Bible verses about "belittling" | Twentieth_Century

¹⁰ The thief comes only to steal, to kill, and to destroy; I have come that they may have Life, and may have it in greater fullness.

¹ In the Beginning the Word was; and the Word was with God; and the Word was God. ² He was in the Beginning with God; ³ Through him all things came into being, and nothing came into being apart from him. ⁴ That which came into being in him was Life; and the Life was the Light of Man; ⁵ And the Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness never overpowered it. ⁶ There appeared a man sent from God, whose name was John; ⁷ He came as a witness--to bear witness to the Light that through him all men might believe. ⁸ He was not the Light, but he came to bear witness to the Light. ⁹ That was the True Light which enlightens every man coming into the world. ¹⁰ He was in the world; and through him the world came into being--yet the world did not know him. ¹¹ He came to his own--yet his own did not receive him. ¹² But to all who did receive him he gave power to become Children of God--to those who believe in his Name. ¹³ For not to natural conception, nor to human instincts, nor to will of man did they owe the new Life, but to God. ¹⁴ And the Word became Man, and dwelt among us, (We saw his glory--the glory of the Only Son sent from the Father), full of love and truth. ¹⁵ (John bears witness to him; he cried aloud--for it was he who spoke--"'He who is Coming' after me is now before me, for he was ever first"); ¹⁶ Out of his fullness we have all received some gift, gift after gift of love; ¹⁷ For the Law was given through Moses, love and truth came through Jesus Christ. ¹⁸ No man has ever yet seen God; God the Only Son, who is ever with the Father--He has revealed him. ¹⁹ When the Jews sent some Priests and Levites to John from Jerusalem, to ask--"Who are you?", his statement was this: ²⁰ He confessed and did not deny it, he confessed--"I am not the Christ." ²¹ "What then?" they asked. "Are you Elijah?" "No," he said, "I am not." "Are you 'the Prophet'?" He answered, "No." ²² "Who then are you?" they continued; "tell us, that we may have some answer to give to those who have sent us. What do you say about yourself?" ²³ "I," he answered, "am--'The voice of one crying aloud in the Wilderness--"straighten the way of the Lord"', as the Prophet Isaiah said." ²⁴ These men had been sent from the Pharisees; ²⁵ And their next question was: "Why then do you baptize, if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor yet 'the Prophet'?" ²⁶ John's answer was--"I baptize with water, but among you stands one whom you do not know; ²⁷ He is coming after me, yet I am not worthy even to unfasten his sandal." ²⁸ All this took place at Bethany, across the Jordan, where John was then baptizing. ²⁹ The next day John saw Jesus coming towards him, and exclaimed: "Here is the Lamb of God, who is to take away the sin of the world! ³⁰ It was of him that I spoke when I said 'After me there is coming a man who is now before me, for he was ever First.' ³¹ I myself did not know him, but, that he may be made known to Israel, I have come, baptizing with water." ³² John also made this statement--"I have seen the Spirit descending as a dove out of the heavens, and it remained upon him. ³³ I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water, he said to me 'He upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining upon him--he it is who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.' ³⁴ This I have seen myself, and I have declared my belief that he is the Son of God." ³⁵ The next day, when John was standing with two of his disciples, ³⁶ He looked at Jesus as he passed and exclaimed: "There is the Lamb of God!" ³⁷ The two disciples heard him say this, and followed Jesus. ³⁸ But Jesus turned round, and saw them following. "What are you looking for?" he asked. "Rabbi," they answered (or, as we should say, "Teacher"), "where are you staying?" ³⁹ "Come, and you shall see," he replied. So they went, and saw where he was staying, and spent that day with him. It was then about four in the afternoon. ⁴⁰ One of the two, who heard what John said and followed Jesus, was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. ⁴¹ He first found his own brother Simon, and said to him: "We have found the Messiah!" (a word which means 'Christ,' or 'Consecrated'.) ⁴² Then he brought him to Jesus. Fixing his eyes on him, Jesus said: "You are Simon, the son of John; you shall be called Kephas" (which means 'Peter,' or 'Rock'). ⁴³ The following day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. He found Philip, and said to him: "Follow me." ⁴⁴ Philip was from Bethsaida, and a fellow-townsman of Andrew and Peter. ⁴⁵ He found Nathanael and said to him: "We have found him of whom Moses wrote in the Law, and of whom the Prophets also wrote--Jesus of Nazareth, Joseph's son!" ⁴⁶ "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" asked Nathanael. "Come and see," replied Philip. ⁴⁷ When Jesus saw Nathanael coming towards him, he said: "Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is no deceit!" ⁴⁸ "How do you know me?" asked Nathanael. "Even before Philip called you," replied Jesus, "when you were under the fig tree, I saw you." ⁴⁹ "Rabbi," Nathanael exclaimed, "you are the Son of God, you are King of Israel!" ⁵⁰ "Do you believe in me," asked Jesus, "because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You shall see greater things than those! ⁵¹ In truth I tell you," he added, "you shall all see Heaven open, and 'the angels of God ascending and descending' upon the Son of Man."

