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? | How does God's love abide in anyone who has the world's goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help? |
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. | Thus says the Lord of hosts: Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another; do not oppress the widow, the orphan, the alien, or the poor; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another. |
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A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ | And a second is like it: ‘You shall 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. | Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is 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. | For if they fall, one will lift up the other; but woe to one who is alone and falls and does not have another to help. |
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. | We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us—and we ought to lay down our lives for one another. |
Therefore, accept each other just as Christ has accepted you so that God will be given glory. | Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of 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, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. |
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 the friend of your parent; do not go to the house of your kindred in the day of your calamity. Better is a neighbor who is nearby than kindred who are 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, you must make every effort to support your faith with goodness, and goodness with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with endurance, and endurance with godliness, and godliness with mutual affection, and mutual affection with 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 fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to 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; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected 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 and said to him, “Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times.” |
Arise, O Lord! Punish the wicked, O God! Do not ignore the helpless! | Rise up, O Lord; O God, lift up your hand; do not forget the oppressed. |
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 male or female slave, or 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. | Take care, brothers and sisters, that none of you may have an evil, 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. | Give justice to the weak and the orphan; maintain the right of the lowly and the destitute. |
John replied, “If you have two shirts, give one to the poor. If you have food, share it with those who are hungry.” | In reply he said to them, “Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise.” |
Take care of any widow who has no one else to care for her. | Honor widows who are really widows. |
And since I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash each other’s feet. | So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. |
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. | It will not be so among you; but whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you 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 one lawgiver and judge who is able to save and to destroy. So who, then, 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. | Then I saw that all toil and all skill in work come from one person's envy of another. This also is vanity and a chasing after wind. |
But while Peter was in prison, the church prayed very earnestly for him. | While Peter was kept in prison, the church prayed fervently to God for him. |