¹² These people are blemishes at your love feasts,^(A) eating with you without the slightest qualm—shepherds who feed only themselves.^(B) They are clouds without rain,^(C) blown along by the wind;^(D) autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted^(E)—twice dead.

¹⁷ These people are springs without water^(A) and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them.^{(B) 18} For they mouth empty, boastful words^(C) and, by appealing to the lustful desires of the flesh, they entice people who are just escaping^(D) from those who live in error. ¹⁹ They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity—for “people are slaves to whatever has mastered them.”^{(E) 20} If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing^(F) our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ^(G) and are again entangled in it and are overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning.^(H)

¹³ He replied, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted^(A) will be pulled up by the roots.

¹⁹ Their destiny^(A) is destruction, their god is their stomach,^(B) and their glory is in their shame.^(C) Their mind is set on earthly things.^(D)

¹⁴ Then we will no longer be infants,^(A) tossed back and forth by the waves,^(B) and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming.^(C)

⁸ As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, because my flock lacks a shepherd and so has been plundered^(A) and has become food for all the wild animals,^(B) and because my shepherds did not search for my flock but cared for themselves rather than for my flock,^(C)

²⁰ So then, when you come together, it is not the Lord’s Supper you eat, ²¹ for when you are eating, some of you go ahead with your own private suppers.^(A) As a result, one person remains hungry and another gets drunk. ²² Don’t you have homes to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God^(B) by humiliating those who have nothing?^(C) What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you?^(D) Certainly not in this matter!

⁴ Remain in me, as I also remain in you.^(A) No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

⁵ “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit;^(B) apart from me you can do nothing. ⁶ If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.^(C)