| This is what the Lord Almighty said: ‘Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. Do not plot evil against each other.’ | Thus has Yahweh of Armies spoken, saying, ‘Execute true judgment, and show kindness and compassion every man to his brother. Don’t oppress the widow, the fatherless, the foreigner, nor the poor; and let none of you devise evil against his brother in your heart.’ |
| If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? | But whoever has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, then closes his heart of compassion against him, how does God’s love remain in him? |
| Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. | Beloved, let’s love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. |
| If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up. | For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow; but woe to him who is alone when he falls, and doesn’t have another to lift him up. |
| And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ | A second likewise is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ |
| For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. | Yes, and for this very cause adding on your part all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence; and in moral excellence, knowledge; and in knowledge, self-control; and in self-control, perseverance; and in perseverance, godliness; and in godliness, brotherly affection; and in brotherly affection, love. |
| This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. | By this we know love, because he laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. |
| Do not forsake your friend or a friend of your family, and do not go to your relative’s house when disaster strikes you— better a neighbor nearby than a relative far away. | Don’t forsake your friend and your father’s friend. Don’t go to your brother’s house in the day of your disaster. A neighbor who is near is better than a distant brother. |
| Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. | Therefore be merciful, even as your Father is also merciful. |
| Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God. | Therefore accept one another, even as Christ also accepted you, to the glory of God. |
| If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. | If it is possible, as much as it is up to you, be at peace with all men. |
| No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. | No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God remains in us, and his love has been perfected in us. |
| Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?” Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.” | Then Peter came and said to him, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Until seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I don’t tell you until seven times, but, until seventy times seven.” |
| Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? | Isn’t this the fast that I have chosen: to release the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke? |
| Arise, Lord! Lift up your hand, O God. Do not forget the helpless. | Arise, Yahweh! God, lift up your hand! Don’t forget the helpless. |
| Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. | If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. |
| Defend the weak and the fatherless; uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed. | Defend the weak, the poor, and the fatherless. Maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed. |
| See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. | Beware, brothers, lest perhaps there might be in any one of you an evil heart of unbelief, in falling away from the living God. |
| John answered, “Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same.” | He answered them, “He who has two coats, let him give to him who has none. He who has food, let him do likewise.” |
| There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you—who are you to judge your neighbor? | Only one is the lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge another? |
| You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor. | You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s. |
| Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave. | It shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant. Whoever desires to be first among you shall be your bondservant. |
| Give proper recognition to those widows who are really in need. | Honor widows who are widows indeed. |
| And I saw that all toil and all achievement spring from one person’s envy of another. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. | Then I saw all the labor and achievement that is the envy of a man’s neighbor. This also is vanity and a striving after wind. |
| So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him. | Peter therefore was kept in the prison, but constant prayer was made by the assembly to God for him. |
Bible verse of the day
I spread out my hands to you;I thirst for you like a parched land.