A reliable messenger is refreshing to the one who sends him, like cold water in the heat of harvest time.

Singing to a person who is depressed is like taking off a person's clothes on a cold day or like rubbing salt in a wound.

And then they say to others, 'Keep away from us; we are too holy for you to touch!' I cannot stand people like that---my anger against them is like a fire that never goes out.

'You bad and lazy servant!' his master said. 'You knew, did you, that I reap harvests where I did not plant, and gather crops where I did not scatter seed?

Work hard and do not be lazy. Serve the Lord with a heart full of devotion.

We do not want you to become lazy, but to be like those who believe and are patient, and so receive what God has promised.