| Dear brothers and sisters, we can’t help but thank God for you, because your faith is flourishing and your love for one another is growing. | Brethren, we must always give thanks to God for you, and it is only right that we do so. For your faith grows ever more, and the love that all of you have for one another continues to increase. |
| Unfailing love, O Lord, is yours. Surely you repay all people according to what they have done. | And so does kindness, O Lord. You reward each person in accordance with his deeds. |
| Therefore, put on every piece of God’s armor so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. Then after the battle you will still be standing firm. | Therefore, put on the armor of God, so that you will be able to hold fast on the evil day and to hold your ground with all your strength. |
| Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.” | And God said, “Let us make man in our image and likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the wild animals and reptiles that crawl upon the earth.” |
| Don’t be fooled by what they say. For that day will not come until there is a great rebellion against God and the man of lawlessness is revealed—the one who brings destruction. He will exalt himself and defy everything that people call god and every object of worship. He will even sit in the temple of God, claiming that he himself is God. | Let no one deceive you in any way. That Day cannot come before the final rebellion occurs and the lawless one is revealed, the son of destruction. He is the adversary who sets himself in opposition to, and exalts himself above, every so-called god or object of worship, and who even seats himself in the temple of God, declaring himself to be God. |
| Because of the privilege and authority God has given me, I give each of you this warning: Don’t think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us. | Through the grace that God has bestowed upon me, I advise every one of you not to think of yourself too highly, but to regard yourself objectively, based on the measure of faith that God has granted. |
| The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is? But I, the Lord, search all hearts and examine secret motives. I give all people their due rewards, according to what their actions deserve. | The heart is more deceitful than any other thing, and it is also perverse. Who can uncover its secrets? I, the Lord, search the heart and probe the mind to reward all according to their conduct and as their deeds deserve. |
| It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. | Love does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. |
| Look, I am coming soon, bringing my reward with me to repay all people according to their deeds. | Behold, I am coming soon, and I will bring with me my reward to repay everyone as his deeds deserve. |
| And it is a good thing to receive wealth from God and the good health to enjoy it. To enjoy your work and accept your lot in life—this is indeed a gift from God. | Moreover, the one to whom God grants wealth and possessions and the ability to enjoy them and to find contentment in his toil receives a gift from God. |
| He will judge everyone according to what they have done. | For God will repay everyone in accordance with what his deeds deserve. |
| But because there is so much sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife, and each woman should have her own husband. | However, to avoid the temptation to immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband. |
| So I concluded there is nothing better than to be happy and enjoy ourselves as long as we can. And people should eat and drink and enjoy the fruits of their labor, for these are gifts from God. | I understand that man’s greatest happiness is to be glad and do well throughout his life. And when we eat and drink and find satisfaction in all our labors, this is a gift of God. |
| Don’t be concerned for your own good but for the good of others. | No one should seek his own advantage in preference to that of his neighbor. |
| Then I observed that most people are motivated to success because they envy their neighbors. But this, too, is meaningless—like chasing the wind. | Then I came to realize that all toil and skill in work derive from one person’s envy of another. This also is vanity and a chase after the wind. |
| Let everything that breathes sing praises to the Lord! Praise the Lord! | Let everything that breathes offer praise to the Lord. Alleluia. |
| Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and in the life to come. | While physical training has some value, the benefits of godliness are unlimited, since it holds out promise not only for this life but also for the life to come. |
| We should help others do what is right and build them up in the Lord. | Each of us must consider his neighbor’s good for the purpose of building him up. |
| Because we have these promises, dear friends, let us cleanse ourselves from everything that can defile our body or spirit. And let us work toward complete holiness because we fear God. | Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from anything that can defile flesh or spirit, and thereby make our holiness perfect in the fear of God. |
| “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, “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. |
| 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 the justification of all who believe. |
| In my desperation I prayed, and the Lord listened; he saved me from all my troubles. | In my anguish I cried out; the Lord heard my plea, and I was saved from all my troubles. |
| Give to anyone who asks; and when things are taken away from you, don’t try to get them back. | Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not demand the return of what is yours from the one who has taken it. |
| God overlooked people’s ignorance about these things in earlier times, but now he commands everyone everywhere to repent of their sins and turn to him. | God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, but now he commands people everywhere to repent. |
| Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. | Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. |
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