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. | We are bound to always give thanks to God for you, brothers, even as it is appropriate, because your faith grows exceedingly, and the love of each and every one of you toward one another abounds. |
Unfailing love, O Lord, is yours. Surely you repay all people according to what they have done. | Also to you, Lord, belongs loving kindness, for you reward every man according to his work. |
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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 whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. |
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.” | God said, “Let’s make man in our image, after our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on 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. For it will not be unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of destruction. He opposes and exalts himself against all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, setting himself up as 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. | For I say through the grace that was given me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think; but to think reasonably, as God has apportioned to each person a measure of faith. |
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 deceitful above all things and it is exceedingly corrupt. Who can know it? “I, Yahweh, search the mind. I try the heart, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.” |
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. | Doesn’t rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and 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! My reward is with me, to repay to each man according to his work. |
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. | Every man also to whom God has given riches and wealth, and has given him power to eat of it, and to take his portion, and to rejoice in his labor—this is the gift of God. |
He will judge everyone according to what they have done. | Who “will pay back to everyone according to their works.” |
But because there is so much sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife, and each woman should have her own husband. | But, because of sexual immoralities, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have 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 know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice, and to do good as long as they live. Also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy good in all his labor, is the gift of God. |
Don’t be concerned for your own good but for the good of others. | Let no one seek his own, but each one his neighbor’s good. |
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 saw all the labor and achievement that is the envy of a man’s neighbor. This also is vanity and a striving after wind. |
Let everything that breathes sing praises to the Lord! Praise the Lord! | Let everything that has breath praise Yah! Praise Yah! |
Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and in the life to come. | For bodily exercise has some value, but godliness has value in all things, having the promise of the life which is now and of that which is to come. |
We should help others do what is right and build them up in the Lord. | Let each one of us please his neighbor for that which is good, to be 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. | Having therefore these promises, beloved, let’s cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness 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, “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?” |
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 righteousness to everyone who believes. |
In my desperation I prayed, and the Lord listened; he saved me from all my troubles. | This poor man cried, and Yahweh heard him, and saved him out of all his 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 asks you, and don’t ask him who takes away your goods to give them back again. |
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. | The times of ignorance therefore God overlooked. But now he commands that all people everywhere should 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’s love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. |