Warning Against Idolatry

¹⁴ Do not be yoked together^(A) with unbelievers.^(B) For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?^(C)

³³ Do not be misled:^(A) “Bad company corrupts good character.”^[a](B)

²¹ You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord’s table and the table of demons.^(A)

⁴ You adulterous^(A) people,^[a] don’t you know that friendship with the world^(B) means enmity against God?^(C) Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.^(D)

⁶ Let no one deceive you^(A) with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath^(B) comes on those who are disobedient.^{(C) 7} Therefore do not be partners with them.

⁸ For you were once^(D) darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light^{(E) 9} (for the fruit^(F) of the light consists in all goodness,^(G) righteousness and truth) ¹⁰ and find out what pleases the Lord.^{(H) 11} Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness,^(I) but rather expose them. ¹² It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. ¹³ But everything exposed by the light^(J) becomes visible—and everything that is illuminated becomes a light. ¹⁴ This is why it is said:

¹⁹ “‘Keep my decrees.^(A)

“‘Do not mate different kinds of animals.

“‘Do not plant your field with two kinds of seed.^(B)

“‘Do not wear clothing woven of two kinds of material.^(C)

⁹ But you are a chosen people,^(A) a royal priesthood,^(B) a holy nation,^(C) God’s special possession,^(D) that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.^{(E) 10} Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God;^(F) once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.