We are human, but we don’t wage war as humans do. | Indeed, we live as human beings, but we do not wage war according to human standards. |
What are mere mortals that you should think about them, human beings that you should care for them? | What are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them? |
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God is not a man, so he does not lie. He is not human, so he does not change his mind. Has he ever spoken and failed to act? Has he ever promised and not carried it through? | God is not a human being, that he should lie, or a mortal, that he should change his mind. Has he promised, and will he not do it? Has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it? |
Above all, you must realize that no prophecy in Scripture ever came from the prophet’s own understanding, or from human initiative. No, those prophets were moved by the Holy Spirit, and they spoke from God. | Because no prophecy ever came by human will, but men and women moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. |
Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross. | Who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death— even death on a cross. |
Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life. | What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. |
The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ. | For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. |
So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. | So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. |
For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands. | For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. |
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. | 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. |
I, yes I, am the one who comforts you. So why are you afraid of mere humans, who wither like the grass and disappear? | I, I am he who comforts you; why then are you afraid of a mere mortal who must die, a human being who fades like grass? |
So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son. | And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth. |
For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body. So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority. | For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have come to fullness in him, who is the head of every ruler and authority. |
Worry weighs a person down; an encouraging word cheers a person up. | Anxiety weighs down the human heart, but a good word cheers it up. |
As a face is reflected in water, so the heart reflects the real person. | Just as water reflects the face, so one human heart reflects another. |
That is what the Scriptures mean when they say, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.” | But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him” |
And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires. | Thus he has given us, through these things, his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of lust, and may become participants of the divine nature. |
You can make many plans, but the Lord’s purpose will prevail. | The human mind may devise many plans, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will be established. |
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.” | Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.” |
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. | While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent. |
No one can know a person’s thoughts except that person’s own spirit, and no one can know God’s thoughts except God’s own Spirit. | For what human being knows what is truly human except the human spirit that is within? So also no one comprehends what is truly God's except the Spirit of God. |
Without question, this is the great mystery of our faith: Christ was revealed in a human body and vindicated by the Spirit. He was seen by angels and announced to the nations. He was believed in throughout the world and taken to heaven in glory. | Without any doubt, the mystery of our religion is great: He was revealed in flesh, vindicated in spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among Gentiles, believed in throughout the world, taken up in glory. |
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 devious above all else; it is perverse— who can understand it? I the Lord test the mind and search the heart, to give to all according to their ways, according to the fruit of their doings. |
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. | Am I now seeking human approval, or God's approval? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still pleasing people, I would not be a servant of Christ. |
For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are. | For “no human being will be justified in his sight” by deeds prescribed by the law, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin. |