| But godliness with contentment is great gain. | Yet true godliness with contentment is itself great wealth. |
| For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. | For to me, living means living for Christ, and dying is even better. |
|
| What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? | And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? |
| Turn my heart toward your statutes and not toward selfish gain. | Give me an eagerness for your laws rather than a love for money! |
| Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. | Teach us to realize the brevity of life, so that we may grow in wisdom. |
| Blessed are those who find wisdom, those who gain understanding. | Joyful is the person who finds wisdom, the one who gains understanding. |
| What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? | And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul? |
| Pride brings a person low, but the lowly in spirit gain honor. | Pride ends in humiliation, while humility brings honor. |
| If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. | If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing. |
| Better a little with righteousness than much gain with injustice. | Better to have little, with godliness, than to be rich and dishonest. |
| Whoever loves money never has enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income. This too is meaningless. | Those who love money will never have enough. How meaningless to think that wealth brings true happiness! |
| Dishonest money dwindles away, but whoever gathers money little by little makes it grow. | Wealth from get-rich-quick schemes quickly disappears; wealth from hard work grows over time. |
| Get wisdom, get understanding; do not forget my words or turn away from them. | Get wisdom; develop good judgment. Don’t forget my words or turn away from them. |
| A wicked person earns deceptive wages, but the one who sows righteousness reaps a sure reward. | Evil people get rich for the moment, but the reward of the godly will last. |
| If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over. | If another believer sins against you, go privately and point out the offense. If the other person listens and confesses it, you have won that person back. |
| As goods increase, so do those who consume them. And what benefit are they to the owners except to feast their eyes on them? | The more you have, the more people come to help you spend it. So what good is wealth—except perhaps to watch it slip through your fingers! |
| Ill-gotten treasures have no lasting value, but righteousness delivers from death. | Tainted wealth has no lasting value, but right living can save your life. |
| I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing! | I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die. |
| Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man. | Never let loyalty and kindness leave you! Tie them around your neck as a reminder. Write them deep within your heart. Then you will find favor with both God and people, and you will earn a good reputation. |
| It was not by their sword that they won the land, nor did their arm bring them victory; it was your right hand, your arm, and the light of your face, for you loved them. | They did not conquer the land with their swords; it was not their own strong arm that gave them victory. It was your right hand and strong arm and the blinding light from your face that helped them, for you loved them. |
| Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ. | Obviously, I’m not trying to win the approval of people, but of God. If pleasing people were my goal, I would not be Christ’s servant. |
| I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and will give them all these lands, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because Abraham obeyed me and did everything I required of him, keeping my commands, my decrees and my instructions. | I will cause your descendants to become as numerous as the stars of the sky, and I will give them all these lands. And through your descendants all the nations of the earth will be blessed. I will do this because Abraham listened to me and obeyed all my requirements, commands, decrees, and instructions. |
| The one who gets wisdom loves life; the one who cherishes understanding will soon prosper. | To acquire wisdom is to love yourself; people who cherish understanding will prosper. |
| My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ. | I want them to be encouraged and knit together by strong ties of love. I want them to have complete confidence that they understand God’s mysterious plan, which is Christ himself. |
| Then Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied just to human beings but to God.” | Then Peter said, “Ananias, why have you let Satan fill your heart? You lied to the Holy Spirit, and you kept some of the money for yourself. The property was yours to sell or not sell, as you wished. And after selling it, the money was also yours to give away. How could you do a thing like this? You weren’t lying to us but to God!” |
