| 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 traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen. That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other. And the men, instead of having normal sexual relations with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men, and as a result of this sin, they suffered within themselves the penalty they deserved. Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done. |
| 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. | When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey 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. | So again I say, each man must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must 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. | And may the Lord make your love for one another and for all people grow and overflow, just as our love for you overflows. |
| 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. | 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. |
| 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—the Ten Commandments—which he commanded you to keep, and which he wrote on two stone tablets. |
| For to me, living is Christ and dying is gain. | For to me, living means living for Christ, and dying is even better. |
| This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. | This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way 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. | You and I are Jews by birth, not ‘sinners’ like the Gentiles. Yet we know that a person is made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ, not by obeying the law. And we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we might be made right with God because of our faith in Christ, not because we have obeyed the law. For no one will ever be made right with God by obeying the law. |
| The unfolding of your words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple. | The teaching of your word gives light, so even the simple can understand. |
| 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. | So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image. |
| 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. | God’s will is for you to be holy, so stay away from all sexual sin. Then each of you will control his own body and live in holiness and honor— not in lustful passion like the pagans who do not know God and his ways. |
| 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,” Peter continued, “the Holy Spirit fell on them, just as he fell on 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 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. |
| 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 child, don’t reject the Lord’s discipline, and don’t be upset when he corrects you. For the Lord corrects those he loves, just as a father corrects a child in whom he delights. |
| Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God. | Therefore, accept each other just as Christ has accepted you so that God will be given glory. |
| 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. | For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s 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 things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important. As a result, no one can ever boast in the presence of God. |
| Wealth is a ransom for a person's life, but the poor get no threats. | The rich can pay a ransom for their lives, but the poor won’t even get threatened. |
| Fine speech is not becoming to a fool; still less is false speech to a ruler. | Eloquent words are not fitting for a fool; even less are lies fitting for a ruler. |
| Do not wear yourself out to get rich; be wise enough to desist. | Don’t wear yourself out trying to get rich. Be wise enough to know when to quit. |
| 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. | 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. |
| My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. | My health may fail, and my spirit may grow weak, but God remains the strength of my heart; he is mine forever. |
| To make an apt answer is a joy to anyone, and a word in season, how good it is! | Everyone enjoys a fitting reply; it is wonderful to say the right thing at the right time! |
| But he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it!” | Jesus replied, “But even more blessed are all who hear the word of God and put it into practice.” |
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