Kingdom Values

¹⁴ The Pharisees, who were lovers of money,^(A) were listening to all these things and scoffing^(B) at him. ¹⁵ And he told them, “You are the ones who justify^(C) yourselves in the sight of others, but God knows your hearts.^(D) For what is highly admired by people is revolting^(E) in God’s sight.

¹⁶ “The^(F) Law and the Prophets^(G) were until John; since then, the good news of the kingdom of God^(H) has been proclaimed, and everyone is urgently invited to enter it.^{[a] 17} But it is easier^(I) for heaven and earth to pass away than for one stroke of a letter in the law to drop out.

¹⁸ “Everyone^(J) who divorces^(K) his wife and marries another woman commits adultery,^(L) and everyone who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery.

Sin’s Consequences

⁸ Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze,^[a] and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.^{(A) 9} So the Lord God called out to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”

¹⁰ And he said, “I heard you^[b] in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.”

¹¹ Then he asked, “Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”

¹² The man replied,^(B) “The woman you gave to be with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate.”

¹³ So the Lord God asked the woman, “What have you done?”

And the woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”^(C)

¹⁴ So the Lord God said to the serpent:

¹⁶ He said to the woman:

¹⁷ And he said to the man, “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘Do not eat from it’:

²⁰ The man named his wife Eve^[f] because she was the mother of all the living. ²¹ The Lord God made clothing from skins for the man and his wife, and he clothed them.

²² The Lord God said, “Since the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil, he must not reach out, take from the tree of life, eat, and live forever.”^{(K) 23} So the Lord God sent him away from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. ²⁴ He drove the man out and stationed the cherubim and the flaming, whirling sword east of the garden of Eden to guard the way to the tree of life.^(L)

The Law of Love

¹³ Therefore, let us no longer judge one another.^(A) Instead decide never to put a stumbling block or pitfall in the way of your brother or sister.^{(B) 14} I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself.^(C) Still, to someone who considers a thing to be unclean, to that one it is unclean.^{(D) 15} For if your brother or sister is hurt by what you eat, you are no longer walking according to love.^(E) Do not destroy, by what you eat, someone for whom Christ died.^{(F) 16} Therefore, do not let your good be slandered,^{(G) 17} for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking,^(H) but righteousness, peace, and joy^(I) in the Holy Spirit. ¹⁸ Whoever serves Christ^(J) in this way is acceptable to God and receives human approval.^(K)

¹⁹ So then, let us pursue what promotes peace^(L) and what builds up one another.^{(M) 20} Do not tear down God’s work because of food. Everything is clean, but it is wrong to make someone fall by what he eats.^{(N) 21} It is a good thing not to eat meat, or drink wine, or do anything that makes your brother or sister stumble.^{[a] 22} Whatever you believe about these things, keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who does not condemn himself by what he approves.^{(O) 23} But whoever doubts stands condemned if he eats,^(P) because his eating is not from faith,^[b] and everything that is not from faith is sin.