Instead, when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that your host will come to you and say, 'Come on up, my friend, to a better place.' This will bring you honor in the presence of all the other guests.

For those who make themselves great will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be made great."

God puts people right through their faith in Jesus Christ. God does this to all who believe in Christ, because there is no difference at all:

But by the free gift of God's grace all are put right with him through Christ Jesus, who sets them free.

The secret is that by means of the gospel the Gentiles have a part with the Jews in God's blessings; they are members of the same body and share in the promise that God made through Christ Jesus.

They worship me every day, claiming that they are eager to know my ways and obey my laws. They say they want me to give them just laws and that they take pleasure in worshiping me."

The people ask, "Why should we fast if the LORD never notices? Why should we go without food if he pays no attention?" The LORD says to them, "The truth is that at the same time you fast, you pursue your own interests and oppress your workers.

and to ask the priests and the prophets this question: "Should we continue to mourn because of the destruction of the Temple, by fasting in the fifth month as we have done for so many years now?"

He said, "Tell the people of the land and the priests that when they fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months during these seventy years, it was not in honor of me.

You say, 'How tired we are of all this!' and you turn up your nose at me. As your offering to me you bring a stolen animal or one that is lame or sick. Do you think I will accept that from you?

You have said, 'It's useless to serve God. What's the use of doing what he says or of trying to show the LORD Almighty that we are sorry for what we have done?

But he spoke back to his father, 'Look, all these years I have worked for you like a slave, and I have never disobeyed your orders. What have you given me? Not even a goat for me to have a feast with my friends!

But this son of yours wasted all your property on prostitutes, and when he comes back home, you kill the prize calf for him!'

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.

I fast two days a week, and I give you one tenth of all my income.'

What, then, can we boast about? Nothing! And what is the reason for this? Is it that we obey the Law? No, but that we believe.

So we say that the Gentiles, who were not trying to put themselves right with God, were put right with him through faith;

And why not? Because they did not depend on faith but on what they did. And so they stumbled over the "stumbling stone"

My friends, how I wish with all my heart that my own people might be saved! How I pray to God for them!

They have not known the way in which God puts people right with himself, and instead, they have tried to set up their own way; and so they did not submit themselves to God's way of putting people right.

It is the same way now: there is a small number left of those whom God has chosen because of his grace.

His choice is based on his grace, not on what they have done. For if God's choice were based on what people do, then his grace would not be real grace.

To this very moment we go hungry and thirsty; we are clothed in rags; we are beaten; we wander from place to place;

Are they Christ's servants? I sound like a madman---but I am a better servant than they are! I have worked much harder, I have been in prison more times, I have been whipped much more, and I have been near death more often.

three times I was whipped by the Romans; and once I was stoned. I have been in three shipwrecks, and once I spent twenty-four hours in the water.

There has been work and toil; often I have gone without sleep; I have been hungry and thirsty; I have often been without enough food, shelter, or clothing.