| And now, brethren, farewell. Mend your ways. Encourage one another. Be of one mind and live in peace. Then the God of love and peace will be with you. | Dear brothers and sisters, I close my letter with these last words: Be joyful. Grow to maturity. Encourage each other. Live in harmony and peace. Then the God of love and peace will be with you. |
| Listen, my son, and take my words to heart, and the years of your life will be multiplied. | My child, listen to me and do as I say, and you will have a long, good life. |
| I reprove and discipline all those whom I love. Therefore, be sincere in your desire to repent. | I correct and discipline everyone I love. So be diligent and turn from your indifference. |
| The Lord redeems the lives of those who serve him; no one will be condemned who takes refuge in him. | But the Lord will redeem those who serve him. No one who takes refuge in him will be condemned. |
| Do not be concerned about your life and what you will have to eat, or about your body and what you will wear. For life is more than food, and the body is more than clothing. | That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food to eat or enough clothes to wear. For life is more than food, and your body more than clothing. |
| For thus says the One who is high and exalted, who lives eternally and whose name is holy: I dwell in a high and holy place but I am with the contrite and the humble, to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite. | The high and lofty one who lives in eternity, the Holy One, says this: “I live in the high and holy place with those whose spirits are contrite and humble. I restore the crushed spirit of the humble and revive the courage of those with repentant hearts.” |
| For ‘In him we live and move and have our being.’ As even your own poets have said, ‘We are all his offspring.’ | For in him we live and move and exist. As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’ |
| For thus says the Lord to the house of Israel: If you seek me, you will survive. | Now this is what the Lord says to the family of Israel: “Come back to me and live!” |
| Teach me your ways, O Lord, so that I may walk in your truth; let me worship your name with an undivided heart. | Teach me your ways, O Lord, that I may live according to your truth! Grant me purity of heart, so that I may honor you. |
| Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in accord with the law of the Lord. | Joyful are people of integrity, who follow the instructions of the Lord. |
| You intended to do evil to me, but God decided to make it serve a good, to fulfill that which today has come true: to keep alive a numerous people. | You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people. |
| If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, then the one who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit that dwells in you. | The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you. |
| This is the end of my teaching. All has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for that is the responsibility of everyone. | That’s the whole story. Here now is my final conclusion: Fear God and obey his commands, for this is everyone’s duty. |
| By his own choice he gave us birth through the way of truth so that we may be a kind of firstfruits of all his creation. | He chose to give birth to us by giving us his true word. And we, out of all creation, became his prized possession. |
| Through him all things came into existence, and without him there was nothing. That which came to be. | God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him. |
| Anyone who is victorious will be dressed like these in white robes, and I shall not blot his name from the book of life. Rather, I shall acknowledge it in the presence of my Father and his angels. | All who are victorious will be clothed in white. I will never erase their names from the Book of Life, but I will announce before my Father and his angels that they are mine. |
| For the love of Christ urges us forward, once we conclude that one has died for all, and therefore all have died. And he died for all, so that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who for their sakes died and was raised to life. | Either way, Christ’s love controls us. Since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we have all died to our old life. He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them. |
| Produce good fruit as proof of your repentance. | Prove by the way you live that you have repented of your sins and turned to God. |
| Go forth, then. Eat your bread with joy and drink your wine with a cheerful heart, for God long ago approved what you do. | So go ahead. Eat your food with joy, and drink your wine with a happy heart, for God approves of this! |
| As for me, I do not regard my life as of any value, only that I finish the race and complete the mission that I received from the Lord Jesus—to bear witness to the gospel of God’s grace. | But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus—the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God. |
| You shall be holy, for I, the Lord, am holy. I have chosen you from among all people that you shall be mine. | You must be holy because I, the Lord, am holy. I have set you apart from all other people to be my very own. |
| For we will become partners with Christ only if we maintain firmly until the end the confidence we originally had. | For if we are faithful to the end, trusting God just as firmly as when we first believed, we will share in all that belongs to Christ. |
| He who called you is holy. Therefore, be holy yourselves in all your conduct. For Scripture says, “Be holy, for I am holy.” | But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. For the Scriptures say, “You must be holy because I am holy.” |
| I am pulled in opposite directions. My desire is to depart and to be with Christ, for that is far better, but, it is a more urgent need for you that I remain in the body. | I’m torn between two desires: I long to go and be with Christ, which would be far better for me. But for your sakes, it is better that I continue to live. |
| For to you a thousand years are like a yesterday that has passed or one of the watches of the night. | For you, a thousand years are as a passing day, as brief as a few night hours. |
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