³⁴ Think carefully about what is right, and stop sinning. For to your shame I say that some of you don’t know God at all.

⁵ I am saying this to shame you. Isn’t there anyone in all the church who is wise enough to decide these issues?

¹¹ This is all the more urgent, for you know how late it is; time is running out. Wake up, for our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.

¹⁴ But afterward Jesus found him in the Temple and told him, “Now you are well; so stop sinning, or something even worse may happen to you.”

A Call to Spiritual Growth

¹¹ There is much more we would like to say about this, but it is difficult to explain, especially since you are spiritually dull and don’t seem to listen. ¹² You have been believers so long now that you ought to be teaching others. Instead, you need someone to teach you again the basic things about God’s word.^[a] You are like babies who need milk and cannot eat solid food.

⁵ not in lustful passion like the pagans who do not know God and his ways.

¹⁴ for the light makes everything visible. This is why it is said,

⁷ However, not all believers know this. Some are accustomed to thinking of idols as being real, so when they eat food that has been offered to idols, they think of it as the worship of real gods, and their weak consciences are violated.

²⁸ Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done.