controlling people

²⁶But if anyone considers himself to be religious, but he does not restrain his tongue, but instead seduces his own heart: such a one’s religion is vanity.

¹⁷But I beg you, brothers, to take note of those who cause dissensions and offenses contrary to the doctrine that you have learned, and to turn away from them. ¹⁸For ones such as these do not serve Christ our Lord, but their inner selves, and, through pleasing words and skillful speaking, they seduce the hearts of the innocent.

²⁸Just like a city lying in the open and without surrounding walls, so also is a man who is unable to restrain his own spirit in speaking.

⁷For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of virtue, and of love, and of self-restraint.

¹And know this: that in the last days perilous times will press near. ²Men will be lovers of themselves, greedy, self-exalting, arrogant, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, wicked, ³without affection, without peace, false accusers, unchaste, cruel, without kindness, ⁴traitorous, reckless, self-important, loving pleasure more than God, ⁵even having the appearance of piety while rejecting its virtue. And so, avoid them.

³²A patient man is better than a strong one. And whoever rules his soul is better than one who assaults cities.

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.

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.

¹⁶So then, I say: Walk in the spirit, and you will not fulfill the desires of the flesh. ¹⁷For the flesh desires against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. And since these are against one another, you may not do whatever you want. ¹⁸But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. ¹⁹Now the works of the flesh are manifest; they are: fornication, lust, homosexuality, self-indulgence, ²⁰the serving of idols, drug use, hostility, contentiousness, jealousy, wrath, quarrels, dissensions, divisions, ²¹envy, murder, inebriation, carousing, and similar things. About these things, I continue to preach to you, as I have preached to you: that those who act in this way shall not obtain the kingdom of God.

¹The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to him, in order to make known to his servants the things that must soon occur, and which he signified by sending his Angel to his servant John;

²⁵And one who competes in a contest abstains from all things. And they do this, of course, so that they may achieve a corruptible crown. But we do this, so that we may achieve what is incorruptible.