1. 1.11:
All people, even their torturers, marveled at their courage and
endurance, and they became the cause of the downfall of tyranny over
their nation. By their endurance they conquered the tyrant, and thus
their native land was purified through them.
Jas
1.3: because you know that the testing of your faith produces
endurance
2. 1.26: In
the soul it is boastfulness, covetousness, thirst for honor,
rivalry, and malice;
Rom
1.29-31: They were filled with every kind of wickedness, evil,
covetousness, malice. Full of envy, murder, strife, deceit,
craftiness, they are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent,
haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, rebellious toward parents,
foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.
3. 2.5-6:
Thus the law says, "You shall not covet your neighbor's wife or
anything that is your neighbor's." In fact, since the law has told
us not to covet, I could prove to you all the more that reason is
able to control desires. Just so it is with the emotions that hinder
one from justice.
Rom
7.7: What then should we say? That the law is sin? By no means!
Yet, if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. I
would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said,
"You shall not covet."
4. 2.6: In
fact, since the law has told us not to covet, I could prove to you
all the more that reason is able to control desires. Just so it is
with the emotions that hinder one from justice.
Rom
13.9: The commandments, "You shall not commit adultery; You shall
not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet"; and any other
commandment, are summed up in this word, "Love your neighbor as
yourself."
5. 2.15: It
is evident that reason rules even the more violent emotions: lust
for power, vainglory, boasting, arrogance, and malice.
Rom
1.29-31: They were filled with every kind of wickedness, evil,
covetousness, malice. Full of envy, murder, strife, deceit,
craftiness, they are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent,
haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, rebellious toward parents,
foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.
6. 3.13-19:
Eluding the sentinels at the gates, they went searching throughout
the enemy camp and found the spring, and from it boldly brought the
king a drink. But David, though he was burning with thirst,
considered it an altogether fearful danger to his soul to drink what
was regarded as equivalent to blood. Therefore, opposing reason to
desire, he poured out the drink as an offering to God. For the
temperate mind can conquer the drives of the emotions and quench the
flames of frenzied desires; it can overthrow bodily agonies even
when they are extreme, and by nobility of reason spurn all
domination by the emotions.
The
present occasion now invites us to a narrative demonstration of
temperate reason.
Lk
6.12: Now during those days he went out to the mountain to pray; and
he spent the night in prayer to God.
7. 4.1-14:
Now there was a certain Simon, a political opponent of the noble and
good man, Onias, who then held the high priesthood for life. When
despite all manner of slander he was unable to injure Onias in the
eyes of the nation, he fled the country with the purpose of
betraying it. So he came to Apollonius, governor of Syria,
Phoenicia, and Cilicia, and said, "I have come here because I am
loyal to the king's government, to report that in the Jerusalem
treasuries there are deposited tens of thousands in private funds,
which are not the property of the temple but belong to King
Seleucus." When Apollonius learned the details of these things, he
praised Simon for his service to the king and went up to Seleucus to
inform him of the rich treasure. On receiving authority to deal
with this matter, he proceeded quickly to our country accompanied by
the accursed Simon and a very strong military force. He said that
he had come with the king's authority to seize the private funds in
the treasury. The people indignantly protested his words,
considering it outrageous that those who had committed deposits to
the sacred treasury should be deprived of them, and did all that
they could to prevent it. But, uttering threats, Apollonius went on
to the temple. While the priests together with women and children
were imploring God in the temple to shield the holy place that was
being treated so contemptuously, and while Apollonius was going up
with his armed forces to seize the money, angels on horseback with
lightning flashing from their weapons appeared from heaven,
instilling in them great fear and trembling. Then Apollonius fell
down half dead in the temple area that was open to all, stretched
out his hands toward heaven, and with tears begged the Hebrews to
pray for him and propitiate the wrath of the heavenly army. For he
said that he had committed a sin deserving of death, and that if he
were spared he would praise the blessedness of the holy place before
all people. Moved by these words, the high priest Onias, although
otherwise he had scruples about doing so, prayed for him so that
King Seleucus would not suppose that Apollonius had been overcome by
human treachery and not by divine justice. So Apollonius, having
been saved beyond all expectations, went away to report to the king
what had happened to him.
