belittling

¹But we who are stronger must bear with the feebleness of the weak, and not so as to please ourselves. ²Each one of you should please his neighbor unto good, for edification. ³For even Christ did not please himself, but as it was written: “The reproaches of those who reproached you fell upon me.” ⁴For whatever was written, was written to teach us, so that, through patience and the consolation of the Scriptures, we might have hope. ⁵So may the God of patience and solace grant you to be of one mind toward one another, in accord with Jesus Christ, ⁶so that, together with one mouth, you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

⁸For my thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not my ways, says the Lord. ⁹For just as the heavens are exalted above the earth, so also are my ways exalted above your ways, and my thoughts above your thoughts.

⁴What was weak, you have not strengthened, and what was sick, you have not healed. What was broken, you have not bound, and what was cast aside, you have not led back again, and what was lost, you have not sought. Instead, you ruled over them with severity and with power.

¹My brothers, within the glorious faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, do not choose to show favoritism toward persons. ²For if a man has entered your assembly having a gold ring and splendid apparel, and if a poor man has also entered, in dirty clothing, ³and if you are then attentive to the one who is clothed in excellent apparel, so that you say to him, “You may sit in this good place,” but you say to the poor man, “You stand over there,” or, “Sit below my footstool,” ⁴are you not judging within yourselves, and have you not become judges with unjust thoughts? ⁵My most beloved brothers, listen. Has not God chosen the poor in this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that God has promised to those who love him? ⁶But you have dishonored the poor. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you through power? And are not they the ones who drag you to judgment?

³Therefore, all things whatsoever that they shall say to you, observe and do. Yet truly, do not choose to act according to their works. For they say, but they do not do.

²²But the fruit of the Spirit is charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, forbearance, ²³meekness, faith, modesty, abstinence, chastity. There is no law against such things.

²⁶“Be angry, but do not be willing to sin.” Do not let the sun set over your anger.

¹⁵Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! For you travel around by sea and by land, in order to make one convert. And when he has been converted, you make him twice the son of Hell that you are yourselves.

¹²Do not be like Cain, who was of the evil one, and who killed his brother. And why did he kill him? Because his own works were wicked, but his brother’s works were just.

¹⁶For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, so that all who believe in him may not perish, but may have eternal life.

¹⁰The thief does not come, except so that he may steal and slaughter and destroy. I have come so that they may have life, and have it more abundantly.

⁹As it happens, I had written to the church. But Diotrephes, who loves to bear the highest rank among them, would not accept us. ¹⁰Because of this, when I come, I will admonish his works which he does, babbling against us with malicious words. And as if this were not sufficient for him, he himself does not receive the brothers. And those who do receive them, he hinders, and he ejects them from the church.

⁶Jesus said to him: “I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father, except through me.

⁶But without faith, it is impossible to please God. For whoever approaches God must believe that he exists, and that he rewards those who seek him.