Scriptures referenced in
Is Religion Confusing?
Ephesians 5:25-33
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for
her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and
to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other
blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives
as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever
hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church
-- for we are members of his body. "For this reason a man will leave his father
and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh." This
is a profound mystery -- but I am talking about Christ and the church. However, each
one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect
her husband. (NIV)
Galatians 5:22-23
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. (NIV)
2 Corinthians 4:4
The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see
the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. (NIV)
Ephesians 2:1-2
As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live
when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air,
the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. (NIV)
Colossians 1:27
To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this
mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. (NIV)

1 Corinthians 1:18-2:16
For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us
who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: "I will destroy
the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate."
Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age?
Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God
the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness
of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand miraculous signs and
Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews
and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks,
Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser
than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength.
Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise
by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But
God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things
of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the
despised things -- and the things that are not -- to nullify the things that are,
so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ
Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God -- that is, our righteousness, holiness
and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: "Let him who boasts boast in the
Lord."
When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as
I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while
I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness and
fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and
persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith
might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power.
We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of
this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. No, we speak of
God's secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our
glory before time began. None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they
had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. However, as it is written: "No
eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those
who love him" -- but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.
The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who among men knows
the thoughts of a man except the man's spirit within him? In the same way no one
knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the spirit
of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has
freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but
in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. The
man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God,
for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are
spiritually discerned. The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he
himself is not subject to any man's judgment: "For who has known the mind of
the Lord that he may instruct him?" But we have the mind of Christ. (NIV)
Hebrews 11:6
And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him
must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. (NIV)

1 Corinthians 12:12-27
The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts
are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one
Spirit into one body -- whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free -- and we were all
given the one Spirit to drink.
Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. If the foot should say, "Because
I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason
cease to be part of the body. And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an
eye, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be
part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing
be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact
God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them
to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many
parts, but one body.
The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" And the head cannot
say to the feet, "I don't need you!" On the contrary, those parts of the
body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less
honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated
with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But
God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts
that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts
should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers
with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.
Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. (NIV)