Ac
9.1-29: Meanwhile Saul, still breathing threats and murder against
the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for
letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any who
belonged to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to
Jerusalem. Now as he was going along and approaching Damascus,
suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the
ground and heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why do you
persecute me?" He asked, "Who are you, Lord?" The reply came, "I am
Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But get up and enter the city, and
you will be told what you are to do." The men who were traveling
with him stood speechless because they heard the voice but saw no
one. Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he
could see nothing; so they led him by the hand and brought him into
Damascus. For three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor
drank. Now there was a disciple in Damascus named Ananias. The Lord
said to him in a vision, "Ananias." He answered, "Here I am, Lord."
The Lord said to him, "Get up and go to the street called Straight,
and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul. At
this moment he is praying, and he has seen in a vision a man named
Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his
sight." But Ananias answered, "Lord, I have heard from many about
this man, how much evil he has done to your saints in Jerusalem; and
here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who invoke
your name." But the Lord said to him, "Go, for he is an instrument
whom I have chosen to bring my name before Gentiles and kings and
before the people of Israel; I myself will show him how much he must
suffer for the sake of my name." So Ananias went and entered the
house. He laid his hands on Saul and said, "Brother Saul, the Lord
Jesus, who appeared to you on your way here, has sent me so that you
may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit." And
immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and his sight
was restored. Then he got up and was baptized, and after taking some
food, he regained his strength. For several days he was with the
disciples in Damascus, and immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in
the synagogues, saying, "He is the Son of God." All who heard him
were amazed and said, "Is not this the man who made havoc in
Jerusalem among those who invoked this name? And has he not come
here for the purpose of bringing them bound before the chief
priests?" Saul became increasingly more powerful and confounded the
Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Messiah.
After some time had passed, the Jews plotted to kill him, but their
plot became known to Saul. They were watching the gates day and
night so that they might kill him; but his disciples took him by
night and let him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him
in a basket. When he had come to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the
disciples; and they were all afraid of him, for they did not believe
that he was a disciple. But Barnabas took him, brought him to the
apostles, and described for them how on the road he had seen the
Lord, who had spoken to him, and how in Damascus he had spoken
boldly in the name of Jesus. So he went in and out among them in
Jerusalem, speaking boldly in the name of the Lord. He spoke and
argued with the Hellenists; but they were attempting to kill him.
8. 5.2:
ordered the guards to seize each and every Hebrew and to compel them
to eat pork and food sacrificed to idols.
Ac
15.29: that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols and
from blood and from what is strangled F118 and from fornication. If
you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.
9. 6.31:
Admittedly, then, devout reason is sovereign over the emotions.
1Tim
3.16: Without any doubt, the mystery of our religion is great: He
was revealed in flesh, vindicated in spirit, seen by angels,
proclaimed among Gentiles, believed in throughout the world, taken
up in glory.
10. 7.8:
Such should be those who are administrators of the law, shielding it
with their own blood and noble sweat in sufferings even to death.
Rom
15.16: to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the
priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering of the
Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.
11. 7.16:
If, therefore, because of piety an aged man despised tortures even
to death, most certainly devout reason is governor of the emotions.
1Tim
3.16: Without any doubt, the mystery of our religion is great: He
was revealed in flesh, vindicated in spirit, seen by angels,
proclaimed among Gentiles, believed in throughout the world, taken
up in glory.
12. 7.19:
since they believe that they, like our patriarchs Abraham and Isaac
and Jacob, do not die to God, but live to God.
Mt
23.32: "I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of
Jacob'? He is God not of the dead, but of the living."
Lk
20.37-38: And the fact that the dead are raised Moses himself
showed, in the story about the bush, where he speaks of the Lord as
the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Now he
is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them
are alive."
