His disciples asked him, "Teacher, whose sin caused him to be born blind? Was it his own or his parents' sin?"

You are doing what your father did." "God himself is the only Father we have," they answered, "and we are his true children."

Nothing clean can ever come from anything as unclean as human beings.

Can any human being be really pure? Can anyone be right with God?

And we drink evil as if it were water; yes, we are corrupt; we are worthless.

Can anyone be righteous or pure in God's sight?

I have been evil from the day I was born; from the time I was conceived, I have been sinful.

Indeed, we are Jews by birth and not "Gentile sinners," as they are called.

Actually all of us were like them and lived according to our natural desires, doing whatever suited the wishes of our own bodies and minds. In our natural condition we, like everyone else, were destined to suffer God's anger.

Some Pharisees who were there with him heard him say this and asked him, "Surely you don't mean that we are blind, too?"

"Have you ever known one of the authorities or one Pharisee to believe in him?

This crowd does not know the Law of Moses, so they are under God's curse!"

But they said, "Get out of our way, you foreigner! Who are you to tell us what to do? Out of our way, or we will treat you worse than them." They pushed Lot back and moved up to break down the door.

The man answered, "Who made you our ruler and judge? Are you going to kill me just as you killed that Egyptian?" Then Moses was afraid and said to himself, "People have found out what I have done."

"Since when," Amaziah interrupted, "have we made you adviser to the king? Stop talking, or I'll have you killed!" The prophet stopped, but not before saying, "Now I know that God has decided to destroy you because you have done all this and have ignored my advice."

If you correct conceited people, you will only be insulted. If you reprimand evil people, you will only get hurt.

Never correct conceited people; they will hate you for it. But if you correct the wise, they will respect you.

The most stupid fool is better off than those who think they are wise when they are not.

If you get more stubborn every time you are corrected, one day you will be crushed and never recover.

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.

One of the teachers of the Law said to him, "Teacher, when you say this, you insult us too!"

For those who make themselves great will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be made great."

"Once there were two men who went up to the Temple to pray: one was a Pharisee, the other a tax collector.

I fast two days a week, and I give you one tenth of all my income.'

I tell you," said Jesus, "the tax collector, and not the Pharisee, was in the right with God when he went home. For those who make themselves great will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be made great."

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."

His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jewish authorities, who had already agreed that anyone who said he believed that Jesus was the Messiah would be expelled from the synagogue.

Everyone whom my Father gives me will come to me. I will never turn away anyone who comes to me,

Get rid of a conceited person, and then there will be no more arguments, quarreling, or name-calling.

Listen to what the LORD says, you that fear him and obey him: "Because you are faithful to me, some of your own people hate you and will have nothing to do with you. They mock you and say, 'Let the LORD show his greatness and save you, so that we may see you rejoice.' But they themselves will be disgraced!

"Happy are you when people hate you, reject you, insult you, and say that you are evil, all because of the Son of Man!

I wrote a short letter to the church; but Diotrephes, who likes to be their leader, will not pay any attention to what I say.

No one could buy or sell without this mark, that is, the beast's name or the number that stands for the name.

And if he will not listen to them, then tell the whole thing to the church. Finally, if he will not listen to the church, treat him as though he were a pagan or a tax collector.

"And so I tell all of you: what you prohibit on earth will be prohibited in heaven, and what you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven.

(SEE 5:3)

you are to hand this man over to Satan for his body to be destroyed, so that his spirit may be saved in the Day of the Lord.

(SEE 5:12)