Go forth, then. Eat your bread with joy and drink your wine with a cheerful heart, for God long ago approved what you do. | Go your way—eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart; for God has already accepted your works. |
The proud man’s heart is not upright, but the righteous man will live because of his faith. | Behold, his soul is puffed up. It is not upright in him, but the righteous will live by his faith. |
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Produce good fruit as proof of your repentance. | Therefore produce fruit worthy of repentance! |
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 these things don’t count; nor do I hold my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to fully testify to the Good News of the grace of God. |
While physical training has some value, the benefits of godliness are unlimited, since it holds out promise not only for this life but also for the life to come. | For bodily exercise has some value, but godliness has value in all things, having the promise of the life which is now and of that which is to come. |
What then shall we say? Should we persist in sin in order that grace may abound? Of course not! We have died to sin. How can we live in it any longer? | What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? May it never be! We who died to sin, how could we live in it any longer? |
For you are aware that you were ransomed from your futile way of life inherited from your ancestors not with perishable things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. | Knowing that you were redeemed, not with corruptible things like silver or gold, from the useless way of life handed down from your fathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish or spot, the blood of Christ. |
Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so whoever feeds upon me will live because of me. | As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on me will also live because of me. |
Once you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light. | For you were once darkness, but are now light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. |
This is the conclusion I have reached: it is fitting for a man to eat and drink and find satisfaction in the results of his labors under the sun during the brief span of life that God has allotted him. | Behold, that which I have seen to be good and proper is for one to eat and to drink, and to enjoy good in all his labor, in which he labors under the sun, all the days of his life which God has given him; for this is his portion. |
For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the sake of the gospel will save it. | For whoever wants to save his life will lose it; and whoever will lose his life for my sake and the sake of the Good News will save it. |
As servants of God, behave as free people, but do not use your freedom as a means to cover up wrongdoing. | Live as free people, yet not using your freedom for a cloak of wickedness, but as bondservants of God. |
You shall obey his statutes and the commandments that I give you today, so that all may go well with you and your children after you, and that you may live long in the land that the Lord, your God, has given you for all time. | You shall keep his statutes and his commandments which I command you today, that it may go well with you and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which Yahweh your God gives you for all time. |
Let the wicked abandon their ways and those who are evil their thoughts. Let them return to the Lord so that he may have mercy upon them; and to our God, for he is rich in forgiveness. | Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to Yahweh, and he will have mercy on him, to our God, for he will freely pardon. |
Indeed, persecution will afflict all who want to lead a godly life in Christ Jesus. | Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. |
And God said, “Let us make man in our image and likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the wild animals and reptiles that crawl upon the earth.” | God said, “Let’s make man in our image, after our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” |
And God said, “Behold, I give you every plant that produces seeds upon the earth and every tree that has fruit with its seed inside of it: these shall be your food.” | God said, “Behold, I have given you every herb yielding seed, which is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree, which bears fruit yielding seed. It will be your food.” |
Consider the ravens. They do not sow or reap, they have no storehouse or barn, and yet God feeds them. You are of far greater importance than birds. | Consider the ravens: they don’t sow, they don’t reap, they have no warehouse or barn, and God feeds them. How much more valuable are you than birds! |
He brought you low, allowing you to suffer from hunger. He then fed you with manna, something with which your fathers were not familiar, so that you might come to know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes forth from the mouth of the Lord. | He humbled you, allowed you to be hungry, and fed you with manna, which you didn’t know, neither did your fathers know, that he might teach you that man does not live by bread only, but man lives by every word that proceeds out of Yahweh’s mouth. |
I will sing to the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have life. | I will sing to Yahweh as long as I live. I will sing praise to my God while I have any being. |
Do not lie to one another, since you have stripped off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self that is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. | Don’t lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old man with his doings, and have put on the new man, who is being renewed in knowledge after the image of his Creator. |
Let us examine and test our ways and return to the Lord. | Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to Yahweh. |
The Lord God said, “Behold, man has become like one of us, for he has knowledge of that which is good and that which is evil. Now, we must prevent him from reaching out and taking the fruit of the tree of life lest he eat it and live forever.” The Lord God cast him out of the Garden of Eden; henceforth he was to labor tilling the soil from which he had come. | Yahweh God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand, and also take of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever—” Therefore Yahweh God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken. |
However, whoever lives by the truth comes to the light so that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been done in God. | But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his works may be revealed, that they have been done in God. |
Those who live according to the flesh fix their attention on the things of the flesh, while those who live according to the Spirit set their thoughts on spiritual things. | For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. |