This is the message that we have heard from him and that we declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness at all in him. | This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. |
The heavens proclaim the glory of God; the firmament shows forth the work of his hands. One day imparts that message to the next, and night conveys that knowledge to night. | The heavens proclaim the glory of God. The skies display his craftsmanship. Day after day they continue to speak; night after night they make him known. |
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And you will say on that day: Give thanks to the Lord, invoke his name; make known his deeds among the nations; proclaim that his name is exalted. | In that wonderful day you will sing: “Thank the Lord! Praise his name! Tell the nations what he has done. Let them know how mighty he is!” |
I have made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you loved me may be in them, and I in them. | I have revealed you to them, and I will continue to do so. Then your love for me will be in them, and I will be in them. |
If you confess with your lips, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. | If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. |
And now, brethren, I want to remind you of the gospel I proclaimed to you, which you received and in which you stand firm. Through it you are also being saved, provided that you are holding fast to what I proclaimed to you. If not, then you have believed in vain. | Let me now remind you, dear brothers and sisters, of the Good News I preached to you before. You welcomed it then, and you still stand firm in it. It is this Good News that saves you if you continue to believe the message I told you—unless, of course, you believed something that was never true in the first place. |
My mouth is filled with your praises as I relate your glory all day long. | That is why I can never stop praising you; I declare your glory all day long. |
He proclaimed his covenant to you which he ordered you to fulfill, the Ten Commandments, that he wrote upon two tablets of stone. | He proclaimed his covenant—the Ten Commandments—which he commanded you to keep, and which he wrote on two stone tablets. |
And every tongue should proclaim to the glory of God the Father: Jesus Christ is Lord. | And every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. |
God abides in anyone who acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, and that person abides in God. | All who declare that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God. |
Can someone hide in a secret place so that I cannot see him? Do I not fill heaven and earth? | “Can anyone hide from me in a secret place? Am I not everywhere in all the heavens and earth?” says the Lord. |
Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, ‘Streams of living water shall flow from within him.’ | Anyone who believes in me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.’ |
Return, rebel Israel, says the Lord. I will not look upon you in anger. For I am merciful, says the Lord; my wrath will not continue forever. | O Israel, my faithless people, come home to me again, for I am merciful. I will not be angry with you forever. |
No one has ever seen God. It is the only Son, God, who is at the Father’s side, who has made him known. | No one has ever seen God. But the unique One, who is himself God, is near to the Father’s heart. He has revealed God to us. |
For it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow before me, and every tongue shall give praise to God.” | For the Scriptures say, “‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord, ‘every knee will bend to me, and every tongue will declare allegiance to God.’” |
But according to Scripture all things have been confined under sin, so that through faith in Jesus Christ what was promised might be given to those who believe. | But the Scriptures declare that we are all prisoners of sin, so we receive God’s promise of freedom only by believing in Jesus Christ. |
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. | “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.” |
I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, says the Lord God. Repent and live! | I don’t want you to die, says the Sovereign Lord. Turn back and live! |
But you are “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people claimed by God as his own possession,” so that you may proclaim the praise of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. | But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light. |
Yet even now, says the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning. | That is why the Lord says, “Turn to me now, while there is time. Give me your hearts. Come with fasting, weeping, and mourning.” |
You who abide in the shelter of the Most High, who rest in the shadow of the Almighty, say to the Lord, “You are my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I place my trust.” | Those who live in the shelter of the Most High will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty. This I declare about the Lord: He alone is my refuge, my place of safety; he is my God, and I trust him. |
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. | “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.) |
For I know full well the plans I have for you, plans for your welfare and not for your misfortune, plans that will offer you a future filled with hope. | “For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” |
Do I derive any pleasure from the death of the wicked? asks the Lord God. Would I not rather rejoice to see them turn away from their wickedness and live? | Do you think that I like to see wicked people die? says the Sovereign Lord. Of course not! I want them to turn from their wicked ways and live. |
Therefore say to them, “Thus says the Lord God: The fulfillment of my words will not be delayed any longer. What I have said will be done now. This is the word of the Lord God.” | Therefore, tell them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: No more delay! I will now do everything I have threatened. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken!’ |