Priests to Be Disciplined

2 “And now, this commandment is for you, the priests. ² If you do ^(A)not listen, and if you do not take it to heart to give honor to My name,” says the Lord of armies, “then I will send the ^(B)curse upon you and I will curse your blessings; and indeed, I have ^(C)cursed them already, because you are not taking it to heart. ³ Behold, I am going to ^(D)rebuke your ^[a]descendants, and I will ^(E)spread ^[b]dung on your faces, the ^[c]dung of your ^(F)feasts; and you will be taken away ^[d]with it. ⁴ Then you will know that I have sent this commandment to you, ^[e]so that My ^(G)covenant may ^[f]continue with Levi,” says the Lord of armies. ⁵ “My covenant with him was one of life and ^(H)peace, and I gave them to him as an object of ^[g]reverence; so he ^[h](I)revered Me and was in awe of My name. ^6 [i](J)True instruction was in his mouth and injustice was not found on his lips; he walked ^(K)with Me in peace and justice, and he ^(L)turned many back from wrongdoing. ⁷ For the lips of a priest should maintain ^(M)knowledge, and people should ^(N)seek ^[j]instruction from his mouth; for he is the ^(O)messenger of the Lord of armies. ⁸ But as for you, you have turned aside from the way; you have caused many to ^(P)stumble ^[k]by the instruction; you have ^(Q)ruined the covenant of Levi,” says the Lord of armies. ⁹ “So ^(R)I also have made you despised and of ^(S)low reputation ^[l]in the view of all the people, since you are not keeping My ways but are showing ^(T)partiality in the ^[m]instruction.”

Sin in the Family

¹⁰ Do we not all have ^(U)one Father? ^(V)Is it not one God who has created us? Why do we deal ^(W)treacherously, each against his brother so as to profane the ^(X)covenant of our fathers? ¹¹ Judah has dealt ^(Y)treacherously, and an abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah has ^(Z)profaned the sanctuary of the Lord ^[n]which He loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god. ¹² As for the man who does this, may the ^(AA)Lord eliminate from the tents of Jacob everyone who is awake and answers, or who ^(AB)presents ^[o]an offering to the Lord of armies.

¹³ And this is ^[p]another thing you do: you cover the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping and sighing, because He ^(AC)no longer gives attention to the ^[q]offering or accepts it with favor from your hand. ¹⁴ Yet you say, “For what reason?” Because the Lord has been a witness between you and the ^(AD)wife of your youth, against whom you have dealt ^(AE)treacherously, though she is your marriage companion and your wife by covenant. ^15 [r]But not one has ^(AF)done so who has a remnant of the Spirit. And ^[s]why the one? He was seeking a ^(AG)godly offspring. Be careful then about your spirit, and see that none of you deals ^(AH)treacherously against the wife of your youth. ¹⁶ “For ^[t]I hate ^[u](AI)divorce,” says the Lord, the God of Israel, “and ^[v]him who covers his garment with ^(AJ)violence,” says the Lord of armies. “So be careful about your spirit, that you do not deal treacherously.”

Paul’s Use of Freedom

9 Am I not ^(A)free? Am I not an ^(B)apostle? Have I not ^(C)seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not ^(D)my work in the Lord? ² If I am not an apostle to others, at least I am to you; for you are the ^(E)seal of my ^(F)apostleship in the Lord.

³ My defense to those who examine me is this: ^4 [a](G)Do we not have a right to eat and drink? ^5 [b](H)Do we not have a right to take along a ^[c]believing wife, even as the rest of the apostles and the ^(I)brothers of the Lord, and ^[d](J)Cephas? ⁶ Or do only ^[e](K)Barnabas and I have no right to refrain from ^[f]working? ⁷ Who at any time serves ^(L)as a soldier at his own expense? Who ^(M)plants a vineyard and does not eat its fruit? Or who tends a flock and does not ^[g]consume some of the milk of the flock?

