For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. | For God so loved the world, that he gave his only born Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. |
Your unfailing love is better than life itself; how I praise you! I will praise you as long as I live, lifting up my hands to you in prayer. | Because your loving kindness is better than life, my lips shall praise you. So I will bless you while I live. I will lift up my hands in your name. |
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We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. | We know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and he who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him. |
Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples. | By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. |
Then Peter replied, “I see very clearly that God shows no favoritism. In every nation he accepts those who fear him and do what is right.” | Peter opened his mouth and said, “Truly I perceive that God doesn’t show favoritism; but in every nation he who fears him and works righteousness is acceptable to him.” |
He is the Rock; his deeds are perfect. Everything he does is just and fair. He is a faithful God who does no wrong; how just and upright he is! | The Rock: his work is perfect, for all his ways are just. A God of faithfulness who does no wrong, just and right is he. |
Eloquent words are not fitting for a fool; even less are lies fitting for a ruler. | Excellent speech isn’t fitting for a fool, much less do lying lips fit a prince. |
They told you that in the last times there would be scoffers whose purpose in life is to satisfy their ungodly desires. These people are the ones who are creating divisions among you. They follow their natural instincts because they do not have God’s Spirit in them. | They said to you, “In the last time there will be mockers, walking after their own ungodly lusts.” These are those who cause divisions and are sensual, not having the Spirit. |
This is how we know if they have the Spirit of God: If a person claiming to be a prophet acknowledges that Jesus Christ came in a real body, that person has the Spirit of God. But if someone claims to be a prophet and does not acknowledge the truth about Jesus, that person is not from God. Such a person has the spirit of the Antichrist, which you heard is coming into the world and indeed is already here. | By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit who confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit who doesn’t confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God; and this is the spirit of the Antichrist, of whom you have heard that it comes. Now it is in the world already. |
And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love. | And hope doesn’t disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. |
Teach us to realize the brevity of life, so that we may grow in wisdom. | So teach us to count our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. |
You must each decide in your heart how much to give. And don’t give reluctantly or in response to pressure. “For God loves a person who gives cheerfully.” | Let each man give according as he has determined in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. |
But consider the joy of those corrected by God! Do not despise the discipline of the Almighty when you sin. | Behold, happy is the man whom God corrects. Therefore do not despise the chastening of the Almighty. |
But there is a great difference between Adam’s sin and God’s gracious gift. For the sin of this one man, Adam, brought death to many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and his gift of forgiveness to many through this other man, Jesus Christ. | But the free gift isn’t like the trespass. For if by the trespass of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many. |
The lips of the godly speak helpful words, but the mouth of the wicked speaks perverse words. | The lips of the righteous know what is acceptable, but the mouth of the wicked is perverse. |
This Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.” | For in it is revealed God’s righteousness from faith to faith. As it is written, “But the righteous shall live by faith.” |
You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. | For you formed my inmost being. You knit me together in my mother’s womb. I will give thanks to you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful. My soul knows that very well. |
But be sure to fear the Lord and faithfully serve him. Think of all the wonderful things he has done for you. | Only fear Yahweh, and serve him in truth with all your heart; for consider what great things he has done for you. |
Instead, clothe yourself with the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. And don’t let yourself think about ways to indulge your evil desires. | But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, for its lusts. |
What sorrow awaits those who argue with their Creator. Does a clay pot argue with its maker? Does the clay dispute with the one who shapes it, saying, ‘Stop, you’re doing it wrong!’ Does the pot exclaim, ‘How clumsy can you be?’ | Woe to him who strives with his Maker— a clay pot among the clay pots of the earth! Shall the clay ask him who fashions it, ‘What are you making?’ or your work, ‘He has no hands’? |
I will show how holy my great name is—the name on which you brought shame among the nations. And when I reveal my holiness through you before their very eyes, says the Sovereign Lord, then the nations will know that I am the Lord. | “I will sanctify my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned among them. Then the nations will know that I am Yahweh,” says the Lord Yahweh, “when I am proven holy in you before their eyes.” |
Those who obey God’s commandments remain in fellowship with him, and he with them. And we know he lives in us because the Spirit he gave us lives in us. | He who keeps his commandments remains in him, and he in him. By this we know that he remains in us, by the Spirit which he gave us. |
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.” |
If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble. | For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow; but woe to him who is alone when he falls, and doesn’t have another to lift him up. |
But now Jesus, our High Priest, has been given a ministry that is far superior to the old priesthood, for he is the one who mediates for us a far better covenant with God, based on better promises. | But now he has obtained a more excellent ministry, by as much as he is also the mediator of a better covenant, which on better promises has been given as law. |