You may think that everything you do is right, but remember that the LORD judges your motives.

This man Micah had his own place of worship. He made some idols and an ephod, and appointed one of his sons as his priest.

Micah said, "Now that I have a Levite as my priest, I know that the LORD will make things go well for me."

Samuel went up to Saul, who greeted him, saying, "The LORD bless you, Samuel! I have obeyed the LORD's command."

Samuel asked, "Why, then, do I hear cattle mooing and sheep bleating?"

"I am not guilty; I have done nothing wrong. I am innocent and free from sin.

Because they think so highly of themselves, they think that God will not discover their sin and condemn it.

And then they say to others, 'Keep away from us; we are too holy for you to touch!' I cannot stand people like that---my anger against them is like a fire that never goes out.

Even if you washed with the strongest soap, I would still see the stain of your guilt.

rushing into the desert. When she is in heat, who can control her? No male that wants her has to trouble himself; she is always available in mating season.

So the Lord said to him, "Now then, you Pharisees clean the outside of your cup and plate, but inside you are full of violence and evil.

Fools! Did not God, who made the outside, also make the inside?

Jesus said to them, "You are the ones who make yourselves look right in other people's sight, but God knows your hearts. For the things that are considered of great value by people are worth nothing in God's sight.

The Pharisee stood apart by himself and prayed, 'I thank you, God, that I am not greedy, dishonest, or an adulterer, like everybody else. I thank you that I am not like that tax collector over there.

they will hold to the outward form of our religion, but reject its real power. Keep away from such people.

Everything is pure to those who are themselves pure; but nothing is pure to those who are defiled and unbelieving, for their minds and consciences have been defiled.

They claim that they know God, but their actions deny it. They are hateful and disobedient, not fit to do anything good.

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and there is no truth in us.

If we say that we have not sinned, we make a liar out of God, and his word is not in us.

Wash away all my evil and make me clean from my sin!

Remove my sin, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.

Wash yourselves clean. Stop all this evil that I see you doing. Yes, stop doing evil

Jerusalem, wash the evil from your heart, so that you may be saved. How long will you go on thinking sinful thoughts?

I will sprinkle clean water on you and make you clean from all your idols and everything else that has defiled you.

"When that time comes," says the LORD Almighty, "a fountain will be opened to purify the descendants of David and the people of Jerusalem from their sin and idolatry.

Some of you were like that. But you have been purified from sin; you have been dedicated to God; you have been put right with God by the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

he saved us. It was not because of any good deeds that we ourselves had done, but because of his own mercy that he saved us, through the Holy Spirit, who gives us new birth and new life by washing us.

But if we live in the light---just as he is in the light---then we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from every sin.

and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the first to be raised from death and who is also the ruler of the kings of the world. He loves us, and by his sacrificial death he has freed us from our sins