⁴ is conceited, understanding nothing, and has a morbid craving for controversy and for disputes about words. From these come envy, dissension, slander, base suspicions,^(A)

²³ Have nothing to do with stupid and senseless controversies; you know that they breed quarrels.^(A)

⁴ treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,^(A)

⁶ He must not be a recent convert,^[a] or he may be puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil.

¹⁰ But these people slander whatever they do not understand, and they are destroyed by those things that, like irrational animals, they know by instinct.

¹² These people, however, are like irrational animals, mere creatures of instinct, born to be caught and killed. They slander what they do not understand, and as those creatures are destroyed,^[a] they also will be destroyed,

A Worker Approved by God

¹⁴ Remind them of this, and warn them before the Lord^[a] that they are to avoid wrangling over words, which does no good but only ruins those who are listening.^(A)

¹⁶ These are grumblers and malcontents; they indulge their lusts;^[a] their mouths utter bombastic nonsense, flattering people to their own advantage.^(A)

¹⁸ For they speak bombastic nonsense, and with debased^[a] desires of the flesh they entice people who have just^[b] escaped from those who live in error.

⁷ desiring to be teachers of the law without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make assertions.