You cover up your ignorance with lies; you are like doctors who can't heal anyone.

Why are you lying? Do you think your lies will benefit God?

I know what spiteful thoughts you have.

And you! You try to comfort me with nonsense! Every answer you give is a lie!

To make a brother repay you the money he owed, you took away his clothes and left him nothing to wear.

You used your power and your position to take over the whole land.

So now there are pitfalls all around you, and suddenly you are full of fear.

Doesn't God live in the highest heavens and look down on the stars, even though they are high?

You think the thick clouds keep him from seeing, as he walks on the dome of the sky.

Even before their time had come, they were washed away by a flood.

And yet it was God who made them prosperous--- I can't understand the thoughts of the wicked.

All that the wicked own is destroyed, and fire burns up anything that is left.

Accept the teaching he gives; keep his words in your heart.

Throw away your gold; dump your finest gold in the dry stream bed.

Then you will always trust in God and find that he is the source of your joy.

You will succeed in all you do, and light will shine on your path.

He will rescue you if you are innocent, if what you do is right.

What I say is the truth; lies are hateful to me.

Everything I say is true; nothing is false or misleading.

We are not like so many others, who handle God's message as if it were cheap merchandise; but because God has sent us, we speak with sincerity in his presence, as servants of Christ.

Do you know how clouds float in the sky, the work of God's amazing skill?

And so, Your Excellency, because I have carefully studied all these matters from their beginning, I thought it would be good to write an orderly account for you.

Then Felix, who was well informed about the Way, brought the hearing to a close. "When the commander Lysias arrives," he told them, "I will decide your case."

Do not be like children in your thinking, my friends; be children so far as evil is concerned, but be grown up in your thinking.

Greetings from Epaphras, another member of your group and a servant of Christ Jesus. He always prays fervently for you, asking God to make you stand firm, as mature and fully convinced Christians, in complete obedience to God's will.

All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching the truth, rebuking error, correcting faults, and giving instruction for right living,

so that the person who serves God may be fully qualified and equipped to do every kind of good deed.

My thoughts will be clear; I will speak words of wisdom.

I have written down thirty sayings for you. They contain knowledge and good advice,

and will teach you what the truth really is. Then when you are sent to find it out, you will bring back the right answer.