¹ My Brothers, are you really trying to combine faith in Jesus Christ, our glorified Lord, with the worship of rank? ² Suppose a man should enter your Synagogue, with gold rings and in grand clothes, and suppose a poor man should come in also, in shabby clothes, ³ And you are deferential to the man who is wearing grand clothes, and say--"There is a good seat for you here," but to the poor man--"You must stand; or sit down there by my footstool," ⁴ Is not that to make distinctions among yourselves, and show yourselves prejudiced judges? ⁵ Listen, my dear Brothers. Has not God chosen those who are poor in the things of this world to be rich through their faith, and to possess the Kingdom which he has promised to those who love him? ⁶ But you--you insult the poor man! Is not it the rich who oppress you? Is not it they who drag you into law-courts? ⁷ Is not it they who malign that honorable Name which has been bestowed upon you? ⁸ Yet, if you keep the royal law which runs--'Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thou dost thyself,' you are doing right; ⁹ But, if you worship rank, you commit a sin, and stand convicted by that same law of being offenders against it. ¹⁰ For a man who has laid the Law, as a whole, to heart, but has failed in one particular, is liable for breaking all its provisions. ¹¹ He who said 'Thou shalt not commit adultery' also said 'Thou shalt not murder.' If, then, you commit murder but not adultery, you are still an offender against the Law. ¹² Therefore, speak and act as men who are to be judged by the 'Law of Freedom.' ¹³ For there will be justice without mercy for him who has not acted mercifully. Mercy triumphs over Justice. ¹⁴ My Brothers, what is the good of a man's saying that he has faith, if he does not prove it by actions? Can such faith save him? ¹⁵ Suppose some Brother or Sister should be in want of clothes and of daily bread, ¹⁶ And one of you were to say to them--"Go, and peace be with you; find warmth and food for yourselves," and yet you were not to give them the necessaries of life, what good would it be to them? ¹⁷ In just the same way faith, if not followed by actions, is, by itself, a lifeless thing. ¹⁸ Some one, indeed, may say--"You are a man of faith, and I am a man of action." "Then show me your faith," I reply, "apart from any actions, and I will show you my faith by my actions." ¹⁹ It is a part of your Faith, is it not, that there is one God? Good; yet even the demons have that faith, and tremble at the thought. ²⁰ Now do you really want to understand, you foolish man, how it is that faith without actions leads to nothing? ²¹ Look at our ancestor, Abraham. Was not it the result of his actions that he was pronounced righteous after he had offered his son, Isaac, on the altar? ²² You see how, in his case, faith and actions went together; that his faith was perfected as the result of his actions; ²³ And that in this way the words of Scripture came true-- "Abraham believed God, and that was regarded by God as righteousness," and "He was called the friend of God." ²⁴ You see, then, that it is as the result of his actions that a man is pronounced righteous, and not of his faith only. ²⁵ Was not it the same with the prostitute, Rahab? Was not it as the result of her actions that she was pronounced righteous, after she had welcomed the messengers and hastened them away by a different road? ²⁶ Exactly as a body is dead without a spirit, so faith is dead without actions.

¹⁵ Alas for you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, hypocrites that you are! You scour land and sea to make a single convert, and, when he is gained, you make him twice as deserving of the Pit as you are yourselves.

³ Therefore practice and lay to heart everything that they tell preach but do not practice.

¹⁶ For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that every one who believes in him may not be lost, but have Immortal Life.

²² But the fruit produced by the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindliness, generosity, trustfulness, gentleness, self-control. ²³ Against such things there is no law!

