| 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? | 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? |
| 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. | 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.’ |
| A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ | And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ |
| 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. | Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. |
| If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble. | 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. |
| 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. | 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. |
| Therefore, accept each other just as Christ has accepted you so that God will be given glory. | Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God. |
| You must be compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate. | Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. |
| Do all that you can to live in peace with everyone. | If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. |
| 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. | 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. |
| 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. | 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. |
| 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. | 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? |
| 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. | No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. |
| 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!” | 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.” |
| Arise, O Lord! Punish the wicked, O God! Do not ignore the helpless! | Arise, Lord! Lift up your hand, O God. Do not forget the helpless. |
| 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. | 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. |
| 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. | See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. |
| Give justice to the poor and the orphan; uphold the rights of the oppressed and the destitute. | Defend the weak and the fatherless; uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed. |
| John replied, “If you have two shirts, give one to the poor. If you have food, share it with those who are hungry.” | John answered, “Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same.” |
| And since I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash each other’s feet. | Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. |
| Take care of any widow who has no one else to care for her. | Give proper recognition to those widows who are really in need. |
| 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. | 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. |
| 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? | 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? |
| Then I observed that most people are motivated to success because they envy their neighbors. But this, too, is meaningless—like chasing the wind. | 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. |
| But while Peter was in prison, the church prayed very earnestly for him. | So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him. |
Bible verse of the day
Who is the King of glory?The Lord of Heaven’s Armies—
he is the King of glory.