busybodies

¹³And being at the same time also idle, they learn to go from house to house, being not only idle, but also talkative and curious, speaking of things which do not concern them.

¹¹to choose work that allows you to be tranquil, and to carry out your business and to do your work with your own hands, just as we have instructed you,

¹¹For we have heard that there are some among you who act disruptively, not working at all, but eagerly meddling.

¹⁵But let none of you suffer for being a murderer, or a thief, or a slanderer, or one who covets what belongs to another.

³Honor is for the man who separates himself from contentions. But all the foolish meddle in altercations.

¹⁶You shall not be a detractor, nor a whisperer, among the people. You shall not stand against the blood of your neighbor. I am the Lord.

³Old women, similarly, should be in holy attire, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teaching well,

⁶But we strongly caution you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to draw yourselves away from every brother who is walking in disorder and not according to the tradition that they received from us.

⁸But if anyone has no concern for his own, and especially for those of his own household, he has denied the faith, and he is worse than an unbeliever.

¹²Now we charge those who act in this way, and we beg them in the Lord Jesus Christ, that they work in silence and eat their own bread.

²For their mind meditates on robberies, and their lips speak deceptions.

⁷Similarly, you husbands should live with them in accord with knowledge, bestowing honor on the female as the weaker vessel and as co-heirs of the life of grace, so that your prayers may not be hindered.

¹Therefore, as most beloved sons, be imitators of God. ²And walk in love, just as Christ also loved us and delivered himself for us, as an oblation and a sacrifice to God, with a fragrance of sweetness. ³But let not any kind of fornication, or impurity, or rapacity so much as be named among you, just as is worthy of the saints, ⁴nor any indecent, or foolish, or abusive talk, for this is without purpose; but instead, give thanks. ⁵For know and understand this: no one who is a fornicator, or lustful, or rapacious (for these are a kind of service to idols) holds an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. ⁶Let no one seduce you with empty words. For because of these things, the wrath of God was sent upon the sons of unbelief.

⁶But in response, he said to them: “So well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites, just as it has been written: ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

⁸The words of the double-tongued seem simple. And they reach even to the interior of the gut. Fear casts down the lazy, but the souls of the effeminate shall go hungry.