Come near to God, and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners! Purify your hearts, you hypocrites!

Elijah went up to the people and said, "How much longer will it take you to make up your minds? If the LORD is God, worship him; but if Baal is God, worship him!" But the people didn't say a word.

So they worshiped the LORD, but they also worshiped their own gods according to the customs of the countries from which they had come.

So those people worshiped the LORD, but they also worshiped their idols; and to this day their descendants continue to do the same.

The Lord said, "These people claim to worship me, but their words are meaningless, and their hearts are somewhere else. Their religion is nothing but human rules and traditions, which they have simply memorized.

The LORD says, "The people of Israel are like a half-baked loaf of bread. They rely on the nations around them

The arrogance of the people of Israel cries out against them. In spite of everything that has happened, they have not returned to me, the LORD their God.

The people whose hearts are deceitful must now suffer for their sins. God will break down their altars and destroy their sacred pillars.

"The eyes are like a lamp for the body. If your eyes are sound, your whole body will be full of light;

"You cannot be a slave of two masters; you will hate one and love the other; you will be loyal to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.

They want to look for nothing but the chance to commit adultery; their appetite for sin is never satisfied. They lead weak people into a trap. Their hearts are trained to be greedy. They are under God's curse!

This is what he says in all his letters when he writes on the subject. There are some difficult things in his letters which ignorant and unstable people explain falsely, as they do with other passages of the Scriptures. So they bring on their own destruction.