⁸ I am not just asserting these things ^(N)according to human judgment, am I? Or does the Law not say these things as well? ⁹ For it is written in the Law of Moses: “^(O)You shall not muzzle the ox while it is threshing.” God is not concerned about ^(P)oxen, is He? ¹⁰ Or is He speaking entirely for our sake? Yes, it was written ^(Q)for our sake, because ^(R)the plowman ought to plow in hope, and the thresher to thresh in hope of sharing in the crops. ^11 (S)If we sowed spiritual things in you, is it too much if we reap material things from you? ¹² If others share the right over you, do we not more? Nevertheless, we ^(T)did not use this right, but we endure all things ^(U)so that we will cause no hindrance to the ^(V)gospel of Christ. ^13 (W)Do you not know that those who ^(X)perform sacred services eat the food of the temple, and those who attend regularly to the altar have their share ^[h]from the altar? ¹⁴ So also ^(Y)the Lord directed those who proclaim the ^(Z)gospel to ^(AA)get their living from the gospel.

¹⁵ But I have ^(AB)used none of these things. And I have not written these things so that it will be done so in my case; for it would be better for me to die than that. No one shall make ^(AC)my boast an empty one! ¹⁶ For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast about, for ^(AD)I am under compulsion; for woe to me if I do not preach ^(AE)the gospel. ¹⁷ For if I do this voluntarily, I have a ^(AF)reward; but if against my will, I have been entrusted with a ^(AG)commission nonetheless. ¹⁸ What, then, is my ^(AH)reward? That, when I preach the gospel, I may offer the gospel ^(AI)without charge, so as ^(AJ)not to make full use of my right in the gospel.

¹⁹ For though I am ^(AK)free from all people, I have made myself ^(AL)a slave to all, so that I may ^(AM)gain more. ^20 (AN)To the Jews I became as a Jew, so that I might gain Jews; to those who are under the Law, I became as one under the Law, though ^(AO)not being under the Law myself, so that I might gain those who are under the Law; ²¹ to those who are ^(AP)without the Law, I became ^(AQ)as one without the Law, though not being without the law of God but ^(AR)under the law of Christ, so that I might gain those who are without the Law. ²² To the ^(AS)weak I became weak, that I might gain the weak; I have become ^(AT)all things to all people, ^(AU)so that I may by all means save some. ²³ I do all things for the sake of the gospel, so that I may become a fellow partaker of it.

^24 (AV)Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives ^(AW)the prize? ^(AX)Run in such a way that you may win. ²⁵ Everyone who ^(AY)competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. So they do it to obtain a perishable ^(AZ)wreath, but we an imperishable. ²⁶ Therefore I ^(BA)run in such a way as not to run aimlessly; I box in such a way, as ^[i]to avoid ^(BB)hitting air; ²⁷ but I strictly discipline ^(BC)my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.

¹⁷ You have ^(A)wearied the Lord with your words. Yet you say, “How have we wearied Him?” In that you say, “^(B)Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and He ^(C)delights in them,” or, “^(D)Where is the God of ^(E)justice?”

The Purifier

3 “^(F)Behold, I am sending ^(G)My ^[a]messenger, and he will ^(H)clear a way before Me. And the Lord, whom you are seeking, will suddenly come to His temple; ^[b]and the ^[c](I)messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight, behold, He is coming,” says the Lord of armies. ² “But who can ^(J)endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a ^(K)refiner’s fire, and like launderer’s soap. ³ And He will sit as a smelter and purifier of silver, and He will ^(L)purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, so that they may ^(M)present to the Lord ^[d]offerings in righteousness. ⁴ Then the ^[e]offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be ^(N)pleasing to the Lord as in the ^(O)days of old, and as in former years.

⁵ “Then I will come near to you for judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the ^(P)sorcerers, the ^(Q)adulterers, against those who ^(R)swear falsely, those who ^[f]oppress the ^(S)wage earner in his wages or the ^(T)widow or the ^[g]orphan, and those who turn away the ^(U)stranger from justice and do not ^[h]fear Me,” says the Lord of armies. ⁶ “For ^[i]I, the Lord, ^(V)do not change; therefore you, the sons of Jacob, have not come to an end.

⁷ “From the ^(W)days of your fathers you have turned away from My statutes and have not kept them. ^(X)Return to Me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord of armies. “But you say, ‘How shall we return?’

