Some Pharisees saw this and asked his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with such people?"

Some Pharisees and some teachers of the Law who belonged to their group complained to Jesus' disciples. "Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and other outcasts?" they asked.

When the Pharisee saw this, he said to himself, "If this man really were a prophet, he would know who this woman is who is touching him; he would know what kind of sinful life she lives!"

the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law started grumbling, "This man welcomes outcasts and even eats with them!"

The older brother was so angry that he would not go into the house; so his father came out and begged him to come in.

But this son of yours wasted all your property on prostitutes, and when he comes back home, you kill the prize calf for him!'

Jesus also told this parable to people who were sure of their own goodness and despised everybody else.

The Pharisee stood apart by himself and prayed, 'I thank you, God, that I am not greedy, dishonest, or an adulterer, like everybody else. I thank you that I am not like that tax collector over there.

'Go,' the Lord said to me, 'for I will send you far away to the Gentiles.' "

The people listened to Paul until he said this; but then they started shouting at the top of their voices, "Away with him! Kill him! He's not fit to live!"

What about you? You call yourself a Jew; you depend on the Law and boast about God;

you are sure that you are a guide for the blind, a light for those who are in darkness,

You teach others---why don't you teach yourself ? You preach, "Do not steal"---but do you yourself steal?

You boast about having God's law---but do you bring shame on God by breaking his law?

If you obey the Law, your circumcision is of value; but if you disobey the Law, you might as well never have been circumcised.

And so you Jews will be condemned by the Gentiles because you break the Law, even though you have it written down and are circumcised; but they obey the Law, even though they are not physically circumcised.

Rather, the real Jew is the person who is a Jew on the inside, that is, whose heart has been circumcised, and this is the work of God's Spirit, not of the written Law. Such a person receives praise from God, not from human beings.

These are the people who cause divisions, who are controlled by their natural desires, who do not have the Spirit.

There are seven things that the LORD hates and cannot tolerate: A proud look, a lying tongue, hands that kill innocent people, a mind that thinks up wicked plans, feet that hurry off to do evil, a witness who tells one lie after another, and someone who stirs up trouble among friends.

(SEE 6:16)

Never get a lazy person to do something for you; he will be as irritating as vinegar on your teeth or smoke in your eyes.

The LORD hates everyone who is arrogant; he will never let them escape punishment.

But the grace that God gives is even stronger. As the scripture says, "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble."

In the same way you younger people must submit yourselves to your elders. And all of you must put on the apron of humility, to serve one another; for the scripture says, "God resists the proud, but shows favor to the humble."

The LORD will not forgive such a man. Instead, the LORD's burning anger will flame up against him, and all the disasters written in this book will fall on him until the LORD has destroyed him completely.

'I will no longer help them,' he said; 'then I will see what happens to them, those stubborn, unfaithful people.

My anger will flame up like fire and burn everything on earth. It will reach to the world below and consume the roots of the mountains.