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? | 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 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. | 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. |
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And a 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. |
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. | If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble. |
We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us—and we ought to lay down our lives for one another. | 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. |
Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God. | 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. |
If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. | Do all that you can to live in peace with everyone. |
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. | 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. |
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. | 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. |
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, 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; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected 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 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.” | 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, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or 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. |
Rise up, O Lord; O God, lift up your hand; do not forget the oppressed. | Arise, O Lord! Punish the wicked, O God! Do not ignore the helpless! |
Take care, brothers and sisters, that none of you may have an evil, unbelieving heart that turns away from 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. |
In reply he said to them, “Whoever has two coats must share with anyone 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.” |
Give justice to the weak and the orphan; maintain the right of the lowly and the destitute. | Give justice to the poor and the orphan; uphold the rights of the oppressed and the destitute. |
Honor widows who are really widows. | 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 ought to wash one another's feet. | And since I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash each other’s feet. |
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. | 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 one lawgiver and judge who is able to save and to destroy. So who, then, are you to judge your 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 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. | 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 kept in prison, the church prayed fervently to God for him. | But while Peter was in prison, the church prayed very earnestly for him. |