You Have Robbed God

⁸ “Would anyone rob God? Yet you are robbing Me! But you say, ‘How have we robbed You?’ In ^(Y)tithes and ^[j]offerings. ⁹ You are ^(Z)cursed with a curse, for you are robbing Me, the entire nation of you! ^10 (AA)Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and put Me to the test now in this,” says the Lord of armies, “if I do not ^(AB)open for you the windows of heaven and ^(AC)pour out for you a blessing until ^[k](AD)it overflows. ¹¹ Then I will rebuke the ^(AE)devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruit of your ground; nor will the vine in the field prove fruitless to you,” says the Lord of armies. ¹² “^(AF)All the nations will call you blessed, for you will be a ^(AG)delightful land,” says the Lord of armies.

Avoid Israel’s Mistakes

10 For ^(A)I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that our fathers were all ^(B)under the cloud and they all ^(C)passed through the sea; ² and they all were ^(D)baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea; ³ and they all ^(E)ate the same spiritual food, ⁴ and all ^(F)drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was ^[a]Christ. ⁵ Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased; for their dead bodies were ^(G)spread out in the wilderness.

⁶ Now these things happened as ^(H)examples for us, so that we would not crave evil things as ^(I)they indeed craved them. ⁷ Do not be ^(J)idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written: “^(K)The people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to ^(L)play.” ⁸ Nor are we to commit sexual immorality, as ^(M)some of them ^[b]did, and ^(N)twenty-three thousand fell in one day. ⁹ Nor are we to put the Lord to the test, as ^(O)some of them ^[c]did, and were killed by the snakes. ¹⁰ Nor ^(P)grumble, as some of them ^[d]did, and ^(Q)were killed by the ^(R)destroyer. ¹¹ Now these things happened to them as an ^(S)example, and ^(T)they were written for our instruction, upon whom ^(U)the ends of the ages have come. ¹² Therefore let the one who ^(V)thinks he stands watch out that he does not fall. ¹³ No temptation has overtaken you except something common to mankind; and ^(W)God is faithful, ^[e]so He will not allow you to be ^(X)tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.

¹⁴ Therefore, my ^(Y)beloved, flee from ^(Z)idolatry. ¹⁵ I speak as to wise people; you then, judge what I say. ¹⁶ Is the ^(AA)cup of blessing which we bless not a sharing in the blood of Christ? Is the ^(AB)bread which we break not a sharing in the body of Christ? ¹⁷ Since there is one loaf, we ^(AC)who are many are one body; for we all partake of the one loaf. ¹⁸ Look at ^[f]the people of ^(AD)Israel; are those who ^(AE)eat the sacrifices not partners in the altar? ¹⁹ What do I mean then? That food sacrificed to idols is anything, or ^(AF)that an idol is ^[g]anything? ²⁰ No, but I say that things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they ^(AG)sacrifice to demons and not to God; and I do not want you to become partners with demons. ^21 (AH)You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the table of the Lord and ^(AI)the table of demons. ²² Or do we ^(AJ)provoke the Lord to jealousy? We are not ^(AK)stronger than He, are we?

^23 (AL)All things are permitted, but not all things are of benefit. All things are permitted, but not all things ^[h](AM)build people up. ²⁴ No one is to ^(AN)seek his own advantage, but rather that of his ^[i]neighbor. ^25 (AO)Eat anything that is sold in the meat market without asking questions, for the sake of conscience; ^26 (AP)for the earth is the Lord’s, and ^[j]all it contains. ²⁷ If ^(AQ)one of the unbelievers invites you and you want to go, ^(AR)eat anything that is set before you without asking questions, for the sake of conscience. ²⁸ But ^(AS)if anyone says to you, “This is meat sacrificed to idols,” do not eat it, for the sake of that one who informed you and for the sake of conscience; ²⁹ Now by “conscience” I do not mean your own, but the other person’s; for ^(AT)why is my freedom judged by another’s conscience? ³⁰ If I partake with thankfulness, ^(AU)why am I slandered about that for which I ^(AV)give thanks?

³¹ Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or ^(AW)whatever you do, do all things for the glory of God. ^32 (AX)Do not offend Jews or Greeks, or ^(AY)the church of God; ³³ just as I also ^(AZ)please everyone in all things, ^(BA)not seeking my own benefit but the benefit of the many, ^(BB)so that they may be saved.

Christian Order

11 ^(BC)Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.