| To do what is right and just is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice. | The Lord is more pleased when we do what is right and just than when we offer him sacrifices. |
| For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what one does not have. | Whatever you give is acceptable if you give it eagerly. And give according to what you have, not what you don’t have. |
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| The lips of the righteous know what finds favor, but the mouth of the wicked only what is perverse. | The lips of the godly speak helpful words, but the mouth of the wicked speaks perverse words. |
| May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. | May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. |
| Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. | And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. |
| Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. | Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. |
| Then Peter began to speak: “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right.” | Then Peter replied, “I see very clearly that God shows no favoritism. In every nation he accepts those who fear him and do what is right.” |
| My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise. | The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit. You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God. |
| One person considers one day more sacred than another; another considers every day alike. Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind. | In the same way, some think one day is more holy than another day, while others think every day is alike. You should each be fully convinced that whichever day you choose is acceptable. |
| “Are you so dull?” he asked. “Don’t you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them? For it doesn’t go into their heart but into their stomach, and then out of the body.” (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean.) | “Don’t you understand either?” he asked. “Can’t you see that the food you put into your body cannot defile you? Food doesn’t go into your heart, but only passes through the stomach and then goes into the sewer.” (By saying this, he declared that every kind of food is acceptable in God’s eyes.) |
