pleasure

¹⁷Whoever loves a feast will be in deprivation. Whoever loves wine and fatness will not be enriched.

¹¹You have made known to me the ways of life; you will fill me with joy by your countenance. At your right hand are delights, even to the end.

²²So then, flee from the desires of your youth, yet truly, pursue justice, faith, hope, charity, and peace, along with those who call upon the Lord from a pure heart.

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.

¹⁸Flee from fornication. Every sin whatsoever that a man commits is outside of the body, but whoever fornicates, sins against his own body. ¹⁹Or do you not know that your bodies are the Temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? ²⁰For you have been bought at a great price. Glorify and carry God in your body.

¹⁴And those which fell among thorns are those who have heard it, but as they go along, they are suffocated by the concerns and riches and pleasures of this life, and so they do not yield fruit.

¹I said in my heart: “I will go forth and overflow with delights, and I will enjoy good things.” And I saw that this, too, is emptiness. ²Laughter, I considered an error. And to rejoicing, I said: “Why are you being deceived, to no purpose?” ³I decided in my heart to withdraw my flesh from wine, so that I might bring my mind to wisdom, and turn away from foolishness, until I see what is useful for the sons of men, and what they ought to do under the sun, during the number of the days of their life. ⁴I magnified my works. I built houses for myself, and I planted vineyards. ⁵I made gardens and orchards. And I planted them with trees of every kind. ⁶And I dug out fishponds of water, so that I might irrigate the forest of growing trees.

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.

⁶For she who is living in pleasures is dead, while living.

⁴May marriage be honorable in every way, and may the marriage bed be immaculate. For God will judge fornicators and adulterers.

¹⁷Instruct the wealthy of this age not to have a superior attitude, nor to hope in the uncertainty of riches, but in the living God, who offers us everything in abundance to enjoy,

¹²The night has passed, and the day draws near. Therefore, let us cast aside the works of darkness, and be clothed with the armor of light. ¹³Let us walk honestly, as in the daylight, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in promiscuity and sexual immorality, not in contention and envy. ¹⁴Instead, be clothed with the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in its desires.

⁴that each one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor,

⁵Therefore, mortify your body, while it is upon the earth. For because of fornication, impurity, lust, evil desires, and avarice, which are a kind of service to idols,