not be lazy but work hard, serving the Lord with all your heart.

Live in peace with each other. Do not be proud, but make friends with those who seem unimportant. Do not think how smart you are.

My friends, do not try to punish others when they wrong you, but wait for God to punish them with his anger. It is written: "I will punish those who do wrong; I will repay them," says the Lord.

But you should do this: "If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink. Doing this will be like pouring burning coals on his head." Proverbs 25:21–22

Do not let evil defeat you, but defeat evil by doing good.

The ruler is God's servant to help you. But if you do wrong, then be afraid. He has the power to punish; he is God's servant to punish those who do wrong.

So you must yield to the government, not only because you might be punished, but because you know it is right.

But clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ and forget about satisfying your sinful self.

One person believes it is right to eat all kinds of food. But another, who is weak, believes it is right to eat only vegetables.

I am in the Lord Jesus, and I know that there is no food that is wrong to eat. But if a person believes something is wrong, that thing is wrong for him.

Do not let the eating of food destroy the work of God. All foods are all right to eat, but it is wrong to eat food that causes someone else to sin.

But those who eat something without being sure it is right are wrong because they did not believe it was right. Anything that is done without believing it is right is a sin.

But I have written to you very openly about some things I wanted you to remember. I did this because God gave me this special gift:

But it is written in the Scriptures: "Those who were not told about him will see, and those who have not heard about him will understand." Isaiah 52:15

Such people are not serving our Lord Christ but are only doing what pleases themselves. They use fancy talk and fine words to fool the minds of those who do not know about evil.

All the believers have heard that you obey, so I am very happy because of you. But I want you to be wise in what is good and innocent in what is evil.

Glory to God who can make you strong in faith by the Good News that I tell people and by the message about Jesus Christ. The message about Christ is the secret that was hidden for long ages past but is now made known.

(I also baptized the family of Stephanas, but I do not remember that I baptized anyone else.)

Christ did not send me to baptize people but to preach the Good News. And he sent me to preach the Good News without using words of human wisdom so that the cross of Christ would not lose its power.

The teaching about the cross is foolishness to those who are being lost, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.