social skills

⁵Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming this age. ⁶Let your speech be ever graceful, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to respond to each person.

⁴⁰And in response, the King shall say to them, ‘Amen I say to you, whenever you did this for one of these, the least of my brothers, you did it for me.’

¹A Psalm of Confession. ²Shout joyfully to God, all the earth. Serve the Lord with rejoicing. Enter into his sight in exultation. ³Know that the Lord himself is God. He made us, and we ourselves did not. We are his people and the sheep of his pasture. ⁴Enter his gates with confession, his courts with hymns, and acknowledge him. Praise his name. ⁵For the Lord is sweet, his mercy is in eternity, and his truth is from generation to generation.

⁵“Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. And before you went forth from the womb, I sanctified you. And I made you a prophet to the nations.”

¹Admonish them to be subordinate to the rulers and authorities, to obey their dictates, to be prepared for every good work, ²to speak evil of no one, not to be litigious, but to be reserved, displaying all meekness toward all men. ³For, in times past, we ourselves were also unwise, unbelieving, erring, servants of various desires and pleasures, acting with malice and envy, being hateful and hating one another. ⁴But then the kindness and humanity of God our Savior appeared. ⁵And he saved us, not by works of justice that we had done, but, in accord with his mercy, by the washing of regeneration and by the renovation of the Holy Spirit, ⁶whom he has poured out upon us in abundance, through Jesus Christ our Savior,

¹⁰Therefore, while we have time, we should do good works toward everyone, and most of all toward those who are of the household of the faith.

¹But you are to speak the things that befit sound doctrine. ²Old men should be sober, chaste, prudent, sound in faith, in love, in patience. ³Old women, similarly, should be in holy attire, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teaching well, ⁴so that they may teach prudence to the young women, so that they may love their husbands, love their children, ⁵be sensible, chaste, restrained, have concern for the household, be kind, be subordinate to their husbands: so that the Word of God may be not blasphemed. ⁶Exhort young men similarly, so that they may show self-restraint.

¹²Therefore, all things whatsoever that you wish that men would do to you, do so also to them. For this is the law and the prophets.

¹⁸He accomplishes judgment for the orphan and the widow. He loves the sojourner, and he gives him food as well as clothing.

¹Therefore, if there is any consolation in Christ, any solace of charity, any fellowship of the Spirit, any feelings of commiseration: ²complete my joy by having the same understanding, holding to the same charity, being of one mind, with the same sentiment. ³Let nothing be done by contention, nor in vain glory. Instead, in humility, let each of you esteem others to be better than himself. ⁴Let each of you not consider anything to be your own, but rather to belong to others. ⁵For this understanding in you was also in Christ Jesus: ⁶who, though he was in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be seized.

¹When you sit down to eat with a leader, pay close attention to what has been set before your face, ²and put a knife to your throat, if, in such a way, you could hold your soul in your own power. ³Do not desire his foods, in which is the bread of deceit. ⁴Do not be willing to labor so that you may be enriched. But set limits by your prudence. ⁵Do not raise your eyes toward wealth that you are not able to have. For they will make themselves wings, like those of an eagle, and they will fly in the sky. ⁶Do not eat with an envious man, and do not desire his foods.

³⁶Thus says the Lord God: “Because your money has been poured out, and your disgrace has been uncovered, in your fornications with your lovers and with the idols of your abominations, in the blood of your sons, whom you gave to them: ³⁷Behold, I will gather all your lovers, with whom you have united, and all those whom you have loved, together with all those whom you have hated. And I will gather them together against you on every side. And I will uncover your disgrace before them, and they will see all your indecency. ³⁸And I will judge you with the judgment of adulteresses and of those who shed blood. And I will give you over to blood, in fury and in zeal.

¹³For you have possessed my temperament. You have supported me from the womb of my mother. ¹⁴I will confess to you, for you have been magnified terribly. Your works are miraculous, as my soul knows exceedingly well. ¹⁵My bone, which you have made in secret, has not been hidden from you, and my substance is in accord with the lower parts of the earth. ¹⁶Your eyes saw my imperfection, and all this shall be written in your book. Days will be formed, and no one shall be in them.

¹⁶She answered, “Do not be against me, as if I would abandon you and go away; for wherever you will go, I will go, and where you will stay, I also will stay with you. Your people are my people, and your God is my God.

³⁰For the sons of Judah have done evil in my eyes, says the Lord. They have stationed their abominations in the house where my name is invoked, so that they may defile it. ³¹And they have built the exalted places of Topheth, which is in the Valley of the son of Hinnom, so that they may burn their sons and their daughters with fire, something I neither instructed, nor thought in my heart. ³²For this reason, behold, the days will arrive, says the Lord, when it will no longer be called Topheth, nor the Valley of the son of Hinnom, but instead the Valley of Slaughter. Yet they will bury in Topheth, because there will be no other place. ³³And the corpses of this people will be food for the birds of the air and for the wild beasts of the land, and there will be no one to drive them away. ³⁴And from the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem, I will cause the cessation of the voice of gladness and the voice of rejoicing, the voice of the groom and the voice of the bride. For the land will be in utter desolation.”

¹²Let no one despise your youth, but be an example among the faithful in word, in behavior, in charity, in faith, in chastity.