²⁴ You must stop, my sons! The reports I hear among the Lord’s people are not good.

¹² Everyone speaks highly of Demetrius, as does the truth itself. We ourselves can say the same for him, and you know we speak the truth.

¹⁸ They brag about themselves with empty, foolish boasting. With an appeal to twisted sexual desires, they lure back into sin those who have barely escaped from a lifestyle of deception.

⁷ Also, people outside the church must speak well of him so that he will not be disgraced and fall into the devil’s trap.

⁸ We serve God whether people honor us or despise us, whether they slander us or praise us. We are honest, but they call us impostors.

³ And so, brothers, select seven men who are well respected and are full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will give them this responsibility.

⁷ “What sorrow awaits the world, because it tempts people to sin. Temptations are inevitable, but what sorrow awaits the person who does the tempting.

⁸ But you priests have left God’s paths. Your instructions have caused many to stumble into sin. You have corrupted the covenant I made with the Levites,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.

³¹ But Jehu did not obey the Law of the Lord, the God of Israel, with all his heart. He refused to turn from the sins that Jeroboam had led Israel to commit.