Jeremiah Weeps for His People

Controlling the Tongue

3 Dear brothers and sisters,^[a] not many of you should become teachers in the church, for we who teach will be judged more strictly.

Listening and Doing

¹⁹ Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry.

¹⁷ You see, we are not like the many hucksters^[a] who preach for personal profit. We preach the word of God with sincerity and with Christ’s authority, knowing that God is watching us.

Paul’s Change of Plans

¹² We can say with confidence and a clear conscience that we have lived with a God-given holiness^[a] and sincerity in all our dealings. We have depended on God’s grace, not on our own human wisdom. That is how we have conducted ourselves before the world, and especially toward you.

God’s Selection of Israel

9 With Christ as my witness, I speak with utter truthfulness. My conscience and the Holy Spirit confirm it. ² My heart is filled with bitter sorrow and unending grief ³ for my people, my Jewish brothers and sisters.^[a] I would be willing to be forever cursed—cut off from Christ!—if that would save them.

²⁷ for I didn’t shrink from declaring all that God wants you to know.

²⁰ I never shrank back from telling you what you needed to hear, either publicly or in your homes.

¹⁴ But Amos replied, “I’m not a professional prophet, and I was never trained to be one.^[a] I’m just a shepherd, and I take care of sycamore-fig trees. ¹⁵ But the Lord called me away from my flock and told me, ‘Go and prophesy to my people in Israel.’