Page 422 - Pleasant Words from the Gospe
P. 422

Pleasant Words from the Gospel






                  bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A

                  good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot
                                  
                  bear good fruit.  Every tree that does not bear good
                                                         
                  fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.  Thus, by their
                  fruit you will recognize them. (Matthew, 7:15 -20)




                   They Do Not Completely Renounce
                   the Life of the Society of Ignorance


                  They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of
                  depravity—for a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him. If
                  they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing... Je-
                  sus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are
                  worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. It would
                  have been better for them not to have known the way of right-
                  eousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on
                  the sacred command [God's commandments] that was passed on
                  to them.  Of them the proverbs are true: ... "A sow that is washed
                           
                  goes back to her wallowing in the mud." ( 2 Peter, 2:19-20)

                  ... You must not associate with anyone who calls himself a
                  brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slan-

                  derer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even
                  eat.   What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church?
                  Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside.
                  "Expel the wicked man from among you." (1 Corinthians, 5:11-13)

                  ... They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their pleasures while
                  they feast with you. With eyes full of adultery, they never stop
                  sinning; they seduce the unstable; they are experts in greed—an
                  accursed brood! (2 Peter, 2:13-14)





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