minding your own business

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,

¹⁷Just like one who takes hold of a dog by the ears, so also is he who crosses impatiently and meddles in the quarrels of another.

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, ¹²and to walk honestly with those who are outside, and to desire nothing belonging to another.

²⁰Peter, turning around, saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following, the one who also had leaned on his chest at supper and said, “Lord, who is it who shall betray you?” ²¹Therefore, when Peter had seen him, he said to Jesus, “Lord, but what about this one?” ²²Jesus said to him: “If I want him to remain until I return, what is that to you? You follow me.”

⁴²Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, allow me to remove the straw from your eye,’ while you yourself do not see the log in your own eye? Hypocrite, first remove the log from your own eye, and then will you see clearly, so that you may lead out the straw from your brother’s eye.

⁴Who are you to judge the servant of another? He stands or falls by his own Lord. But he shall stand. For God is able to make him stand.

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

⁸Concerning the rest, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is chaste, whatever is just, whatever is holy, whatever is worthy to be loved, whatever is of good repute, if there is any virtue, if there is any praiseworthy discipline: meditate on these.

¹²And so, each one of us shall offer an explanation of himself to God.

⁵For each one shall carry his own burden.

¹But accept those who are weak in faith, without disputing about ideas. ²For one person believes that he may eat all things, but if another is weak, let him eat plants. ³He who eats should not despise him who does not eat. And he who does not eat should not judge him who eats. For God has accepted him. ⁴Who are you to judge the servant of another? He stands or falls by his own Lord. But he shall stand. For God is able to make him stand. ⁵For one person discerns one age from the next. But another discerns unto every age. Let each one increase according to his own mind. ⁶He who understands the age, understands for the Lord. And he who eats, eats for the Lord; for he gives thanks to God. And he who does not eat, does not eat for the Lord, and he gives thanks to God.

⁶“A handful with rest is better than both hands filled with labors and with affliction of the soul.”