| For I long to visit you so I can bring you some spiritual gift that will help you grow strong in the Lord. When we get together, I want to encourage you in your faith, but I also want to be encouraged by yours. | For I am longing to see you so that I may bestow on you some spiritual gift to strengthen you— or, rather, so that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine. |
| And I want women to be modest in their appearance. They should wear decent and appropriate clothing and not draw attention to themselves by the way they fix their hair or by wearing gold or pearls or expensive clothes. For women who claim to be devoted to God should make themselves attractive by the good things they do. | I also ask that the women should dress themselves modestly and decently in suitable clothing. They should be adorned not with braided hair or with gold or pearls or expensive clothes, but with good works, as is fitting for women who profess their reverence for God. |
| But the wisdom from above is first of all pure. It is also peace loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others. It is full of mercy and the fruit of good deeds. It shows no favoritism and is always sincere. | However, the wisdom that comes from above is first of all pure, then peaceable, gentle, and considerate, full of mercy and good fruits, without any trace of partiality or hypocrisy. |
| For God called you to do good, even if it means suffering, just as Christ suffered for you. He is your example, and you must follow in his steps. | This, in fact, is what you have been called to do, because Christ himself suffered for you and left an example for you to follow in his footsteps. |
| God will make this happen, for he who calls you is faithful. | The one who calls you is faithful, and he will accomplish this. |
| So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless. | In the same way, faith by itself is dead if it does not have works. |
| You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. | Let your attitude be identical to that of Christ Jesus. |
| Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end. | He has made everything suitable for its time, and he has given men a sense of past and future, but they never have the slightest comprehension of what God has wrought from beginning to end. |
| Those who love money will never have enough. How meaningless to think that wealth brings true happiness! | One who is covetous will never be satisfied with money, nor will the lover of wealth be content with gain. This too is vanity. |
| For wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder and evil of every kind. | For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disharmony and every type of wickedness. |
| But when you are praying, first forgive anyone you are holding a grudge against, so that your Father in heaven will forgive your sins, too. | And whenever you stand in prayer, forgive whatever grievance you have against anybody, so that your Father in heaven may forgive your wrongs too. |
| Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. | Bear with one another, and forgive one another if anyone has reason to be offended with another. You must forgive just as the Lord has forgiven you. |
| So you must remain faithful to what you have been taught from the beginning. If you do, you will remain in fellowship with the Son and with the Father. | Let what you heard from the beginning remain in you. If what you heard from the beginning remains in you, then you will remain in the Son and in the Father. |
| No one can know a person’s thoughts except that person’s own spirit, and no one can know God’s thoughts except God’s own Spirit. | And just as no human being comprehends any person’s innermost being except the person’s own spirit within him, so also no one comprehends what pertains to God except the Spirit of God. |
| Just as everyone dies because we all belong to Adam, everyone who belongs to Christ will be given new life. | Just as in Adam all die, so all will be brought to life in Christ. |
| For in him we live and move and exist. As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’ | For ‘In him we live and move and have our being.’ As even your own poets have said, ‘We are all his offspring.’ |
| And because Joseph was a descendant of King David, he had to go to Bethlehem in Judea, David’s ancient home. He traveled there from the village of Nazareth in Galilee. He took with him Mary, to whom he was engaged, who was now expecting a child. | Joseph therefore went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David. He went to be registered together with Mary, his betrothed, who was expecting a child. |
| You must be compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate. | Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. |
| The Lord is a shelter for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble. | The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of distress. |
| One day when the crowds were being baptized, Jesus himself was baptized. As he was praying, the heavens opened, and the Holy Spirit, in bodily form, descended on him like a dove. And a voice from heaven said, “You are my dearly loved Son, and you bring me great joy.” | After John had baptized all the people, and while Jesus was engaged in prayer after also having been baptized, heaven opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my beloved Son; in you I am well pleased.” |
| Therefore, accept each other just as Christ has accepted you so that God will be given glory. | Therefore, accept one another for the glory of God, just as Christ has accepted you. |
| I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful. And now the prize awaits me—the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on the day of his return. And the prize is not just for me but for all who eagerly look forward to his appearing. | I have fought the good fight; I have finished the race; I have kept the faith. Now waiting for me is the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day—and not only to me, but to all those who have eagerly longed for his appearance. |
| “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.) | He said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not realize that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not into the heart but into the stomach and is discharged into the sewer?” Thus, he pronounced all foods clean. |
| Father, I want these whom you have given me to be with me where I am. Then they can see all the glory you gave me because you loved me even before the world began! | Father, allow those you have given me to be with me where I am, so that they may behold my glory, which you have bestowed on me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. |
| Either way, Christ’s love controls us. Since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we have all died to our old life. He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them. | For the love of Christ urges us forward, once we conclude that one has died for all, and therefore all have died. And he died for all, so that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who for their sakes died and was raised to life. |
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Bible verse of the day
You know what I long for, Lord;you hear my every sigh.