| For you are free, yet you are God’s slaves, so don’t use your freedom as an excuse to do evil. | Live as free people, yet not using your freedom for a cloak of wickedness, but as bondservants of God. |
| My child, never forget the things I have taught you. Store my commands in your heart. If you do this, you will live many years, and your life will be satisfying. | My son, don’t forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments, for they will add to you length of days, years of life, and peace. |
| Just as you cannot understand the path of the wind or the mystery of a tiny baby growing in its mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the activity of God, who does all things. | As you don’t know what is the way of the wind, nor how the bones grow in the womb of her who is with child; even so you don’t know the work of God who does all. |
| Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm. For love is as strong as death, its jealousy as enduring as the grave. Love flashes like fire, the brightest kind of flame. | Set me as a seal on your heart, as a seal on your arm; for love is strong as death. Jealousy is as cruel as Sheol. Its flashes are flashes of fire, a very flame of Yah. |
| As a face is reflected in water, so the heart reflects the real person. | Like water reflects a face, so a man’s heart reflects the man. |
| If the person still refuses to listen, take your case to the church. Then if he or she won’t accept the church’s decision, treat that person as a pagan or a corrupt tax collector. | If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the assembly. If he refuses to hear the assembly also, let him be to you as a Gentile or a tax collector. |
| As the deer longs for streams of water, so I long for you, O God. | As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants after you, God. |
| The rich think of their wealth as a strong defense; they imagine it to be a high wall of safety. | The rich man’s wealth is his strong city, like an unscalable wall in his own imagination. |
| Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. He loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God. | Walk in love, even as Christ also loved us and gave himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling fragrance. |
| “You don’t have enough faith,” Jesus told them. “I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it would move. Nothing would be impossible.” | He said to them, “Because of your unbelief. For most certainly I tell you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you will tell this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.” |
| The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the baby to be born will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God.” | The angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore also the holy one who is born from you will be called the Son of God.” |
| The Sovereign Lord is my strength! He makes me as surefooted as a deer, able to tread upon the heights. | Yahweh, the Lord, is my strength. He makes my feet like deer’s feet, and enables me to go in high places. |
| But you must not forget this one thing, dear friends: A day is like a thousand years to the Lord, and a thousand years is like a day. | But don’t forget this one thing, beloved, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. |
| Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. | Bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, if any man has a complaint against any; even as Christ forgave you, so you also do. |
| You must not exploit a widow or an orphan. If you exploit them in any way and they cry out to me, then I will certainly hear their cry. My anger will blaze against you, and I will kill you with the sword. Then your wives will be widows and your children fatherless. | You shall not take advantage of any widow or fatherless child. If you take advantage of them at all, and they cry at all to me, I will surely hear their cry; and my wrath will grow hot, and I will kill you with the sword; and your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless. |
| Hear my prayer, O Lord! Listen to my cries for help! Don’t ignore my tears. For I am your guest— a traveler passing through, as my ancestors were before me. | Hear my prayer, Yahweh, and give ear to my cry. Don’t be silent at my tears. For I am a stranger with you, a foreigner, as all my fathers were. |
| This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. | In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins. |
| And that water is a picture of baptism, which now saves you, not by removing dirt from your body, but as a response to God from a clean conscience. It is effective because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. | This is a symbol of baptism, which now saves you—not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God—through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. |
| Instead, you must worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if someone asks about your hope as a believer, always be ready to explain it. | But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts. Always be ready to give an answer to everyone who asks you a reason concerning the hope that is in you, with humility and fear. |
| Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross. | Who, existing in the form of God, didn’t consider equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, yes, the death of the cross. |
| And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father. | Whatever you do, in word or in deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. |
| Then I heard the Lord asking, “Whom should I send as a messenger to this people? Who will go for us?” I said, “Here I am. Send me.” | I heard the Lord’s voice, saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am. Send me!” |
| I am overwhelmed with joy in the Lord my God! For he has dressed me with the clothing of salvation and draped me in a robe of righteousness. I am like a bridegroom dressed for his wedding or a bride with her jewels. | I will greatly rejoice in Yahweh! My soul will be joyful in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation. He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. |
| In this way, God qualified him as a perfect High Priest, and he became the source of eternal salvation for all those who obey him. | Having been made perfect, he became to all of those who obey him the author of eternal salvation. |
| For Christ has already accomplished the purpose for which the law was given. As a result, all who believe in him are made right with God. | For Christ is the fulfillment of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. |
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