A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit saps a person’s strength. | A cheerful heart makes good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones. |
And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever. | The world is passing away with its lusts, but he who does God’s will remains forever. |
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But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants. | But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his works may be revealed, that they have been done in God. |
Run from sexual sin! No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body. | Flee sexual immorality! “Every sin that a man does is outside the body,” but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. |
Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. | Everyone therefore who hears these words of mine and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on a rock. |
I ask you again, does God give you the Holy Spirit and work miracles among you because you obey the law? Of course not! It is because you believe the message you heard about Christ. | He therefore who supplies the Spirit to you and does miracles among you, does he do it by the works of the law, or by hearing of faith? |
Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter. | Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. |
But when you give to someone in need, don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. Give your gifts in private, and your Father, who sees everything, will reward you. | But when you do merciful deeds, don’t let your left hand know what your right hand does, so that your merciful deeds may be in secret, then your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. |
Those who lead blameless lives and do what is right, speaking the truth from sincere hearts. Those who refuse to gossip or harm their neighbors or speak evil of their friends. | He who walks blamelessly and does what is right, and speaks truth in his heart; he who doesn’t slander with his tongue, nor does evil to his friend, nor casts slurs against his fellow man. |
Anyone who denies the Son doesn’t have the Father, either. But anyone who acknowledges the Son has the Father also. | Whoever denies the Son doesn’t have the Father. He who confesses the Son has the Father also. |
But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love. | He who doesn’t love doesn’t know God, for God is love. |
Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have God’s Son does not have life. | He who has the Son has the life. He who doesn’t have God’s Son doesn’t have the life. |
And anyone who believes in God’s Son has eternal life. Anyone who doesn’t obey the Son will never experience eternal life but remains under God’s angry judgment. | One who believes in the Son has eternal life, but one who disobeys the Son won’t see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. |
As the Scriptures say, “If you want to boast, boast only about the Lord.” When people commend themselves, it doesn’t count for much. The important thing is for the Lord to commend them. | But “he who boasts, let him boast in the Lord.” For it isn’t he who commends himself who is approved, but whom the Lord commends. |
I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more. | I am the true vine, and my Father is the farmer. Every branch in me that doesn’t bear fruit, he takes away. Every branch that bears fruit, he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. |
Our God is in the heavens, and he does as he wishes. | But our God is in the heavens. He does whatever he pleases. |
But the Lord said to Samuel, “Don’t judge by his appearance or height, for I have rejected him. The Lord doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” | But Yahweh said to Samuel, “Don’t look on his face, or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for I don’t see as man sees. For man looks at the outward appearance, but Yahweh looks at the heart.” |
An honest witness does not lie; a false witness breathes lies. | A truthful witness will not lie, but a false witness pours out lies. |
What sorrow awaits those who argue with their Creator. Does a clay pot argue with its maker? Does the clay dispute with the one who shapes it, saying, ‘Stop, you’re doing it wrong!’ Does the pot exclaim, ‘How clumsy can you be?’ | Woe to him who strives with his Maker— a clay pot among the clay pots of the earth! Shall the clay ask him who fashions it, ‘What are you making?’ or your work, ‘He has no hands’? |
He is the Rock; his deeds are perfect. Everything he does is just and fair. He is a faithful God who does no wrong; how just and upright he is! | The Rock: his work is perfect, for all his ways are just. A God of faithfulness who does no wrong, just and right is he. |
For the word of the Lord holds true, and we can trust everything he does. | For Yahweh’s word is right. All his work is done in faithfulness. |
The Lord is righteous in everything he does; he is filled with kindness. | Yahweh is righteous in all his ways, and gracious in all his works. |
“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, “Are you also without understanding? Don’t you perceive that whatever goes into the man from outside can’t defile him, because it doesn’t go into his heart, but into his stomach, then into the latrine, making all foods clean?” |
Love does no wrong to others, so love fulfills the requirements of God’s law. | Love doesn’t harm a neighbor. Love therefore is the fulfillment of the law. |
God is not a man, so he does not lie. He is not human, so he does not change his mind. Has he ever spoken and failed to act? Has he ever promised and not carried it through? | God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should repent. Has he said, and he won’t do it? Or has he spoken, and he won’t make it good? |