obsession

¹⁵Do not choose to love the world, nor the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, the charity of the Father is not in him. ¹⁶For all that is in the world is the desire of the flesh, and the desire of the eyes, and the arrogance of a life which is not of the Father, but is of the world. ¹⁷And the world is passing away, with its desire. But whoever does the will of God abides unto eternity.

²⁴No one is able to serve two masters. For either he will have hatred for the one, and love the other, or he will persevere with the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.

²Consider the things that are above, not the things that are upon the earth.

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.

²⁰“But,” he said “the things which go out from a man, these pollute a man. ²¹For from within, from the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, ²²thefts, avarice, wickedness, deceitfulness, homosexuality, an evil eye, blasphemy, self-exaltation, foolishness. ²³All these evils proceed from within and pollute a man.”

²⁹And Jesus answered him: “For the first commandment of all is this: ‘Listen, O Israel. The Lord your God is one God. ³⁰And you shall love the Lord your God from your whole heart, and from your whole soul, and from your whole mind, and from your whole strength. This is the first commandment.’ ³¹But the second is similar to it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

³And not only that, but we also find glory in tribulation, knowing that tribulation exercises patience, ⁴and patience leads to proving, yet truly proving leads to hope,

¹⁵So he said to them: “Be cautious and wary of all avarice. For a person’s life is not found in the abundance of the things that he possesses.”

¹⁴Yet truly, each one is tempted by his own desires, having been enticed and drawn away. ¹⁵Thereafter, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin. Yet truly sin, when it has been consummated, produces death.

¹²All is lawful to me, but not all is expedient. All is lawful to me, but I will not be driven back by the authority of anyone.

¹³Temptation should not take hold of you, except what is human. For God is faithful, and he will not permit you to be tempted beyond your ability. Instead, he will effect his Providence, even during temptation, so that you may be able to bear it.

⁴For the weapons of our battles are not carnal, yet still they are powerful with God, unto the destruction of fortifications: tearing down every counsel ⁵and height that extols itself contrary to the wisdom of God, and leading every intellect into the captivity of obedience to Christ,

¹⁰For desire is the root of all evils. Some persons, hungering in this way, have strayed from the faith and have entangled themselves in many sorrows.

¹⁹promising them freedoms, while they themselves are the servants of corruption. For by whatever a man is overcome, of this also is he the servant.

²⁰Hell and perdition are never filled; similarly the eyes of men are insatiable.

¹⁸And do not choose to be inebriated by wine, for this is self-indulgence. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit,

¹And the Lord spoke all these words: ²“I am the Lord your God, who led you away from the land of Egypt, out of the house of servitude. ³You shall not have strange gods before me. ⁴You shall not make for yourself a graven image, nor a likeness of anything that is in heaven above or on earth below, nor of those things which are in the waters under the earth. ⁵You shall not adore them, nor shall you worship them. I am the Lord your God: strong, zealous, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the sons to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, ⁶and showing mercy to thousands of those who love me and keep my precepts.

²And do not choose to be conformed to this age, but instead choose to be reformed in the newness of your mind, so that you may demonstrate what is the will of God: what is good, and what is well-pleasing, and what is perfect.

³³Therefore, seek first the kingdom of God and his justice, and all these things shall be added to you as well.

⁹For those who want to become rich fall into temptation and into the snare of the devil and into many useless and harmful desires, which submerge men in destruction and in perdition. ¹⁰For desire is the root of all evils. Some persons, hungering in this way, have strayed from the faith and have entangled themselves in many sorrows.

¹⁰And all that my eyes desired, I did not refuse them. Neither did I prohibit my heart from enjoying every pleasure, and from amusing itself in the things that I had prepared. And I regarded this as my share, as if I were making use of my own labors. ¹¹But when I turned myself toward all the works that my hands had made, and to the labors in which I had perspired to no purpose, I saw emptiness and affliction of the soul in all things, and that nothing is permanent under the sun.