| If anyone is rich in worldly possessions and sees a brother in need but refuses to open his heart, how can the love of God abide in him? | If someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need but shows no compassion—how can God’s love be in that person? |
| Thus says the Lord of hosts: Render fair judgments, and show kindness and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow, the orphan, the alien, or the poor. Do not plot evil in your heart against one another. | This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: Judge fairly, and show mercy and kindness to one another. Do not oppress widows, orphans, foreigners, and the poor. And do not scheme against each other. |
| The second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ | A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ |
| Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. | Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. |
| And if one should fall, his companion will help him up. How pathetic is the man who is alone and falls and has no one to assist him to his feet. | If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble. |
| This is how we know what love is: he laid down his life for us, and we in turn must be prepared to lay down our lives for our brethren. | We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters. |
| Therefore, accept one another for the glory of God, just as Christ has accepted you. | Therefore, accept each other just as Christ has accepted you so that God will be given glory. |
| Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. | You must be compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate. |
| As much as possible, and to the extent of your ability, live in peace with everyone. | Do all that you can to live in peace with everyone. |
| Do not forsake your friend or the friend of your father, and do not run to your brother’s house when troubles befall you; far better is a friend nearby than a brother who is far away. | Never abandon a friend— either yours or your father’s. When disaster strikes, you won’t have to ask your brother for assistance. It’s better to go to a neighbor than to a brother who lives far away. |
| In view of all this, you should make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with endurance, and endurance with piety, and piety with mutual affection, and mutual affection with love. | In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone. |
| This rather is the type of fast that I wish: to loosen the fetters of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to set free those who are oppressed and to break every yoke. | No, this is the kind of fasting I want: Free those who are wrongly imprisoned; lighten the burden of those who work for you. Let the oppressed go free, and remove the chains that bind people. |
| No one has ever seen God, but if we love one another, God abides in us, and his love is made complete in us. | No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us. |
| Then Peter came up to him and asked, “Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus answered, “I say to you, not seven times but seventy times seven.” | Then Peter came to him and asked, “Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times?” “No, not seven times,” Jesus replied, “but seventy times seven!” |
| You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male slave, nor his female slave, nor his oxen, nor his donkey, nor anything that belongs to your neighbor. | You must not covet your neighbor’s house. You must not covet your neighbor’s wife, male or female servant, ox or donkey, or anything else that belongs to your neighbor. |
| Arise, O Lord! Lift up your hand, O God! Do not forget the afflicted. | Arise, O Lord! Punish the wicked, O God! Do not ignore the helpless! |
| Take care, brethren, that none of you will ever have an evil and unbelieving heart that will cause you to forsake the living God. | Be careful then, dear brothers and sisters. Make sure that your own hearts are not evil and unbelieving, turning you away from the living God. |
| He said to them in reply, “Anyone who has two coats must share with the person who has none, and whoever has food must do likewise.” | John replied, “If you have two shirts, give one to the poor. If you have food, share it with those who are hungry.” |
| Grant justice to the weak and the orphan; defend the rights of the lowly and the poor. | Give justice to the poor and the orphan; uphold the rights of the oppressed and the destitute. |
| Give proper consideration to those widows who are truly in need. | Take care of any widow who has no one else to care for her. |
| So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. | And since I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash each other’s feet. |
| This must not be so with you. Instead, whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your servant. | But among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must become your slave. |
| There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save or to destroy. Who then are you to pass judgment on a neighbor? | God alone, who gave the law, is the Judge. He alone has the power to save or to destroy. So what right do you have to judge your neighbor? |
| Then I came to realize that all toil and skill in work derive from one person’s envy of another. This also is vanity and a chase after the wind. | Then I observed that most people are motivated to success because they envy their neighbors. But this, too, is meaningless—like chasing the wind. |
| While Peter was thus imprisoned, the Church prayed fervently to God for him. | But while Peter was in prison, the church prayed very earnestly for him. |
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