How terrible for the world that there are things that make people lose their faith! Such things will always happen---but how terrible for the one who causes them!

Jesus said to his disciples, "Things that make people fall into sin are bound to happen, but how terrible for the one who makes them happen!

The time will come when some men from your own group will tell lies to lead the believers away after them.

The Spirit says clearly that some people will abandon the faith in later times; they will obey lying spirits and follow the teachings of demons.

Such teachings are spread by deceitful liars, whose consciences are dead, as if burnt with a hot iron.

False prophets appeared in the past among the people, and in the same way false teachers will appear among you. They will bring in destructive, untrue doctrines, and will deny the Master who redeemed them, and so they will bring upon themselves sudden destruction.

Even so, many will follow their immoral ways; and because of what they do, others will speak evil of the Way of truth.

Then the High Priest and all his companions, members of the local party of the Sadducees, became extremely jealous of the apostles; so they decided to take action.

But some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, "The Gentiles must be circumcised and told to obey the Law of Moses."

We found this man to be a dangerous nuisance; he starts riots among Jews all over the world and is a leader of the party of the Nazarenes.

I do admit this to you: I worship the God of our ancestors by following that Way which they say is false. But I also believe in everything written in the Law of Moses and the books of the prophets.

They have always known, if they are willing to testify, that from the very first I have lived as a member of the strictest party of our religion, the Pharisees.

But we would like to hear your ideas, because we know that everywhere people speak against this party to which you belong."

in worship of idols and witchcraft. People become enemies and they fight; they become jealous, angry, and ambitious. They separate into parties and groups;

Give at least two warnings to those who cause divisions, and then have nothing more to do with them.

do not pay any attention to them. The LORD your God is using them to test you, to see if you love the LORD with all your heart.

and so reveal their secret thoughts. And sorrow, like a sharp sword, will break your own heart."

Put yourselves to the test and judge yourselves, to find out whether you are living in faith. Surely you know that Christ Jesus is in you?---unless you have completely failed.

We pray to God that you will do no wrong---not in order to show that we are a success, but so that you may do what is right, even though we may seem to be failures.

These people really did not belong to our fellowship, and that is why they left us; if they had belonged to our fellowship, they would have stayed with us. But they left so that it might be clear that none of them really belonged to us.