Avoid Worldly Wisdom

^18 (A)Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you seems to be wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise.

Depravity of False Teachers

¹² But these, ^(A)like natural brute beasts made to be caught and destroyed, speak evil of the things they do not understand, and will utterly perish in their own corruption, ^13 (B)and will receive the wages of unrighteousness, as those who count it pleasure ^(C)to ^[a]carouse in the daytime. ^(D)They are spots and blemishes, ^[b]carousing in their own deceptions while ^(E)they feast with you, ¹⁴ having eyes full of ^[c]adultery and that cannot cease from sin, enticing unstable souls. ^(F)They have a heart trained in covetous practices, and are accursed children. ¹⁵ They have forsaken the right way and gone astray, following the way of ^(G)Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; ¹⁶ but he was rebuked for his iniquity: a dumb donkey speaking with a man’s voice restrained the madness of the prophet.

^5 (A)If any of you lacks wisdom, ^(B)let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and ^(C)it will be given to him.

² And ^(A)if anyone thinks that he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know.

²⁵ For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be ^(A)wise in your own ^[a]opinion, that ^(B)blindness in part has happened to Israel ^(C)until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.

⁵ So I said: