At the same time they will also learn to be idle, going from house to house and being not only idle, but also gossips and busybodies, discussing things they should not mention.

and to aspire to live quietly, to attend to your own matters, and to work with your own hands, as we instructed you.

Yet we hear that some of you are leading undisciplined lives and accomplishing nothing but being busybodies.

Indeed, none of you should suffer as a murderer or thief or wrongdoer, or even as a meddler.

It is honorable for a man to resolve a dispute, but any fool will quarrel.

You must not go about spreading slander among your people. You must not endanger the life of your neighbor. I am the LORD.

Older women, likewise, are to be reverent in their behavior, not slanderers or addicted to much wine, but teachers of good.

If anyone does not provide for his own, and especially his own household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

Now we command you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to keep away from any brother who leads an undisciplined life that is not in keeping with the tradition you received from us.

We command and urge such people by our Lord Jesus Christ to begin working quietly to earn their own living.

for their hearts devise violence, and their lips declare trouble.

Husbands, in the same way, treat your wives with consideration as a delicate vessel, and with honor as fellow heirs of the gracious gift of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered.

Be imitators of God, therefore, as beloved children, and walk in love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant sacrificial offering to God. But among you, as is proper among the saints, there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed. Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk, or crude joking, which are out of character, but rather thanksgiving. For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure, or greedy person (that is, an idolater), has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. . . .

Jesus answered them, “Isaiah prophesied correctly about you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me.

The words of a gossip are like choice morsels that go down into the inmost being.

Whoever is slothful in his work is brother to him who destroys.

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for instruction, for conviction, for correction, and for training in righteousness,

If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, regard him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.

Every word of God is flawless; He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him.

Take note of anyone who does not obey the instructions we have given in this letter. Do not associate with him, so that he may be ashamed.

“Everything is permissible for me,” but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible for me,” but I will not be mastered by anything.

The slacker does not plow in season; at harvest time he looks, but nothing is there.

To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn.

Now the Bereans were more noble-minded than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if these teachings were true.

Hear now, O Israel, the statutes and ordinances I am teaching you to follow, so that you may live and may enter and take possession of the land that the LORD, the God of your fathers, is giving you. You must not add to or subtract from what I command you, so that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God that I am giving you. Your eyes have seen what the LORD did at Baal-peor, for the LORD your God destroyed from among you all who followed Baal of Peor. But you who held fast to the LORD your God are alive to this day, every one of you. See, I have taught you statutes and ordinances just as the LORD my God has commanded me, so that you may follow them in the land that you are about to enter and possess. . . .

No, I tell you. But unless you repent, you too will all perish.

In everything, then, do to others as you would have them do to you. For this is the essence of the Law and the Prophets.

The slacker craves yet has nothing, but the soul of the diligent is fully satisfied.

Seldom set foot in your neighbor’s house, lest he grow weary and hate you.

Consequently, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Now about the collection for the saints, you are to do as I directed the churches of Galatia:

For the Scripture says, “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain,” and, “The worker is worthy of his wages.”

Selling their possessions and goods, they shared with anyone who was in need.

See that you do everything I command you; do not add to it or subtract from it.

There are many more things that Jesus did. If all of them were written down, I suppose that not even the world itself would have space for the books that would be written.

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

On the first day of the week we came together to break bread. Since Paul was ready to leave the next day, he talked to them and kept on speaking until midnight.

To the woman He said: “I will sharply increase your pain in childbirth; in pain you will bring forth children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”

James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes of the Dispersion: Greetings. Consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you encounter trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Allow perseverance to finish its work, so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. . . .

Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs You are doing if God were not with him.” Jesus replied, “Truly, truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.” “How can a man be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked. “Can he enter his mother’s womb a second time to be born?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. . . .

Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.

that if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.

Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book.