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12 Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw—

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12 If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw,

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For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound teaching, but, having their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires(A)

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For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine.(A) Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.(B)

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who are always studying yet never able to recognize truth.

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always learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth.(A)

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20 In a large house there are utensils not only of gold and silver but also of wood and clay, some for special[a] use, some for ordinary.[b](A)

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Footnotes

  1. 2.20 Gk honorable
  2. 2.20 Gk dishonorable

20 In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for special purposes and some for common use.(A)

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18 Do not let anyone disqualify you, insisting on self-abasement and worship of angels, initiatory visions,[a] puffed up without cause by a human way of thinking,[b] 19 and not holding fast to the head, from whom the whole body, nourished and held together by its ligaments and tendons, grows with a growth that is from God.(A)

Warnings against False Teachers

20 If with Christ you died to the elemental principles[c] of the world, why do you live as if you still belonged to the world? Why do you submit to regulations,(B) 21 “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”? 22 All these regulations refer to things that perish with use; they are simply human commands and teachings.(C) 23 These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-imposed piety, humility, and severe treatment of the body, but they are of no value in checking self-indulgence.[d]

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Footnotes

  1. 2.18 Meaning of Gk uncertain
  2. 2.18 Gk by the mind of his flesh
  3. 2.20 Or spirits
  4. 2.23 Or are of no value, serving only to indulge the flesh

18 Do not let anyone who delights in false humility(A) and the worship of angels disqualify you.(B) Such a person also goes into great detail about what they have seen; they are puffed up with idle notions by their unspiritual mind. 19 They have lost connection with the head,(C) from whom the whole body,(D) supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow.(E)

20 Since you died with Christ(F) to the elemental spiritual forces of this world,(G) why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its rules:(H) 21 “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”? 22 These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish(I) with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings.(J) 23 Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility(K) and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.

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18 The wall is built of jasper, while the city is pure gold, clear as glass.

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18 The wall was made of jasper,(A) and the city of pure gold, as pure as glass.(B)

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18 Therefore I advise you to buy from me gold refined by fire so that you may be rich, and white robes to clothe yourself and to keep the shame of your nakedness from being seen, and salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see.(A)

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18 I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire,(A) so you can become rich; and white clothes(B) to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness;(C) and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.

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so that the genuineness of your faith—being more precious than gold that, though perishable, is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.(A)

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These have come so that the proven genuineness(A) of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire(B)—may result in praise, glory and honor(C) when Jesus Christ is revealed.(D)

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So, for the sake of your tradition, you nullify the word[a] of God. You hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied rightly about you when he said:

‘This people honors me with their lips,
    but their hearts are far from me;(A)
in vain do they worship me,
    teaching human precepts as doctrines.’ ”(B)

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Footnotes

  1. 15.6 Other ancient authorities read law or commandment

they are not to ‘honor their father or mother’ with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition. You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you:

“‘These people honor me with their lips,
    but their hearts are far from me.
They worship me in vain;
    their teachings are merely human rules.(A)[a](B)

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Footnotes

  1. Matthew 15:9 Isaiah 29:13

72 The law of your mouth is better to me
    than thousands of gold and silver pieces.(A)

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72 The law from your mouth is more precious to me
    than thousands of pieces of silver and gold.(A)

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10 More to be desired are they than gold,
    even much fine gold;
sweeter also than honey
    and drippings of the honeycomb.(A)

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10 They are more precious than gold,(A)
    than much pure gold;
they are sweeter than honey,(B)
    than honey from the honeycomb.(C)

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14 But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the people of Israel, so that they would eat food sacrificed to idols and engage in sexual immorality.[a](A)

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Footnotes

  1. 2.14 Or prostitution

14 Nevertheless, I have a few things against you:(A) There are some among you who hold to the teaching of Balaam,(B) who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin so that they ate food sacrificed to idols(C) and committed sexual immorality.(D)

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Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by regulations about food,[a] which have not benefited those who observe them.(A)

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Footnotes

  1. 13.9 Gk not by foods

Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings.(A) It is good for our hearts to be strengthened(B) by grace, not by eating ceremonial foods,(C) which is of no benefit to those who do so.(D)

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