Proverbs 1; Proverbs 2; Philippians 3

Proverbs 1

1 The proverbs of Solomon, son of David and king of Israel.

2 Here are proverbs that will help you recognize wisdom and good advice, and understand sayings with deep meaning.

3 They can teach you how to live intelligently and how to be honest, just, and fair.

4 They can make an inexperienced person clever and teach young people how to be resourceful.

5 These proverbs can even add to the knowledge of the wise and give guidance to the educated,

6 so that they can understand the hidden meanings of proverbs and the problems that the wise raise.

7 To have knowledge, you must first have reverence for the Lord. Stupid people have no respect for wisdom and refuse to learn.

8 My child, pay attention to what your father and mother tell you.

9 Their teaching will improve your character as a handsome turban or a necklace improves your appearance.

10 My child, when sinners tempt you, don't give in.

11 Suppose they say, "Come on; let's find someone to kill! Let's attack some innocent people for the fun of it!

12 They may be alive and well when we find them, but they'll be dead when we're through with them!

13 We'll find all kinds of riches and fill our houses with loot!

14 Come and join us, and we'll all share what we steal."

15 My child, don't go with people like that. Stay away from them.

16 They can't wait to do something bad. They're always ready to kill.

17 It does no good to spread a net when the bird you want to catch is watching,

18 but people like that are setting a trap for themselves, a trap in which they will die.

19 Robbery always claims the life of the robber - this is what happens to anyone who lives by violence.

20 Listen! Wisdom is calling out in the streets and marketplaces,

21 calling loudly at the city gates and wherever people come together:

22 "Foolish people! How long do you want to be foolish? How long will you enjoy making fun of knowledge? Will you never learn?

23 Listen when I reprimand you; I will give you good advice and share my knowledge with you.

24 I have been calling you, inviting you to come, but you would not listen. You paid no attention to me.

25 You have ignored all my advice and have not been willing to let me correct you.

26 So when you get into trouble, I will laugh at you. I will make fun of you when terror strikes -

27 when it comes on you like a storm, bringing fierce winds of trouble, and you are in pain and misery.

28 Then you will call for wisdom, but I will not answer. You may look for me everywhere, but you will not find me.

29 You have never had any use for knowledge and have always refused to obey the Lord.

30 You have never wanted my advice or paid any attention when I corrected you.

31 So then, you will get what you deserve, and your own actions will make you sick.

32 Inexperienced people die because they reject wisdom. Stupid people are destroyed by their own lack of concern.

33 But whoever listens to me will have security. He will be safe, with no reason to be afraid."

Proverbs 2

1 My child, learn what I teach you and never forget what I tell you to do.

2 Listen to what is wise and try to understand it.

3 Yes, beg for knowledge; plead for insight.

4 Look for it as hard as you would for silver or some hidden treasure.

5 If you do, you will know what it means to fear the Lord and you will succeed in learning about God.

6 It is the Lord who gives wisdom; from him come knowledge and understanding.

7 He provides help and protection for those who are righteous and honest.

8 He protects those who treat others fairly, and guards those who are devoted to him.

9 If you listen to me, you will know what is right, just, and fair. You will know what you should do.

10 You will become wise, and your knowledge will give you pleasure.

11 Your insight and understanding will protect you

12 and prevent you from doing the wrong thing. They will keep you away from people who stir up trouble by what they say -

13 those who have abandoned a righteous life to live in the darkness of sin,

14 those who find pleasure in doing wrong and who enjoy senseless evil,

15 unreliable people who cannot be trusted.

16 You will be able to resist any immoral woman who tries to seduce you with her smooth talk,

17 who is faithless to her own husband and forgets her sacred vows.

18 If you go to her house, you are traveling the road to death. To go there is to approach the world of the dead.

19 No one who visits her ever comes back. He never returns to the road to life.

20 So you must follow the example of good people and live a righteous life.

21 Righteous people - people of integrity - will live in this land of ours.

22 But God will snatch the wicked from the land and pull sinners out of it like plants from the ground.

Philippians 3

1 In conclusion, my friends, be joyful in your union with the Lord. I don't mind repeating what I have written before, and you will be safer if I do so.

2 Watch out for those who do evil things, those dogs, those who insist on cutting the body.

3 It is we, not they, who have received the true circumcision, for we worship God by means of his Spirit and rejoice in our life in union with Christ Jesus. We do not put any trust in external ceremonies.

4 I could, of course, put my trust in such things. If any of you think you can trust in external ceremonies, I have even more reason to feel that way.

5 I was circumcised when I was a week old. I am an Israelite by birth, of the tribe of Benjamin, a pure-blooded Hebrew. As far as keeping the Jewish Law is concerned, I was a Pharisee,

6 and I was so zealous that I persecuted the church. As far as a person can be righteous by obeying the commands of the Law, I was without fault.

7 But all those things that I might count as profit I now reckon as loss for Christ's sake.

8 Not only those things; I reckon everything as complete loss for the sake of what is so much more valuable, the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have thrown everything away; I consider it all as mere garbage, so that I may gain Christ

9 and be completely united with him. I no longer have a righteousness of my own, the kind that is gained by obeying the Law. I now have the righteousness that is given through faith in Christ, the righteousness that comes from God and is based on faith.

10 All I want is to know Christ and to experience the power of his resurrection, to share in his sufferings and become like him in his death,

11 in the hope that I myself will be raised from death to life.

12 I do not claim that I have already succeeded or have already become perfect. I keep striving to win the prize for which Christ Jesus has already won me to himself.

13 Of course, my friends, I really do not think that I have already won it; the one thing I do, however, is to forget what is behind me and do my best to reach what is ahead.

14 So I run straight toward the goal in order to win the prize, which is God's call through Christ Jesus to the life above.

15 All of us who are spiritually mature should have this same attitude. But if some of you have a different attitude, God will make this clear to you.

16 However that may be, let us go forward according to the same rules we have followed until now.

17 Keep on imitating me, my friends. Pay attention to those who follow the right example that we have set for you.

18 I have told you this many times before, and now I repeat it with tears: there are many whose lives make them enemies of Christ's death on the cross.

19 They are going to end up in hell, because their god is their bodily desires. They are proud of what they should be ashamed of, and they think only of things that belong to this world.

20 We, however, are citizens of heaven, and we eagerly wait for our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, to come from heaven.

21 He will change our weak mortal bodies and make them like his own glorious body, using that power by which he is able to bring all things under his rule.