Who is wise and understanding among you? Show by your good life that your works are done with gentleness born of wisdom. | If you are wise and understand God’s ways, prove it by living an honorable life, doing good works with the humility that comes from wisdom. |
To get wisdom is to love oneself; to keep understanding is to prosper. | To acquire wisdom is to love yourself; people who cherish understanding will prosper. |
|
Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act. He will make your vindication shine like the light, and the justice of your cause like the noonday. | Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust him, and he will help you. He will make your innocence radiate like the dawn, and the justice of your cause will shine like the noonday sun. |
So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today's trouble is enough for today. | So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today. |
For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. | If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. |
Let no one despise your youth, but set the believers an example in speech and conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. | Don’t let anyone think less of you because you are young. Be an example to all believers in what you say, in the way you live, in your love, your faith, and your purity. |
Do all things without murmuring and arguing, so that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, in which you shine like stars in the world. It is by your holding fast to the word of life. | Do everything without complaining and arguing, so that no one can criticize you. Live clean, innocent lives as children of God, shining like bright lights in a world full of crooked and perverse people. Hold firmly to the word of life. |
This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. | This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. |
Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. | If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give up your life for me, you will find it. |
For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. | For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands. |
But surely, God is my helper; the Lord is the upholder of my life. | But God is my helper. The Lord keeps me alive! |
The heart is devious above all else; it is perverse— who can understand it? I the Lord test the mind and search the heart, to give to all according to their ways, according to the fruit of their doings. | The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is? But I, the Lord, search all hearts and examine secret motives. I give all people their due rewards, according to what their actions deserve. |
My child, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments; for length of days and years of life and abundant welfare they will give you. | My child, never forget the things I have taught you. Store my commands in your heart. If you do this, you will live many years, and your life will be satisfying. |
God's love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. | God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. |
“All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are beneficial. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything. | You say, “I am allowed to do anything”—but not everything is good for you. And even though “I am allowed to do anything,” I must not become a slave to anything. |
He has made everything suitable for its time; moreover he has put a sense of past and future into their minds, yet they cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. | Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end. |
For to me, living is Christ and dying is gain. | For to me, living means living for Christ, and dying is even better. |
Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? | That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing? |
Blessed is anyone who endures temptation. Such a one has stood the test and will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him. | God blesses those who patiently endure testing and temptation. Afterward they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him. |
I will never forget your precepts, for by them you have given me life. | I will never forget your commandments, for by them you give me life. |
Keep straight the path of your feet, and all your ways will be sure. | Mark out a straight path for your feet; stay on the safe path. |
If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit. | Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives. |
Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you. So I will bless you as long as I live; I will lift up my hands and call on your name. | Your unfailing love is better than life itself; how I praise you! I will praise you as long as I live, lifting up my hands to you in prayer. |
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” | Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.” |
For as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ. | Just as everyone dies because we all belong to Adam, everyone who belongs to Christ will be given new life. |