Curated semantic-search results from the Bible and early Jewish and Christian writings.
These passages are drawn from a current, full-corpus deep search.
Top matching passages
Best matchRomans 14:11–22
2/10 · weak
11 It is written: “As surely as I live, says the Lord, every knee will bow before Me; every tongue will confess to God.” 12 So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God. 13 Therefore let us stop judging one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother’s way. 14 I am convinced and fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for him it is unclean. 15 If your brother is distressed by what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy your brother, for whom Christ died. 16 Do not allow what you consider good, then, to be spoken of as evil. 17 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. 18 For whoever serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by men. 19 So then, let us pursue what leads to peace and to mutual edification. 20 Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a man to let his eating be a stumbling block. 21 It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything to cause your brother to stumble. 22 Keep your belief about such matters between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who does not condemn himself by what he approves.
4 Maccabees 5:15–26
1/10 · weak
15 Having received permission to speak, he began to address the people as follows: (WEB) 16 “We, O Antiochus, who are persuaded that we live under a divine law, consider no compulsion to be so forcible as obedience to that law. (WEB) 17 Therefore we consider that we ought not to transgress the law in any way. (WEB) 18 Indeed, were our law (as you suppose) not truly divine, and if we wrongly think it divine, we would have no right even in that case to destroy our sense of religion. (WEB) 19 Don’t think that eating unclean meat is a trifling offense. (WEB) 20 For transgression of the law, whether in small or great matters, is of equal importance; (WEB) 21 for in either case the law is equally slighted. (WEB) 22 But you deride our philosophy, as though we lived in it irrationally. (WEB) 23 Yet it instructs us in self-control, so that we are superior to all pleasures and lusts; and it trains us in courage, so that we cheerfully undergo every grievance. (WEB) 24 It instructs us in justice, so that in all our dealings we give what is due. It teaches us piety, so that we properly worship the one and only God. (WEB) 25 That is why we don’t eat the unclean; for believing that the law was established by God, we are convinced that the Creator of the world, in giving his laws, sympathizes with our nature. (WEB) 26 Those things which are suitable for our souls, he has directed us to eat; but those which are not, he has forbidden. (WEB)
Sirach 4:22–28
2/10 · weak
22 Don’t show partiality, discrediting your soul. Don’t revere any man to your falling. (WEB) 23 Don’t refrain from speaking when it is for safety. Don’t hide your wisdom for the sake of seeming fair. (WEB) 24 For wisdom will be known by speech, and instruction by the word of the tongue. (WEB) 25 Don’t speak against the truth and be shamed for your ignorance. (WEB) 26 Don’t be ashamed to confess your sins. Don’t fight the river’s current. (WEB) 27 Don’t lay yourself down for a fool to tread upon. Don’t be partial to one who is mighty. (WEB) 28 Strive for the truth to death, and the Lord God will fight for you. (WEB)
Epistle to Diognetus 2:1
4/10 · fair
1 Come then, clear thyself of all the prepossessions which occupy thy mind, and throw off the habit which leadeth thee astray, and become a new man, as it were, from the beginning, as one who would listen to a new story, even as thou thyself didst confess. See not only with thine eyes, but with thine intellect also, of what substance or of what form they chance to be whom ye call and regard as gods. (DIO)
1 Thessalonians 5:20–21
2/10 · weak
20 Do not treat prophecies with contempt, 21 but test all things. Hold fast to what is good.
4 Maccabees 1:1–9
2/10 · weak
1 As I am going to demonstrate a most philosophical proposition, namely, that religious reasoning is absolute master of the emotions. I would willingly advise you to give the utmost heed to philosophy. (WEB) 2 For reason is necessary to everyone as a step to science. In addition, it embraces the praise of self-control, the highest virtue. (WEB) 3 If, then, reasoning appears to hold the mastery over the emotions which stand in the way of temperance, such as gluttony and lust, (WEB) 4 it surely also and manifestly rules over the affections which are contrary to justice, such as malice, and of those which are hindrances to courage, such as wrath, pain, and fear. (WEB) 5 Perhaps some may ask, “How is it, then, that reasoning, if it rules the emotions, isn’t also master of forgetfulness and ignorance?” They attempt a ridiculous argument. (WEB) 6 For reasoning does not rule over its own emotions, but over those that are contrary to justice, courage, temperance, and self-control; and yet over these, so as to withstand, without destroying them. (WEB) 7 I might prove to you from many other considerations, that religious reasoning is sole master of the emotions; (WEB) 8 but I will prove it with the greatest force from the fortitude of Eleazar, and seven kindred, and their mother, who suffered death in defense of virtue. (WEB) 9 For all these, treating pains with contempt even to death, by this contempt, demonstrated that reasoning has command over the emotion… (WEB)
4 Maccabees 5:8–11
3/10 · fair
8 It seems senseless not to enjoy what is pleasant, yet not disgraceful; and from notions of sinfulness, to reject the gifts of nature. (WEB) 9 You will be acting, I think, still more senselessly, if you follow vain conceits about the truth. (WEB) 10 You will, moreover, be despising me to your own punishment. (WEB) 11 Won’t you awake from your trifling philosophy, give up the folly of your notions, and regaining understanding worthy of your age, search into the truth of an expedient course? (WEB)
Testament of Naphtali 1:22–26
4/10 · fair
22 For if thou bid the eye to hear, it cannot; so neither while ye are in darkness can ye do the works of light. (T12) 23 Be ye, therefore, not eager to corrupt your doings through covetousness or with vain words to beguile your souls; because if ye keep silence in purity of heart, ye shall understand how to hold fast the will of God, and to cast away the will of Beliar. (T12) 24 Sun and moon and stars, change not their order; so do ye also change not the law of God in the disorderliness of your doings. (T12) 25 The Gentiles went astray, and forsook the Lord, and charged their order, and obeyed stocks and stones, spirits of deceit. (T12) 26 But ye shall not be so, my children, recognizing in the firmament, in the earth, and in the sea, and in all created things, the Lord who made all things, that ye become not as Sodom, which changed the order of nature. (T12)
4 Maccabees 7:12–22
1/10 · weak
12 so, Eleazar, the descendant of Aaron, wasted away by the fire, didn’t give up his reasoning. (WEB) 13 What is most wonderful is that though he was an old man, though the labors of his body were now spent, his muscles were relaxed, and his sinews worn out, he recovered youth. (WEB) 14 By the spirit of reasoning, and the reasoning of Isaac, he rendered powerless the many-headed rack. (WEB) 15 O blessed old age, and reverend hoar head, and life obedient to the law, which the faithful seal of death perfected. (WEB) 16 If, then, an old man, through religion, despised tortures even to death, then certainly religious reasoning is ruler of the emotions. (WEB) 17 But perhaps some might say, “It is not all who conquer emotions, as not all possess wise reasoning.” (WEB) 18 But those who have meditated upon religion with their whole heart, these alone can master the emotions of the flesh: (WEB) 19 they who believe that to God they don’t die; for, as our forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, they live to God. (WEB) 20 This circumstance, then, is by no means an objection, that some who have weak reasoning are governed by their emotions, (WEB) 21 since what person, walking religiously by the whole rule of philosophy, and believing in God, (WEB) 22 and knowing that it is a blessed thing to endure all kinds of hardships for virtue, would not, for the sake of religion, master his emotion? (WEB)
Romans 12:1–3
2/10 · weak
1 Therefore I urge you, brothers, on account of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God. 3 For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but think of yourself with sober judgment, according to the measure of faith God has given you.