| Because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. For this reason God gave them up to degrading passions. Their women exchanged natural intercourse for unnatural, and in the same way also the men, giving up natural intercourse with women, were consumed with passion for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in their own persons the due penalty for their error. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind and to things that should not be done. | They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and offered worship and service to the creature rather than to the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. That is why God abandoned them to their shameful passions. Their women exchanged natural intercourse for unnatural practices. Likewise, men gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another. Men committed shameful acts with men and received in their own persons the fitting penalty for their perversion. Furthermore, since these people did not see fit to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their depraved way of thinking and to all types of vile behavior. |
| If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. | If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. |
| Each of you, however, should love his wife as himself, and a wife should respect her husband. | However, each one of you should love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife should respect her husband. |
| And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, just as we abound in love for you. | May the Lord cause your love to increase and overflow for one another and for everyone else, just as our love does for you. |
| For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you should 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. |
| He declared to you his covenant, which he charged you to observe, that is, the ten commandments; and he wrote them on two stone tablets. | He proclaimed his covenant to you which he ordered you to fulfill, the Ten Commandments, that he wrote upon two tablets of stone. |
| For to me, living is Christ and dying is gain. | For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. |
| This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. | This is my commandment: love one another as I have loved you. |
| We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; yet we know that a person is justified not by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ. And we have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by doing the works of the law, because no one will be justified by the works of the law. | We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners, yet we know that a man is justified not by the works of the Law but through faith in Jesus Christ. So we too came to believe in Christ Jesus so that we might be justified by faith in him and not by the works of the Law, for no one will be justified by the works of the Law. |
| The unfolding of your words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple. | The explanation of your words gives light and imparts understanding to the simple. |
| And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit. | And as we gaze upon the glory of the Lord with unveiled faces, all of us are being transformed into that same image from glory to glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. |
| For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from fornication; that each one of you know how to control your own body in holiness and honor, not with lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God. | It is the will of God that you should lead a life of sanctity. You must refrain from sexual immorality. Each of you must learn to acquire a wife from pure and honorable motives, not to gratify passion like the Gentiles who do not know God. |
| And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them just as it had upon us at the beginning. | As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit descended upon them just as it had upon us at the beginning. |
| Just as you do not know how the breath comes to the bones in the mother's womb, so you do not know the work of God, who makes everything. | Just as you do not know the path of the wind or how the body is formed in a woman’s womb, so you do not know the work of God, the Creator of all. |
| My child, do not despise the Lord's discipline or be weary of his reproof, for the Lord reproves the one he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights. | My son, do not ignore the Lord’s discipline or refuse to accept his rebuke. For the Lord disciplines those whom he loves, just as a father chastises a beloved son. |
| Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God. | Therefore, accept one another for the glory of God, just as Christ has accepted you. |
| Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, in order to make her holy by cleansing her with the washing of water by the word. | Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her in order to sanctify her by cleansing her with water and the word. |
| God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God. | God chose those in the world who were lowly and despised, those who count for nothing, to reduce to nothing those who were regarded as worthy, so that no one could boast in the presence of God. |
| Wealth is a ransom for a person's life, but the poor get no threats. | A wealthy man pays a ransom to save his life; a poor man never has to worry about such threats. |
| Fine speech is not becoming to a fool; still less is false speech to a ruler. | Fine words are not becoming to a fool, and much less are false words to a noble. |
| Do not wear yourself out to get rich; be wise enough to desist. | Do not wear yourself out in the pursuit of wealth, and cease even to think about it. |
| He has made everything suitable for its time; moreover he has put a sense of past and future into their minds, yet they cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the 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. |
| My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. | Even should my heart and my flesh fail, God is the rock of my heart and my portion forever. |
| To make an apt answer is a joy to anyone, and a word in season, how good it is! | A man is joyful when he utters apt answers, and even more satisfying is a word in season. |
| But he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it!” | Jesus replied, “Blessed, rather, are those who hear the word of God and obey it!” |
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