²⁶ 'Be angry, yet do not sin.' Do not let the sun go down upon your anger;

¹ We, the strong, ought to take on our own shoulders the weaknesses of those who are not strong, and not merely to please ourselves. ² Let each of us please his neighbor for his neighbor's good, to help in the building up of his character. ³ Even the Christ did not please himself! On the contrary, as Scripture says of him--'The reproaches of those who were reproaching thee fell upon me.' ⁴ Whatever was written in the Scriptures in days gone by was written for our instruction, so that, through patient endurance, and through the encouragement drawn from the Scriptures, we might hold fast to our hope. ⁵ And may God, the giver of this patience and this encouragement, grant you to be united in sympathy in Christ, ⁶ So that with one heart and one voice you may praise the God and Father of Jesus Christ, our Lord. ⁷ Therefore always receive one another as friends, just as the Christ himself received us, to the glory of God. ⁸ For I tell you that Christ, in vindication of God's truthfulness, has become a minister of the Covenant of Circumcision, so that he may fulfil the promises made to our ancestors, ⁹ And that the Gentiles also may praise God for his mercy. As Scripture says--'Therefore will I make acknowledgment to thee among the Gentiles and sing in honor of thy Name.' ¹⁰ And again it says--'Rejoice, ye Gentiles, with God's People.' ¹¹ And yet again--'Praise the Lord, all ye Gentiles, and let all Peoples sing his praises.' ¹² Again, Isaiah says--'There shall be a Scion of the house of Jesse, One who is to arise to rule the Gentiles; on him shall the Gentiles rest their hopes.' ¹³ May God, who inspires our hope, grant you perfect happiness and peace in your faith, till you are filled with this hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. ¹⁴ I am persuaded, my Brothers--yes, I Paul, with regard to you- that you are yourselves full of kindness, furnished with all Christian learning, and well able to give advice to one another. ¹⁵ But in parts of this letter I have expressed myself somewhat boldly--by way of refreshing your memories-- ¹⁶ Because of the charge with which God has entrusted me, that I should be a minister of Christ Jesus to go to the Gentiles--that I should act as a priest of God's Good News, so that the offering up of the Gentiles may be an acceptable sacrifice, consecrated by the Holy Spirit. ¹⁷ It is, then, through my union with Christ Jesus that I have a proud confidence in my work for God. ¹⁸ For I will not dare to speak of anything but what Christ has done through me to win the obedience of the Gentiles-- ¹⁹ By my words and actions, through the power displayed in signs and marvels, and through the power of the Holy Spirit. And so, starting from Jerusalem and its neighborhood, and going as far as Illyria, I have told in full the Good News of the Christ; ²⁰ Yet always with the ambition to tell the Good News where Christ's name had not previously been heard, so as to avoid building upon another man's foundations. ²¹ But as Scripture says--'They to whom he had never been proclaimed shall see; and they who have never heard shall understand!' ²² That is why I have so often been prevented from coming to you. ²³ But now there are no further openings for me in these parts, and I have for several years been longing to come to you whenever I may be going to Spain. ²⁴ For my hope is to visit you on my journey, and then to be sent on my way by you, after I have first partly satisfied myself by seeing something of you. ²⁵ Just now, however, I am on my way to Jerusalem, to take help to Christ's People there. ²⁶ For Macedonia and Greece have been glad to make a collection for the poor among Christ's People at Jerusalem. ²⁷ Yes, they were glad to do so; and indeed it is a duty which they owe to them. For the Gentile converts who have shared their spiritual blessings are in duty bound to minister to them in the things of this world. ²⁸ When I have settled this matter, and have secured to the poor at Jerusalem the enjoyment of these benefits, I shall go, by way of you, to Spain. ²⁹ And I know that, when I come to you, it will be with a full measure of blessing from Christ. ³⁰ I beg you, then, Brothers, by Jesus Christ, our Lord, and by the love inspired by the Spirit, to join me in earnest prayer to God on my behalf. ³¹ Pray that I may be rescued from those in Judea who reject the Faith, and that the help which I am taking to Jerusalem may prove acceptable to Christ's People; ³² So that, God willing, I may be able to come to you with a joyful heart, and enjoy some rest among you. ³³ May God, the giver of peace, be with you all. Amen.