Brothers, do not be children in your understanding; rather, in malice be children, but in understanding be men.

There was a certain man in the land of Uz, whose name [was] Job; and that man was true, blameless, righteous, and godly, abstaining from everything evil.

Maintain innocence, and behold uprightness; for there is a remnant to the peaceable man.

You therefore be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.

Jesus said to him, "If you desire to be perfect, go, sell your belongings and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me."

Finally brothers, farewell. Restore [yourselves], comfort [yourselves], be in agreement, be at peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you.

And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers,

until we all arrive to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to [the] measure of [the] stature of the fullness of Christ;

Not that I have already obtained, or have already been made perfect; but I press on, if also I may lay hold of that for which I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.

I press toward the goal for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Epaphras greets you, who is one of you, a bondservant of Christ, always struggling for you in his prayers, that you may stand mature and complete in all the will of God.

But solid food is for the mature, for those because of their practice have their senses trained for the distinguishing of both good and evil.

For we all stumble in many [ways]. If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a mature man, able also to bridle the whole body.

But may the God of all grace, the [One] having called you into His eternal glory in Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a little [while], may He Himself make you complete--He will establish, strengthen, [and] firmly ground [you].

And I, brothers, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom, announcing to you the testimony of God.

which things we also speak, not in words taught in human wisdom, but in words taught by the Holy Spirit, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

For it is written: "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the understanding of the prudent I will annul."

So the master praised the unrighteous manager because he had dealt shrewdly. For the sons of this age are shrewder in their own generation than the sons of light.

For our boasting is this: the testimony of our conscience, that we have conducted ourselves in the world in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God, and especially toward you.

among whom the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, so that the illumination of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should not shine on them.

in which you once walked according to the age of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit which is now working in the sons of disobedience,

This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic.

which none of the rulers of this age knew (for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory).

He sends away priests into captivity, and overthrows the mighty ones of the earth.

He pours dishonor upon princes, and heals the lowly.

Why did the heathen rage, and the nations imagine vain things?

[saying], Let us break through Their bonds, and cast away Their yoke from us.

Then shall He speak to them in His anger, and trouble them in His fury.

And the princes of Tanis shall be fools; [as for] the king's wise counselors, their counsel shall be turned into folly; how will you say to the king, we are sons of wise men, sons of ancient kings?

The princes of Tanis have failed, and the princes of Memphis are lifted up [with pride], and they shall cause Egypt to wander by tribes.

He that appoints princes to rule as nothing, and has made the earth as nothing.

who by the mouth of Your servant David have said: 'Why did the nations rage, and the people conspired vain things?

"For truly they were assembled against Your holy Servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel,

And the base things of the world, and the things having been despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, in order that He might nullify the things which are,

The Lord frustrates the counsels of the nations; He brings to nought the reasonings of the people, and brings to nought the counsels of princes.