13. 9.8: For
we, through this severe suffering and endurance, shall have the
prize of virtue and shall be with God, on whose account we suffer;
Jas
5.10: As an example of suffering and patience, beloved, take the
prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.
14. 12.13:
As a man, were you not ashamed, you most savage beast, to cut out
the tongues of men who have feelings like yours and are made of the
same elements as you, and to maltreat and torture them in this way?
Ac
14.15: "Friends, why are you doing this? We are mortals just like
you, and we bring you good news, that you should turn from these
worthless things to the living God, who made the heaven and the
earth and the sea and all that is in them.
15. 12.17:
and I call on the God of our ancestors to be merciful to our nation
Ac
24.14: But this I admit to you, that according to the Way, which
they call a sect, I worship the God of our ancestors, believing
everything laid down according to the law or written in the
prophets.
16. 13.14:
Let us not fear him who thinks he is killing us
Mt
10.28: Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul;
rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
17. 13.15:
for great is the struggle of the soul and the danger of eternal
torment lying before those who transgress the commandment of God.
Lk
16.23: In Hades, where he was being tormented, he looked up and saw
Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side.
18. 13.17:
For if we so die, Abraham and Isaac and Jacob will welcome us, and
all the fathers will praise us.
Mt
8.11: I tell you, many will come from east and west and will eat
with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven,
19. 15.2:
Two courses were open to this mother, that of religion, and that of
preserving her seven sons for a time, as the tyrant had promised.
Heb
11.25: choosing rather to share ill-treatment with the people of God
than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.
20. 15.7:
and because of the many pains she suffered with each of them she had
sympathy for them
Jas
1.4: and let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be
mature and complete, lacking in nothing.
21. 15.8:
yet because of the fear of God she disdained the temporary safety of
her children
Heb
11.25: choosing rather to share ill-treatment with the people of God
than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.
22. 16.1:
If, then, a woman, advanced in years and mother of seven sons,
endured seeing her children tortured to death, it must be admitted
that devout reason is sovereign over the emotions.
1Tim
3.16: Without any doubt, the mystery of our religion is great: He
was revealed in flesh, vindicated in spirit, seen by angels,
proclaimed among Gentiles, believed in throughout the world, taken
up in glory.
23. 16.12:
Yet that holy and God-fearing mother did not wail with such a lament
for any of them, nor did she dissuade any of them from dying, nor
did she grieve as they were dying.
1Th
1.8: For the word of the Lord has sounded forth from you not only in
Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place your faith in God has
become known, so that we have no need to speak about it.
24. 16.16:
My sons, noble is the contest to which you are called to bear
witness for the nation. Fight zealously for our ancestral law.
Heb
12.1: Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of
witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that
clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is
set before us,
25. 16.25:
They knew also that those who die for the sake of God live to God,
as do Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the patriarchs.
Mt
23.32: "I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of
Jacob'? He is God not of the dead, but of the living."
Lk
20.37(*-38): And the fact that the dead are raised Moses himself
showed, in the story about the bush, where he speaks of the Lord as
the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Now he
is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them
are alive."
26. 17.4:
Take courage, therefore, O holy-minded mother, maintaining firm an
enduring hope in God.
1Th
1.3: remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and
labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
27.
17.10-15: They vindicated their nation, looking to God and enduring
torture even to death." Truly the contest in which they were
engaged was divine, for on that day virtue gave the awards and
tested them for their endurance. The prize was immortality in
endless life. Eleazar was the first contestant, the mother of the
seven sons entered the competition, and the brothers contended. The
tyrant was the antagonist, and the world and the human race were the
spectators. Reverence for God was victor and gave the crown to its
own athletes.
Heb
12.1: Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of
witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that
clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is
set before us,
28. 17.20:
These, then, who have been consecrated for the sake of God, are
honored, not only with this honor, but also by the fact that because
of them our enemies did not rule over our nation,
Jn
12.26: Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will
my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor.
29. 18.24:
to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
Rom
16.27: to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the
glory forever! Amen.
Gal
1.5: to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.