Motives

If you do what is right, won’t you be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.”

But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or his stature because I have rejected him. Humans do not see what the LORD sees, for humans see what is visible, but the LORD sees the heart.”

All a person’s ways seem right to him, but the LORD weighs motives.

All a person’s ways seem right to him, but the LORD weighs hearts.

When all has been heard, the conclusion of the matter is this: fear God and keep his commands, because this is for all humanity.

For God will bring every act to judgment, including every hidden thing, whether good or evil.

“Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. Otherwise, you have no reward with your Father in heaven.

So whenever you give to the poor, don’t sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be applauded by people. Truly I tell you, they have their reward.

But when you give to the poor, don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,

so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

“Whenever you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites, because they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by people. Truly I tell you, they have their reward.

But when you pray, go into your private room, shut your door, and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

When you pray, don’t babble like the Gentiles, since they imagine they’ll be heard for their many words.

Don’t be like them, because your Father knows the things you need before you ask him.

“Therefore, you should pray like this: Our Father in heaven, your name be honored as holy.

Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us today our daily bread.

And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

And do not bring us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

“For if you forgive others their offenses, your heavenly Father will forgive you as well.

But if you don’t forgive others, your Father will not forgive your offenses.

“Whenever you fast, don’t be gloomy like the hypocrites. For they make their faces unattractive so that their fasting is obvious to people. Truly I tell you, they have their reward.

But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face,

so that your fasting isn’t obvious to others but to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

So don’t judge anything prematurely, before the Lord comes, who will both bring to light what is hidden in darkness and reveal the intentions of the hearts. And then praise will come to each one from God.

For am I now trying to persuade people, or God? Or am I striving to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility consider others as more important than yourselves.

And whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Instead, just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please people, but rather God, who examines our hearts.

Now the goal of our instruction is love that comes from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith.

What is the source of wars and fights among you? Don’t they come from your passions that wage war within you?

You desire and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and wage war. You do not have because you do not ask.

You ask and don’t receive because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.

You adulterous people! Don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? So whoever wants to be the friend of the world becomes the enemy of God.

Or do you think it’s without reason that the Scripture says: The spirit he made to dwell in us envies intensely?

But he gives greater grace. Therefore he says: God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

Therefore, submit to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

Be miserable and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.

Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

Don’t criticize one another, brothers and sisters. Anyone who defames or judges a fellow believer defames and judges the law. If you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.

There is one lawgiver and judge who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will travel to such and such a city and spend a year there and do business and make a profit.”

Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring — what your life will be! For you are like vapor that appears for a little while, then vanishes.

Instead, you should say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”

But as it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.

So it is sin to know the good and yet not do it.

unlike Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his deeds were evil, and his brother’s were righteous.

Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see if they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.