Old/New Testament

Dangers of Debt

6 My son, don’t make yourself responsible for the debts of others. Don’t make such deals with friends or strangers. ² If you do, your words will trap you. ³ You will be under the power of other people, so you must go and free yourself. Beg them to free you from that debt. ⁴ Don’t wait to rest or sleep. ⁵ Escape from that trap like a deer running from a hunter. Free yourself like a bird flying from a trap.

The Dangers of Being Lazy

⁶ You lazy people, you should watch what the ants do and learn from them. ⁷ Ants have no ruler, no boss, and no leader. ⁸ But in the summer, ants gather all of their food and save it. So when winter comes, there is plenty to eat.

⁹ You lazy people, how long are you going to lie there? When will you get up? ¹⁰ You say, “I need a rest. I think I’ll take a short nap.” ¹¹ But then you sleep and sleep and become poorer and poorer. Soon you will have nothing. It will be as if a thief came and stole everything you owned.

Troublemakers

¹² Some people are just troublemakers. They are always thinking up some crooked plan and telling lies. ¹³ They use secret signals to cheat people; they wink their eyes, shuffle their feet, and point a finger. ¹⁴ They are always planning to do something bad. ¹⁵ But they will be punished. Disaster will strike, and they will be destroyed. There will be no one to help them.

What the Lord Hates

Warning Against Adultery

²⁰ My son, remember your father’s command, and don’t forget your mother’s teaching. ²¹ Remember their words always. Tie them around your neck and keep them over your heart. ²² Let this teaching lead you wherever you go. It will watch over you while you sleep. And when you wake up, it will give you good advice.

²³ Your parents give you commands and teachings that are like lights to show you the right way. This teaching corrects you and trains you to follow the path to life. ²⁴ It stops you from going to an evil woman, and it protects you from the smooth talk of another man’s wife. ²⁵ Such a woman might be beautiful, but don’t let that beauty tempt you. Don’t let her eyes capture you. ²⁶ A prostitute might cost a loaf of bread, but the wife of another man could cost you your life. ²⁷ If you drop a hot coal in your lap, your clothes will be burned. ²⁸ If you step on one, your feet will be burned. ²⁹ If you sleep with another man’s wife, you will be punished.

^30-31 A hungry man might steal to fill his stomach. If he is caught, he must pay seven times more than he stole. It might cost him everything he owns, but other people understand. They don’t lose all their respect for him. ³² But a man who commits adultery is a fool. He brings about his own destruction. ³³ He will suffer disease and disgrace and never be free from the shame. ³⁴ The woman’s husband will be jealous and angry and do everything he can to get revenge. ³⁵ No payment—no amount of money—will stop him.

Wisdom Will Keep You From Adultery

7 My son, remember my words. Don’t forget what I have told you. ² Consider my teaching as precious as your own eyes. Obey my commands, and you will have a good life. ³ Tie them around your finger. Write them on your heart. ⁴ Treat wisdom like the woman you love and knowledge like the one dearest to you. ⁵ Wisdom will save you from that other woman, the other man’s wife, who tempts you with such sweet words.

⁶ One day I was looking out my window ⁷ at some foolish teenagers and noticed one who had no sense at all. ⁸ He was walking through the marketplace and came to the corner where a certain woman lived. He then turned up the road that goes by her house. ⁹ The day was ending. The sun had set, and it was almost dark. ¹⁰ Suddenly, there she was in front of him, dressed like a prostitute. She had plans for him. ¹¹ She was a wild and rebellious woman who would not stay at home. ¹² She walked the streets, always looking for someone to trap. ¹³ She grabbed the young man and kissed him. Without shame, she looked him in the eye and said, ¹⁴ “I offered a fellowship offering today. I gave what I promised to give, ¹⁵ and I still have plenty of food left. So I came out to find you, and here you are! ¹⁶ I have clean sheets on my bed—special ones from Egypt. ¹⁷ My bed smells wonderful with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon. ¹⁸ Come, let’s enjoy ourselves all night. We can make love until dawn. ¹⁹ My husband has gone on a business trip. ²⁰ He took enough money for a long trip and won’t be home for two weeks.^[a]”

²¹ This is what the woman said to tempt the young man, and her smooth words tricked him. ²² He followed her, like a bull being led to the slaughter. He was like a deer walking into a trap, ²³ where a hunter waits to shoot an arrow through its heart. The boy was like a bird flying into a net, never seeing the danger he was in.

²⁴ Now, sons, listen to me. Pay attention to what I say. ²⁵ Don’t let your heart lead you to an evil woman like that. Don’t go where she wants to lead you. ²⁶ She has brought down some of the most powerful men; she has left many dead bodies in her path. ²⁷ Her house is the place of death. The road to it leads straight to the grave.

2 So I decided that my next visit to you would not be another visit to make you sad. ² If I make you sad, then who will make me happy? Only you can make me happy—you, the ones I made sad. ³ I wrote you a letter so that when I came to you I would not be made sad by those who should make me happy. I felt sure that all of you would share my joy. ⁴ When I wrote to you before, I was very troubled and my heart was full of sadness. I wrote with many tears. I did not write to make you sad, but to let you know how much I love you.

Forgive the Person Who Did Wrong

⁵ Someone in your group has caused sadness—not to me, but to all of you. I mean he has caused sadness to all in some way. (I don’t want to make it sound worse than it really is.) ⁶ The punishment that most of your group gave him is enough for him. ⁷ But now you should forgive him and encourage him. This will keep him from having too much sadness and giving up completely. ⁸ So I beg you to show him that you love him. ⁹ This is why I wrote to you. I wanted to test you and see if you obey in everything. ¹⁰ If you forgive someone, then I also forgive them. And what I have forgiven—if I had anything to forgive—I forgave it for you, and Christ was with me. ¹¹ I did this so that Satan would not win anything from us. We know very well what his plans are.

God Gives Us Victory Over Troubles

¹² I went to Troas to tell people the Good News of Christ. The Lord gave me a good opportunity there. ¹³ But I had no peace because I did not find my brother Titus. So I said goodbye and went to Macedonia.

¹⁴ But thanks be to God, who always leads us in victory through Christ. God uses us to spread his knowledge everywhere like a sweet-smelling perfume. ¹⁵ Our offering to God is to be the perfume of Christ that goes out to those who are being saved and to those who are being lost. ¹⁶ To those who are being lost, this perfume smells like death, and it brings them death. But to those who are being saved, it has the sweet smell of life, and it brings them life. So who is good enough to do this work? ¹⁷ Certainly not those who are out there selling God’s message for a profit! But we don’t do that. With Christ’s help we speak God’s truth honestly, knowing that we must answer to him.