1Chapter 8 — Be on your guard against the snares of the devil.
2Not that I know there is anything of this kind among you; but I put you on your guard, inasmuch as I love you greatly, and foresee the snares of the devil.
3Wherefore, clothing yourselves with meekness, be ye renewed in faith, that is the flesh of the Lord, and in love, that is the blood of Jesus Christ.
4Let no one of you cherish any grudge against his neighbour.
5Give no occasion to the Gentiles, lest by means of a few foolish men the whole multitude of those that believe in God be evil spoken of.
6For, "Woe to him by whose vanity my name is blasphemed among any".
7Now I write these things unto you, not that I know there are any such persons among you; nay, indeed I hope that God will never permit any such report to reach my ears, He "who spared not His Son for the sake of His holy Church".
8But foreseeing the snares of the wicked one, I arm you beforehand by my admonitions, as my beloved and faithful children in Christ, furnishing you with the means of protection against the deadly disease of unruly men, by which do ye flee from the disease referred to by the good-will of Christ our Lord.
9Do ye therefore, clothing yourselves with meekness, become the imitators of His sufferings, and of His love, wherewith He loved us when He gave Himself a ransom for us, that He might cleanse us by His blood from our old ungodliness, and bestow life on us when we were almost on the point of perishing through the depravity that was in us.
10Let no one of you, therefore, cherish any grudge against his neighbour.
11For says our Lord, "Forgive, and it shall be forgiven unto you".
12Give no occasion to the Gentiles, lest "by means of a few foolish men the word and doctrine of Christ be blasphemed".
13For says the prophet, as in the person of God, "Woe to him by whom my name is blasphemed among the Gentiles".