¹⁵ Be careful, then, how you live,^[a] not as unwise people but as wise,

⁵ Conduct yourselves wisely toward outsiders, making the most of the time.^[a](A)

Two Kinds of Wisdom

¹³ Who is wise and knowledgeable among you? Show by your good life that your works are done with gentleness born of wisdom.^(A)

²⁷ Only, live your life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that, whether I come and see you or am absent and hear about you, I will know that you are standing firm in one spirit, striving side by side with one mind for the faith of the gospel

²⁰ Brothers and sisters, do not be children in your thinking; rather, be infants in evil, but in thinking be adults.^(A)

⁹ But those who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.^(A)

²² Now that you have purified your souls^[a] by your obedience to the truth^[b] so that you have genuine mutual affection, love one another deeply from the heart.^[c](A)

Coming Persecutions

¹⁶ “I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.^(A)

²⁵ Then he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared!